For the last seven years, the El Rey Network had been providing unique programming for viewers, but wrestling fans will remember it best for Lucha Underground.
Though it only ran for three seasons, El Rey still maintained a pro wrestling presence with a talk show called Vampiro: Unleashed. However, as of December 31st, El Rey will be closing its doors.
CableFax has reported the network will cease operations at the end of the year, a move made after its minority owner Univision left the network along with its minority position with the production studio put together by acclaimed director Robert Rodriguez and FactoryMade Ventures. Several cable providers had already begun removing the network from its services, as Nielsen data already showed it was down from 33 million homes in November 2019 to 13 million as of last month.
It might not be the complete end of El Rey, however. Robert Rodriguez announced the company was moving onto another chapter when Univision announced it was cutting ties, but no official announcement was made as to what that next chapter would be. While there is the potential to see it move to a streaming service, it is still unknown.
El Rey was initially launched as part of a condition of Comcast’s merger with NBC Universal as channel to support minority audiences. The network launched Lucha Underground in 2015 and ran for 4 seasons and 127 episodes before the series ended.
The cult favorite wrestling show featured such talent as Ricochet, Brian Cage, and Rey Mysterio, but also gave early looks to the American audience for current stars like Angelico, Rey Fenix, Pentagon Jr., Santos Escobar, and Sonny Kiss.
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