Lucha Underground To Grant Talent Releases

A new report out from The Wrestling Observer states that Lucha Underground is currently granting releases to any of their contracted talent who wishes to leave.
A few weeks ago, it was confirmed that Lucha Underground would be coming back for a fourth season, after rumors and reports of financial issues that would make the fourth season of the show operate under a slimmer budget than before. Letting talent go who wish to leave is often used as a money saving move by wrestling companies. Both WCW and FMW in Japan did such moves before they close up shop due to money and other issues.
The report states that many of those under contract to LU are signed for seven seasons but they haven’t been paid under those deals since the summer of 2016, or the last set of tapings. The legality of these contracts are being brought to court since LU is not scheduled to film anything again until early 2018.

The Lucha Underground contracts have been rumored to be very restrictive to talent. The company reportedly prevents many of the talent from appearing on American Television for another wrestling company. However, Johnny Impact, Taya, Sami Callihan, Texano, & Fantasma have their own clauses in their contracts allowing them to appear from Impact Wrestling with no issue. The report states that LU will allow them to appear on Impact without an issue if Impact Wrestling wants to use them. It should be noted out of those just listed, Sami Callihan is the only one without some sort of AAA Lucha Libre deal currently. Callihan currently appears for New Japan Pro Wrestling, but that doesn’t seem to affect his standing with LU either.
With this news, anyone who wants to try their hand elsewhere is welcome to give it a shot if they wish. No specific names have been reported to be taking Lucha Underground up on the offer yet.
If the reports are to be taken to heart, the fourth season of the show may indeed end up very different than the Lucha Underground we have seen in the previous three.