Why Val Venis Says Fans Have No 'Emotional Connection' To Mexican Wrestling

These days, Val Venis is largely remembered for his run with WWE, as well as his love for weed, conspiracy theories, and getting thrown off Twitter for some of his more outlandish claims. But before that, Venis actually had a bit of a career in Mexico, where he worked for CMLL under the name Steele, where he became the third foreigner, after Konnan and Norman Smiley, to hold the CMLL World Heavyweight Championship.

Unfortunately, it doesn't appear Venis has many nice things to say about his trek into lucha libre. In an appearance on "Stories With Brisco and Bradshaw," Venis talked about avoiding the Mexican style, which he compared to gymnastics, and made the following claims about it.

"When you watch Mexican wrestling, you get a lot of the 'Ooh, ahh' and the pops from great-looking moves," Venis said. "But there's no emotional connection from the fans to the talent. You get a guy at the water cooler the next day, and they're talking about the match they saw the night before. 'Oh, did you see this match? It was incredible. Double moonsault with three half twists, and he landed on the guy. It was great.' 'Oh, what was the guy's name?' 'I don't know, but it was a great-looking move.'

"You know what I mean? There's no emotional attachment. They don't care about the wrestler's name, they don't care about the wrestler's character. All they remember is the move. But because there's no selling behind it, there's no emotional connection...when you get somebody that goes down there and begins to sell and starts to develop an emotional connection with the fans, you can make big money down there doing that."

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "Stories With Brisco and Bradshaw" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription