XO Lishus Says Lucha Underground Is Paying Him Way More Than Other Promotions

Lucha Underground standout XO Lishus, aka Sonny Kiss, recently was a guest on the Women’s Wrestling Weekly podcast. You can see the full podcast at this link, and highlights below. 

Sonny Kiss Breaks Down The Difference Between Lucha Underground and Other Promotions:

Well, they (LU) are sure paying me a hell of lot more.  They have this cool, eccentric feel to it… It’s very different. It’s not a wrestling promotion per se, it’s like a television show as well, and its this really unique thing to wrestling. And wrestling is kind of like secondary as opposed to the show being the show. Not secondary but a really awesome addition to the show.

Sonny Kiss Talks About  Being Gay And Wrestling:

It’s like not losing your center. I think a lot of times when you get into different environments people lose their center. And that wasn’t me. I remained, who I was regardless of any situations. I definitely dealt with racism and I definitely dealt with homophobia but I think once people see who you truly are; it kind of smooshes that away. And I feel like that’s what happened with wrestling, it was like ‘yo, this guys is a little weird’. Once they really looked at me and saw me ‘you know he is kicking butt” and he is powerful and strong black man and confident, they were like, ‘ok he is something different’.

Sonny Kiss Talks About Not Wanting to Be Considered an Exotico:

I don’t want to be seen as an exotico because I feel like a lot of it is not authentic and like I said they are kicking butt and they are doing a really good job. But I don’t want to looped into the category. I want to be known as, just a wrestler. 

Sonny Kiss Talks About Intergender Matches: 

When I got to Lucha Underground, that’s was the first time working with women in the ring. For the longest time, I had this thing where I didn’t want to work with women at all. Because there is this stigma especially from the urban areas, being a person of colour, being a gay guy; they have this stigma like ‘ oh you want to be a girl’. So I was like, let me work with the men because I would be able to tell a better story; as far as like a triumphant story. Working with women, they’re working on their own story, as far as the gay lifestyle and women’s wrestling .. the stories are very similar. They are trying to tell the same exact story, we are just as tough as the dudes… So that was always my focus.

Sonny Explains How His Signature Move “Kiss My Sass”  Came About: 

It’s actually a Brazilian lap dance. I don’t know if guys have seen it. But if you google Brazilian lap dance; that is just a regular thing they do in Brazil. Like you will sit there and the girl will put her legs up on your shoulders and bump her booty in your face. That’s a lap dance they do in Brazil and I was like, hello this can be a wrestling move and it’s cool and it’s different.