El Rey Network's highly-anticipated "Lucha Underground" premieres Wednesday night, promising to bring the high-flying Mexican lucha libre style to American audiences.

The show, airing Wednesday nights at 8 p.m., is produced by Emmy Award-winning producer Mark Burnett's One Three Media in association with FactoryMade Ventures for El Rey Network and Lucha Libre AAA -- the popular Mexican wrestling organization.

"Lucha Underground" hopes to bring the fast-paced action of the lucha-style that has excited Mexican wrestling fans for decades -- a style that has only been seen in small doses in other organizations like World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW).

"I'm telling you, we're changing the game. I've seen it, I've been there, this is changing the game," said Chavo Guerrero, the wrestling veteran from the famous Guerrero family who is signed with "Lucha Underground," to Latin Post. "Remember the first hour of '[Monday Night] Nitro?' Everyone would watch the first hour, the cruiserweights, all of us going crazy doing all this awesome stuff that no one had really seen. And the second hour -- [Hulk] Hogan, Lex Luger and those guys -- people would watch and change the channel and watch "Raw." The first hour of "Nitro" was the best and that was us."

Robert Rodriguez, who launched El Rey Network, has been a longtime wrestling fan and wanted to bring the lucha style that he grew up watching to his network believing that it would be a good programming fit for the fledgling network.

"As someone who was born and raised in the United States but had family roots deep into Mexico, he grew up as a child with this presence on his television screen from older family members," said "Lucha Underground" executive producer Eric Van Wagenen to Latin Post. "I think that was the original inspiration. There is sort of this history, especially in the city of Los Angeles, with the Guerrero family that used to be on television back in the 70s [taping] out of the Olympic Auditorium doing wrestling. There's been sort of this connection between Mexican style wrestling and Mexican wrestlers, not just in Mexico, but in certain parts of the United States."

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Teaming up with Burnett was a no-brainer for El Rey Network. Burnett has found success with shows such as "Survivor" (CBS), "The Voice" (NBC), "The Celebrity Apprentice" (NBC), "Shark Tank" (ABC), "The Bible" (History Channel), and "Trust Me I'm A Game Show Host" (TBS) and his outside-the-box thinking was what the network was seeking when first developing the project.

"One of the great things about Mark Burnett, and I've worked with him for 13 years, he is incredibly smart in picking markets that are being under-served," said Van Wagenen. "Five years ago, when he got involved with the Bible project, there were a lot of people both inside and outside the company that couldn't understand why he wanted to do a mini-series about the Bible. His answer was always, 'The Christian community and the Christian television community was being underserved.' And he put all his resources into creating the biggest mini-series in the History Channel's history."

"He similarly had that same attitude when it came to the Latin American market," Van Wagenen added. "He saw the Latin American market in the United States being completely underserved. And he felt that this was an entry point that felt right for him. We've worked on shows like 'The Contender' and 'Bully Beatdown' and some other things that have been in the combat sports space. And so there was a familiarity for him. We knew what it was suppose to look like, we knew what it was suppose to feel like and we knew who to hire to bring them in and do this."

Lucha Underground will feature stars familiar with American audiences such as Guerrero, Johnny Mundo (known to WWE fans as John Morrison), Prince Puma (a.k.a. Trevor Mann); Mil Muertes (a.k.a. Ricky Banderes); "B-Boy" Benny Cuntapay; Cortez Castro (a.k.a. Ricky Reyes); Catrina (a.k.a. Karlee Perez); Angela Fong; Son of Havoc (a.k.a. Matt Cross) along with some AAA's most popular masked luchadors such as Blue Demon Jr., Sexy Star, Fenix, Drago and Pentagon Jr.

"They were attached from the very beginning. They are the number one lucha libre promotion in Mexico and they have the best talent," said Van Wagenen. "Blue Demon Jr. is a huge draw in Mexico, so we have him in the opening episode. Fenix is a star for them. We also have Mascarita Sagrada, Pentagón Jr., Drago. These are all names that fans of the Mexican style of lucha libre know and follow and we're giving the U.S. audience a chance to see them."

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One name that may eventually show his face on "Lucha Undergound" is former WWE star José Alberto Rodríguez, a.k.a. Alberto Del Rio, now going by El Patron Alberto. Rodríguez was let go by the WWE this past summer after he allegedly slapped an employee who reportedly made a racist remark about the former four-time WWE world champion. El Patron signed with AAA and is rumored to be returning to American television in the near future.

"I'm not sure what I'm allowed to say or comment about," said Van Wagenen said regarding El Patron Alberto's potential participation with "Lucha Underground." "I will say that we are hoping for the opportunity to work with Alberto Del Rio. He's very high on our list. He's one of our highest priorities for 2015 and we would be honored to have the chance to work with him."

Guerrero, who has worked with organizations all over the world -- from New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) to the WWE to TNA Wrestling, believes that "Lucha Underground" brings something new to the table that will excite both new and old-school wrestling fans.

"Some of the stuff these guys do is incredible," says Guerrero to Latin Post. "Some of the guys, who I can't mention by name because they have contracts in other places, have come backstage and watched and they're blown away, going, 'Wow, all the stuff we did as cruiserweights, they've trumped it all.' This is like the X-Games meets a Robert Rodriguez movie. It's crazy, man."

Guerrero, on a personal level, is ecstatic about being a part of El Rey Network's lucha libre project, which has its own distinct Latino flavor and working back in the West Coast.

"I love it, man," said Guerrero. "That's my roots, it's true to 'La Raza,' to Hispanic people. That's what we are staying true to, that's our demographic, that's my people. And for me, to be able to put this on national television, lucha libre, I couldn't ask for a better opportunity and a better working place. I couldn't. I'm very blessed to be a part of this right now."

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