When GLOW returns to Netflix for Season 2, it will bring with it many surprises as the ragtag group of female wrestlers works to make their TV dreams a reality. Along the way, they’ll run into some interesting faces–including one that should be very familiar to longtime WWE fans.
Chavo Guerrero Jr., a former WWE Tag Team, WWE Cruiserweight, and ECW Champion, will appear in the second season, though it’s far from his first exposure to the series. After serving as a fight coordinator and wrestling trainer to the cast in Season 1–a role he reprises this year–Guerrero is also getting the chance to mix it up in the ring with some of GLOW‘s cast on-camera in Season 2.
“Chavo is on the show this year, and he wrestles with some of the women,” star Alison Brie says in a group interview. “So that was very exciting to witness.” She continues, “He stayed in character the whole time, super weird. We were like, ‘Chavo, are we going to stretch before the match?’ And he was like, ‘F**k you, I’ll see you in the ring.'”
If he’s getting in the ring to wrestle women, it sounds like Guerrero will be modeled after Andy Kaufman’s intergender wrestling gimmick from the 1970s. It’s an act similar to what independent wrestler Joey Ryan does today.
For the cast, it was a special moment. After being shown the literal ropes by Guerrero, he was stepping into their domain–acting. “It’s so exciting to watch someone we love shine,” Jackie Tohn, who plays Melrose, explains. “In the same way, I love watching these girls. It’s like, wait a sec, we can now get to watch Chavo, who by the way has basically raised us. Now he gets his moment to not be behind the scenes, it’s really nice.”
With Guerrero stepping into the show as a male wrestler that fights women, Brittany Young (Carmen “Machu Picchu” Wade) relished the opportunity to tangle with her trainer. “Well I know in my scene with him, without giving too much away, I literally was talking trash to him as Carmen, but deep down inside I was like, ‘This is Britney vs. Chavo,’ and after every take, he’d be like, ‘Yes, do that one more time, because I’ve got a great comeback now,'” she remembers. “So, just like throwing things at him and seeing him react, for us it’s a family, and to see uncle Chavo get into the show, we were all ecstatic.”
Of course, with Guerrero going full-’80s wrestler, he had to have the ring attire to match, and GLOW made sure he left an impression with his wrestling trunks. “They’re like little speedos-shaped [shorts] and there’s this embroidered monkey right on the ass cheek. What a delight,” Tohn jokes.
You’ll be able to get a full look at Chavo when Season 2 of GLOW premieres Friday, June 29, on Netflix.