Major League Wrestling has gone full Telenovela with its sudsy storytelling centered on Salina de la Renta and Cesar Duran. They’ve been at each other’s throats to the point where de la Renta was “sacrificed,” which was to explain her exit from the company in 2021 before returning two years later. Since then the “The Empresaria” has rebuilt her empire in MLW with members of Promociones Dorado often squaring off with Duran’s Azteca Lucha crew.
Their heated feud took a shocking turn when Duran was revealed to be de la Renta’s Papi! The promotion took things one step further as de la Renta announced during the June 22 Anniversary show that she was pregnant. Duran will be a grandpapi! Like any good soap or most episodes of Maury, this leaves one burning question: Who is the baby daddy? The answer comes during MLW’s next event Blood & Thunder from St. Petersburg’s historic Coliseum on July 12.
Ahead of the next chapter of the revelation, we got some father-daughter time to tease the twists and turns to come. Get the popcorn ready.
Pro wrestling is at its best with captivating story-telling and compelling characters. MLW has both right now with the two of you. Cesar, you were first introduced to audiences through Lucha Underground. How is it for you to see this sort of presentation continue today?
Cesar Duran: It’s a blessing. My character isn’t the same here, but they do have similar circumstances. There are similar traits. I love keeping this type of character alive for that long.
Salina, you were part of MLW before and came back. How do you compare this run with your last?
Salina de la Renta: I think MLW has been good at storytelling throughout. It’s one of the main reasons why my character got such a push when I was first starting out. It’s great to see it’s consistent and a reliable place for fans. There are some products out there you can engage with for some months and after that, you may be missing the essence. I feel like MLW has kept that spark alive and been consistent.
MLW
At one point did you both know you had something special working together onscreen?
Cesar: To me, it was when I met Salina for the first time with Alex Greenfield, one of the writers. After meeting her, I spent some time with Alex. We thought, “Man, there is nothing we can not do here. Storywise we can go as crazy as we want.”
Salina: I felt the same way. I knew coming in I was going to be working with Cesar. It was a given the way my character got written off the first time. We were tied to the story. It had to happen. When I met him, it felt like a family-type vibe. I knew we could make this work and do whatever.
MLW
How is it for you to have the creative bandwidth and confidence from the company that you will deliver when the cameras are on?
Salina: I do appreciate the way we are able to come up with little details for a story. I wouldn’t say we are the sole creators of our personalities. There is definitely a team of people that come up with where the story is going, what are we going to show on stage and what are we going to hide. Whenever we are planning things, we work together and get on the same page. It’s a lot of freedom. It’s really an adrenaline rush and gets spurts of ideas. You run it by the creators and they tell you this is cool or this is too much or maybe even too out of your comfort zone. That’s how it all comes together.
Cesar: We actually never know what is going to happen. We have an idea. We don’t know how the promo will end up or even the pretapes. We’re not always solid about what will come out. It can be an in-the-moment feeling. There is some spontaneity. There are so many people involved we may not have time to rehearse. We have to be ready for whatever.
At what point did you know there would be this twist that Cesar was the onscreen father to Salina? What was your initial reaction?
Cesar: I loved it. I think it brought some humanity to Cesar Duran. There was also the fact my daughter was so beautiful, so I was happy about that [laughs]. I love the concept and idea of someone as dark as Cesar having a human side. At the end of the day, he is now a father.
Salina: To me, it kind of felt like The Addams Family. I’m a really big fan of that. Just having the opportunity to explore different layers of our characters in wrestling like I’ve done in the past with movies. It felt very exhilarating. I think we found out at the same time, what had been the plan all along. For me, it gives MLW the vibe of Tim Burton meets [Quentin] Tarantino. It’s a dream come true for me. It has been an honor to work with Cesar. You don’t always get people that talented and can just create on the spot. It feels like my second run with MLW has been this upgraded version where we have multi-layers of our personalities and we’re able to establish an emotional connection with what fans come up with in their head.
Meme of the year 😂 pic.twitter.com/0M8jCVTGhP
— Natalia Class (@salinadelarenta) June 2, 2024
It also has to be great to see the fan reactions. Do you find yourself getting new eyes to the product with this type of storytelling?
Cesar: I would say wrestling and telenovelas go hand-in-hand. Think of any storyline. If they don’t have an element of fantasy, they have an element of drama or tragedy. I don’t think we’re doing anything different. Many are very soapy.
Salina: I do think it is bringing a unique set of eyes. In the beginning, I’ve seen the engagement on social media. It goes from you guys doing the wrestling and what we expect to like this new aspect of looking into our real lives mixed with the character side. They find it very intriguing. A lot of people have been bringing up the fact it reminds them of Star Wars or Eddie Guerrero. It is giving some nostalgia and maybe bringing back fans who had this traditional connection to pro wrestling. Not just the flippy flop we’ve seen nowadays.
FIRST LOOK at Mama @SalinadelaRenta. Congratulations, Empresaria! 💕 pic.twitter.com/aJQ9V2cbxW
— MLW (@MLW) June 27, 2024
Salina, how is it for you to bring the fact you’re actually pregnant to TV? Talk about having a unique baby announcement, and revealing it on television.
Salina: I’ve always been super dramatic. I thought there was no better dramatic way of doing it than hiding I was pregnant for five months and boom, hello everyone, I’m pregnant. It’s natural when someone is pregnant to ask who is the father. Then where does that go? There was no way not to have a pregnant Salina right now because I have a huge belly right now. It became a question of if we hide the character for five months or do we go with the flow and really let our real lives be exposed. I’m the type of person where I don’t care much about privacy. I’m an open book. Let’s make my real life a story.
Cesar: The idea of me having a [onscreen] grandson because you were pregnant. Initially, my first reaction when Alex started talking to me about Salina would be my daughter, I didn’t like the idea much. I didn’t want to humanize Cesar. Then I thought it would be great to have a child, so we can show more how Cesar is pure evil. Now that the grandson is in play it’s even better.
Cesar can make Salina appear as an unfit mom and take the grandson from her. So many ways this can play out. I’m looking forward to what’s next. And what is next is the baby daddy reveal at Blood & Thunder. What makes this the perfect place for this next chapter?
Salina: My family is actually in Puerto Rico, but my baby daddy, I did meet here. He has also been here for 10 years. I think it’s a great opportunity to shock the crowd. The way we are telling this next part of the story. It’s going to lead people on the edge of their seats. It’s about to get into a whole new layer of Salina. I just really like the story challenges me and my acting range. It has become how far can we take it? I’m not really connected to St. Pete or Orlando, but I will say any place that is packed is a great place to create family drama.
Anything else you can tease about who the father is? Is it someone fans may know?
Salina: The only thing I can tell you is it’s someone who is not going to make my dad happy.
MLW Fusion, Thursdays, 8/7c, beIN Sports and streaming including YouTube
MLW Blood & Thunder, July 12, 9/8c, YouTube