Luchasaurus uses brain and brawn.
All Elite Wrestling star Luchasaurus might stand out in the ring with his physical gifts and dinosaur/reptile mask, but behind the mask is Austin Matelson, a CSUN student who earned his bachelor’s and master’s degree in medieval history.
Speaking to CSUN Today, Luchasaurus discussed how wrestling helped his academic career and vice versa.
“I would have fun with the professors there and put on these performances where I had to get up in front of the class and do these projects, and made them up like a wrestling show. And I’d have the whole class laughing,” Luchasaurus said. “I really enjoyed being the center of attention. I enjoyed giving speeches. I enjoyed interacting in front of a crowd. I was like, ‘You know what? This is like wrestling.'"
Luchasaurus continued, “It’s all connected. I learned a different way of approaching a topic and an argument [and found] new ways of using my brain that I didn’t have before [studying] history. We learn how to write history, how to interpret things without truth. And wrestling is the ultimate thing that has no truth because it’s performance, and it’s half-pretending and half-real. There’s a lot of analyzing of the character you’re doing — how to perform in front of a crowd and get them to react to things a certain way. What you’re doing is almost telling a story like a historian tells a story. There’s a lot of correlation in the way you can approach it from that analytical point of view.”
Luchasaurus participated in the Casino Battle Royale at AEW Double or Nothing, making it to the final three before being eliminated.
