Luchasaurus

Austin Matelson is an American professional wrestler signed with AEW. He is best known for his work with AEW as Luchasaurus. He is the current one-half of the AEW World Tag Team Champions with Jungle Boy.

Early Life

Luchasaurus was born as Austin Matelson in Woodland Hills, California, U.S. on March 10, 1985. He had been entirely homeschooled before beginning studies at California State University, Northridge. He did a B.A. in 2008 and an M.A. in 2010 at the University. He partook in the 17th season of Big Brother reality show.

Professional Wrestling Career

WWE (2012-2014)

In 2012, Austin Matelson signed a developmental contract with WWE and was sent to FCW for training, where he was given the ring name Judas Devlin. He made his FCW debut on August 1, 2012, teaming with Corey Graves to defeat Briley Pierce and CJ Parker. In 2012, FCW was renamed NXT, and Devlin transferred to the new development brand, where he performed mainly at house shows. He was released from WWE in 2014 after suffering a severe hip injury.

Independent Circuit (2016-2019)

Austin Matelson returned to professional wrestling in 2016 after a two-year hiatus following his release from WWE. He competed as Austin Draven for Millennium Pro Wrestling (MPW), defeating Ryan J. Morales on June 17, 2016. On September 30, 2016, he captured the MPW Heavyweight Championship as Just Judas, defeating Danny Divine. On November 9, 2017, Matelson teamed with fellow Big Brother contestant Jessie Godderz as Team Big Brother to defeat HATE (Peter Avalon and Ray Rosas) in a match for Bar Wrestling.

After portraying the Víbora character in Lucha Underground, Matelson began using the character on the independent circuit, renaming it Luchasaurus after fans chanted it during his Lucha Underground debut. On November 17 and 18, 2017, he wrestled as Luchasaurus for House of Hardcore, defeating Alex Reynolds on the first night and winning a three-way match against Matt Riddle and Willie Mack on the second night.

Lucha Underground (2016-2018)

Luchasaurus made his debut in Lucha Underground in 2016 under the ring name Vibora. He was part of the Reptile Tribe group and teamed up with Pindar and Drago. Together, the three won the Lucha Underground World Trios Championship. The character was killed off by Taya Valkyrie on August 1, 2018, when she decapitated him with a sword.

AEW (2019-Present)

Luchasaurus made his AEW debut in May 2019 at Double or Nothing's pre-show Casino Battle Royale. He was eliminated by Adam Page, but the match marked a turning point in his career. Three days later, Luchasaurus signed a full-time contract with AEW. Luchasaurus teamed up with Jungle Boy, and the two quickly became a force to be reckoned with. They managed and wrestled together at events like Fyter Fest and Fight for the Fallen. In October 2019, Luchasaurus, Jungle Boy, and Marko Stunt formed the stable Jurassic Express. The trio quickly became one of the most popular factions in AEW.

In August 2021, Jurassic Express challenged the Young Bucks for the AEW World Tag Team Championship, but they fell short. However, the two stars became successful in January 2022 when they defeated the Lucha Brothers to win the AEW World Tag Team Championship. They defended their titles successfully against the Young Bucks and reDRagon at Revolution in March 2022.

Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus lost the tag team titles in a special episode of Dynamite: Road Rager. Cage then turned on Jungle Boy, and Luchasaurus joined Cage, turning heel alongside him. Luchasaurus worked as a "monster heel," and worked as Cage said. Luchasaurus betrayed Christian Cage and reunited with Jungle Boy at Fyter Fest week 2. However, the good side of Luchasaurus did not last long. At All Out, Luchasaurus turned heel again by attacking Jungle Boy and joined Christian Cage. On June 17, Luchasaurus defeated Wardlow to win the TNT Championship on the premiere episode of Collision with the help of Cage. He lost the title to Christian Cage in a three-way match that also involved Darby Allin on the September 23 episode of Collision. This made Cage the official AEW TNT Champion, despite the fact that he was the one carrying the gold around even when Luchasaurus was the champion.

Cage then defended his title against Darby Allin at WrestleDream in a Best-of-Three match and won. After the match, Nick Wayne joined Luchasauras and Cage, and the three superstars attacked Darby Allin and Sting. They were saved by a debuting Adam Copeland. All these stars are now set to face each other in a six-man tag team match at Full Gear 2023.

Championships and Accomplishments

Luchasaurus wife

Not much is known of Luchasaurus' current relationship status. However, it is known that she once dated Liz Nolan, who was the runner-up of Big Brother 17. In the same season, Luchasaurus had also partaken in Big Brother and grew closer to Nolan. However, he already had a girlfriend when he went into the show. In a 2015 interview with Entertainment Weekly, Luchasaurus took responsibility of what happened in his personal life with his previous girlfriend.

"I think it’s going to be very difficult. That’s my biggest regret in the game — how things went down in my personal situation. I’m going to take responsibility for my actions, but ultimately, both her and I knew we were growing apart before this experience." "I should have been the stronger person and ended it before I came into the house. However, I never thought I would find somebody like Liz, and once I did, the feelings I had inside were too strong for me to deny." Revealed Luchasaurus on Entertainment Weekly

The romance between Nolan and Matelson did not last long as the two parted ways in February 2016, only around five months after they had started dating.

Luchasaurus Net Worth

As per various sources, Luchasarus is worth around $2.8 Million in 2023.