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66-472: Austin and Billy first began teaming on the independent circuit in 2017, before Austin debuted for AEW as his father's tag team partner in 2020. The two began teaming as The Gunn Club . They became a trio later that year when Colten debuted in AEW and joined the group; they teamed for the next two years, until Austin and Colten turned on Billy in favor of siding with Stokely Hathaway in 2022. They soon ceased using

132-616: A Casino Tag Team Royale as the #5 and #6 entrants, for a future AEW World Tag Team Championship opportunity. They were both eliminated by Q. T. Marshall . On the Thanksgiving Eve episode of Dynamite on November 24, The Gunns defeated Bear Country . Gunn Club enjoyed a successful run on Dark throughout 2021, winning all of their tag team and six-man tag team matches. Their success continued in 2022, resulting in Austin and Colten topping AEW's tag team rankings on February 9, with

198-399: A developmental contract with WWE and was sent for training at Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW) where he was given the ring name Judas Devlin . On August 1, 2012, he made his FCW debut teaming with Corey Graves defeating Briley Pierce and CJ Parker . In 2012, FCW was rebranded as NXT and Devlin transferred to the new development brand, performing mainly at house shows. Matelson

264-698: A minor league or farm system for the larger national promotions, as wrestlers in "indie" companies (especially young wrestlers just starting their careers) are usually honing their craft with the goal of being noticed and signed by a major national promotion such as WWE , All Elite Wrestling (AEW) (which also owns Ring of Honor (ROH)), or Total Nonstop Action Wrestling in the United States, Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide or Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre in Mexico, or New Japan Pro-Wrestling , Dragongate , All Japan Pro Wrestling , World Wonder Ring Stardom or

330-491: A three-way tag team match . At Double or Nothing on May 29, they retained the championship in a three-way tag match against Team Taz ( Ricky Starks and Powerhouse Hobbs ) and Swerve In Our Glory ( Keith Lee and Swerve Strickland ). After Jurassic Express lost the championship to the Young Bucks in a ladder match at Road Rager , Cage turned on Jungle Boy, with Luchasaurus also turning heel when he joined Cage. At

396-432: A two out of three falls match to retain the championship. After the match, Cage, Luchasaurus, and Nick Wayne (who turned on Allin) assaulted Allin and Sting; they were interrupted by the debuting Adam Copeland , who ran out to confront Cage and save Allin. Cage's faction was later called The Patriarchy . At Full Gear , The Patriarchy lost to Copeland, Sting, and Allin in a six-man tag team match with Luchasaurus taking

462-791: A winner takes all championship unification match to unify the ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Championship with the AEW World Trios Championship as the Unified World Trios Championship. During this time, Bullet Club Gold silently renamed to the Bang Bang Gang. On the June 5 Rampage tapings, a returning Robinson wrestled his first match since his return, teaming with The Gunns to win a trios match. After

528-508: A Sunbelt Wrestling Entertainment event against Adam Rose , Deimos and Justin Oversheet in a handicap match , which Austin and Billy won. The father and son duo teamed with each other on a few more occasions on the independent circuit. Austin and Colten Gunn would win their first professional wrestling championship at a New South Wrestling event Resurrection on March 11, 2022, where they defeated TME (Duke Davis and Ganon Jones Jr.) to win

594-410: A champion there. Independent Mexican wrestlers may use a lot of gimmicks, including some that may be based on copyrighted characters from American television shows, such as Thundercats and X-Men . (These gimmicks are often changed if the wrestler playing them makes it into AAA or CMLL; the most prominent example of non-compliance with this method is midget wrestler Chucky from AAA, whose gimmick

660-527: A five-year extension on its TV wrestling monopoly from January 1982 to December 1986. However, by the mid-1980s Dixon had won over many wrestlers and fans from Joint who were tired of the Big Daddy -orientated direction of Joint. Eventually this culminated in All Star gaining a TV show on satellite channel Screensport and later, a slice of ITV's coverage from 1987 until the end of ITV wrestling in 1988. By

726-525: A good impression may be offered a developmental or even a full-professional contract. The advent of the Internet has allowed independent wrestlers and promotions to reach a wider audience, and it is possible for wrestlers regularly working the indie circuit to gain some measure of fame among wrestling fans online. Additionally, some of the more successful indies have video distribution deals, giving them an additional source of income and allowing them to reach

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792-692: A knee injury in May. They began appearing more on Dynamite and Rampage , beginning with the June 1 episode of Dynamite , where they lost to CM Punk and FTR ( Cash Wheeler and Dax Harwood ). On the Road Rager episode of Rampage , Caster and Gunn Club defeated Ruffin It (Bear Boulder, Bear Bronson and Leon Ruffin ). At AEW x NJPW: Forbidden Door , the entire Gunn Club trio teamed with Caster to defeat Alex Coughlin , Kevin Knight , The DKC and Yuya Uemura . On

858-581: A large enough crowd to fill such a venue were they able to do so. Instead, they make use of any almost open space (such as fields, ballrooms, or gymnasiums) to put on their performances. Some independent promotions are attached to professional wrestling schools , serving as a venue for students to gain experience in front of an audience. As independent matches are seldom televised, indie wrestlers who have not already gained recognition in other promotions tend to remain in obscurity. However, scouts from major promotions attend indie shows, and an indie wrestler who makes

924-549: A larger audience outside of their local areas. Unlike the North American or Japanese products which have large, globally renowned organisations such as WWE and New Japan Pro-Wrestling with several hundred smaller promotions , Australia only has approximately 30 smaller independent circuit promotions which exist in all but one of the states and territories, that being the Northern Territory . Tours from

990-541: A major promoter with shows featuring himself as headline heel. In 1958, when Bert Assirati was stripped of the British Heavyweight Championship , Lincoln formed the BWF alliance of promoters to support Assirati's claim, later recognising Shirley Crabtree as champion. Lincoln's BWF was eventually bought out into Joint in 1970. Welsh promoter Orig Williams also used the BWF name, promoting from

1056-406: A member of The Patriarchy stable , and he is a former one-time AEW World Trios Champion . Matelson began his professional wrestling career in 2009. He then signed a developmental contract with WWE in 2012 and was sent to train at the former Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW) under the ring name Judas Devlin ; FCW was then rebranded as NXT that same year where Matelson remained until he

1122-632: A part of the pre-show Casino Battle Royale . He lasted until the final three, before being eliminated by Adam Page . Three days later, it was revealed that he had signed with the company full-time as Luchasaurus. He would then continue his tag team with Jungle Boy , as he managed him at Fyter Fest . At Fight for the Fallen , they were defeated in a Triple Threat tag team match involving The Dark Order ( Evil Uno and Stu Grayson ) and The Hybrid 2 ( Angélico and Jack Evans ). At All Out , Luchasaurus, alongside Jungle Boy and Marko Stunt , would debut as

1188-565: A prominent figure as an associate of the stable, and led to Stunt being eventually phased out. On the August 18, 2021 episode of Dynamite , Jurassic Express received a title shot for the World Tag Team Championship against The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson), but failed to win. Following that, Jurassic Express participated in a tournament to determine the #1 contenders for the World Tag Team Championship. On

1254-532: A region and maintain a consistent schedule. After Vince McMahon , seeking regulatory relief, gave in 1989 testimony in front of the New Jersey State Athletic Commission where he publicly admitted pro wrestling was in fact a sports-based entertainment, rather than a true athletic competition, many state athletic commissions stopped regulating wrestling. This obviated the need for complying with many expensive requirements, such as

1320-574: A result, Luchasaurus began feuding with Jungle Boy, who by this point was going by "Jungle Boy" Jack Perry, defeating him in a match on the October 12 episode of Dynamite . However, Luchasaurus lost to Perry in a steel cage match at Full Gear to end the rivalry. Following the loss, Luchasaurus went on a hiatus. He returned to AEW in April 2023 and reunited with Cage. On the June 17 premiere episode of Collision , Luchasaurus defeated Wardlow to win

1386-610: A stable known as the Bang Bang Scissor Gang, reuniting Austin and Colten with their father Billy. On March 13 at Big Business , Bullet Club Gold turned on The Acclaimed and Billy Gunn, disbanding the Bang Bang Scissor Gang. On April 5 at Supercard of Honor , The Gunns made their debut for Ring of Honor (ROH), teaming with White to retain their ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Championshhips against Monstersauce ( Lance Archer and Alex Zayne ) and Minoru Suzuki . At Dynasty Zero Hour, Bullet Club Gold defeated The Acclaimed in

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1452-675: A tag team record of 3-0 in 2022. As a result, Austin and Colten earned a World Tag Team Championship opportunity against Jurassic Express ( Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus ) on the February 11 episode of Rampage , which they failed to win. Austin and Colten would fail in subsequent #1 contender's matches on the February 23 and March 2 episodes of Dynamite to earn another opportunity at the titles. During this time, Gunn Club transitioned into villains by forming an alliance with The Acclaimed ( Anthony Bowens and Max Caster ). Caster began teaming with Gunn Club more frequently after Bowens suffered

1518-777: A taping of Dark on January 1, 2020, as Austin and Billy defeated Preston Vance and Shawn Spears . Austin's televised debut in AEW occurred on the January 14 episode of Dark , as Austin and Billy, known as "The Gunn Club", defeated Peter Avalon and Shawn Spears. Gunn Club established themselves as fan favorites , winning their earlier matches on Dark throughout the year, until the September 15 episode of Dark , where they teamed with Private Party (Isaiah Kassidy and Marq Quen) against The Dark Order ( Alex Reynolds , Evil Uno , John Silver and Stu Grayson ) in an eight-man tag team match, which Dark Order won. Gunn Club's first match as

1584-557: A team on Dynamite occurred on November 4, where they teamed with Cody Rhodes to defeat Dark Order members Colt Cabana , John Silver and Ten in a six-man tag team match. On the November 17 episode of Dark , Gunn Club expanded to a trio as Billy's elder son Colten made his professional wrestling debut by teaming with Billy and Austin to defeat Bshp King, Joey O'Riley and Sean Maluta . Austin and Colten made their pay-per-view debut at Revolution on March 7, 2021, by participating in

1650-606: A title vs career match on the April 5 edition of Dynamite . This would effectively disband The Firm, with the Gunns allying with Jay White and Juice Robinson of Bullet Club Gold . On January 17, 2024, The Gunns and White defeated Mogul Embassy ( Brian Cage , Kaun and Toa Liona ) for the ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Championship . On the January 20 episode of Collision , The Gunns, White, The Acclaimed, and Billy Gunn joined forces to form

1716-482: A week or once a month in local towns. Independent promotions are usually local in focus and, lacking national TV contracts, are much more dependent on revenue from house show attendance. Due to their lower budgets, most independent promotions offer low salaries (it is not unusual for a wrestler to work for free due to the fact most promoters can only afford to pay well-known talent). Most cannot afford to regularly rent large venues, and would not be able to attract

1782-640: Is based on the Child's Play movies.) Until 1984, no independent puroresu promotion per se existed in Japan; potential talent went directly into the training dojos of either New Japan Pro-Wrestling or All Japan Pro Wrestling . ( International Wrestling Enterprise also was a third-party promotion until 1981.) The advent of the Japanese Universal Wrestling Federation offered a long-sought third alternative. From 1986 to 1988

1848-573: Is considered by some to be a forerunner to indies since some stars of the past got their start in these low quality local rivals to the big regional territories. The modern definition of the independent circuit came about in the middle to late 1980s and fully formed and flourished after 1990. These promotions initially sought to revive the feel of old school territorial wrestling after former territories either went national, such as WWF , went out of business, or eventually did both, such as WCW . Several indies did in fact manage to tour different towns within

1914-421: The 19th season for the "BB Comics" competition with other former contestants, including Dan Gheesling and fellow wrestler Jessie Godderz . Before beginning studies at California State University, Northridge , Matelson had been entirely homeschooled . He earned two history degrees at CSUN — a B.A. in 2008 and a M.A. in 2010, with his master's concentration and thesis in medieval literature . While in

1980-540: The 2022 Blood and Guts episode of Dynamite , Caster and the Gunn Club lost to Danhausen and FTR after Bowens accidentally hit Austin with his crutch. Austin and Colten confronted Acclaimed after the match and left the ring, while Billy stayed with the Acclaimed. The following week, on Dynamite , the Acclaimed and Gunn Club defeated Fuego Del Sol and Ruffin It in an eight-man tag team match. However, Billy attacked

2046-589: The AEW TNT Championship , and later took on the ring name Killswitch in September 2023. During his two-year wrestling hiatus from 2014 to 2016, Matelson appeared on Access Hollywood and was a house-guest on the reality competition, Big Brother 17 , in which he placed 5th. He also appeared on The Price Is Right . Matleson started his wrestling career out in California working in various independent promotions. In 2012, Matelson signed

The Gunns - Misplaced Pages Continue

2112-689: The August 20 episode of Rampage , they defeated Private Party in the opening round. On the August 27 episode of Rampage , they lost to the Lucha Brothers ( Penta El Zero Miedo and Rey Fénix ) in the final. For three months, Jurassic Express feuded with various members of The Elite . On the September 1 episode of Dynamite , they partnered the Lucha Brothers in a loss to the Good Brothers ( Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson ) and

2178-547: The CyberFight promotions in Japan. It is also not uncommon for veteran wrestlers who have had past tenures with major promotions to appear on independent shows, either as special attractions or as a way to prolong their careers. The "indie" scene in the United States dates back to the days of regional territories. When a promoter ran opposition in even one town controlled by a National Wrestling Alliance sanctioned territory, they were often called an "outlaw" territory. This

2244-567: The Holiday Bash episode of Dynamite , which the Gunns won. On the February 8 episode of Dynamite , Gunns defeated The Acclaimed to win the AEW World Tag Team Championships . After successfully defending the titles twice, The Gunns name-dropped FTR among the teams they had beaten during a post-match interview, which led to FTR returning to AEW and attacking the Gunns. The Gunns subsequently lost against FTR in

2310-527: The TNT Championship . Luchasaurus held the title for three months, retaining against Shawn Spears at Battle of the Belts VII , Brock Anderson on the August 12 episode of Collision and Darby Allin at All Out . Luchasaurus would later lose the title to Cage in a three-way match that also involved Allin on the September 23 episode of Collision . At WrestleDream , Cage defeated Allin in

2376-455: The 1990s there have also been numerous American-style "New School" promotions. Note: Minimum attendance of 5,000. General Specific Luchasaurus Austin Matelson (born March 10, 1985), better known by his ring name Luchasaurus , is an American professional wrestler . He is signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he performs under the ring name Killswitch . He is

2442-518: The AEW World Trios Championship in a four-way London ladder match to Pac and Blackpool Combat Club ( Claudio Castagnoli and Wheeler Yuta ), ending their reign at 37 days. Later in the event, Killswitch and Cage entered the Casino Gauntlet Match , where Killswitch assisted Cage to win the match. On September 30, it was reported that Matelson was hospitalized due to double pneumonia after his fiancé found him collapsed at home. He

2508-456: The Acclaimed after the match due to dissension between both teams. This would result in the Gunn Club facing the Acclaimed in a dumpster match on the August 3 episode of Dynamite , which Gunn Club lost. Billy tried to reconcile with Austin and Colten on the August 17 episode of Dynamite but Stokely Hathaway appeared on the stage and Austin and Colten turned on Billy by attacking him and siding with Hathaway, which resulted in Acclaimed making

2574-1128: The Big Brother house, Matelson began a relationship with Liz Nolan. The two continued to date for five months before breaking up in February 2016. In late February and March 2015, several former NXT trainees previously working within the WWE developmental system alleged misconduct by head trainer Bill DeMott , with Devlin and Brandon Traven publicizing complaints which they claimed they had submitted to WWE management about DeMott back in March 2013, when they were still employed with WWE. Meanwhile, other ex-trainees like Briley Pierce and Derrick Bateman also made allegations in 2015, while previous allegations made in 2013 by Chad Baxter and Chase Donovan were also noted. They accused DeMott of making trainees perform dangerous drills, physically assaulting and bullying trainees, using homophobic and racial slurs amongst other derogatory terms, and condoning sexual harassment . WWE released statements regarding some of

2640-613: The Gunn Club name and began referring themselves as simply "The Gunns". They achieved major success in 2023, winning the AEW World Tag Team Championship. In April 2024, together with Bullet Club Gold member Jay White , they unified the ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Championship and the AEW World Trios Championship as the Unified World Trios Championship. Austin Gunn made his professional wrestling debut on March 18, 2017, by teaming with his father Billy Gunn at

2706-723: The Japanese system went back to the two-promotion system, but then the UWF was reformed and another promotion, Pioneer Senshi, was started. Because of Japanese societal mores which implied that a wrestler was a lifelong employee of a company and thus identified with it wherever he went, neither AJPW nor NJPW made an effort to acquire wrestlers trained in other promotions; wrestlers from the major promotions who left, such as Genichiro Tenryu , Gran Hamada , Yoshiaki Fujiwara , Akira Maeda , Atsushi Onita , and Nobuhiko Takada had to start their own independent promotions in order to keep themselves in

The Gunns - Misplaced Pages Continue

2772-556: The Lucha Underground Trios Championship against Dante Fox , Killshot and The Mack . On the July 18, 2018 episode of Lucha Underground , Vibora defeated Johnny Mundo . On the August 1 episode of Lucha Underground , the character Vibora was "killed off" via decapitation by a sword-wielding Taya Valkyrie . On May 25, 2019, Matelson debuted for All Elite Wrestling (AEW) at Double or Nothing as

2838-507: The New South Tag Team Championship. Two weeks later, at Royal Glory , they lost the titles to The Bad News Boyz (Brandon Tate and Brent Tate) in a three-way match, also involving Facade and James Storm . Billy Gunn joined the upstart promotion All Elite Wrestling from the very beginning in 2019, as a producer and an occasional on-screen talent. His son Austin debuted for AEW in a non-televised match during

2904-595: The North American product are regularly sold out in capital cities such as Melbourne , Sydney , Perth and Brisbane . Lucha libre has many more independent wrestlers in proportion to the rest of North America, because of the weight classes prevalent in the Mexican league system as well as its emphasis on multiple person tag matches; just about anyone with ability can emerge from an independent promotion into either AAA or Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre and be

2970-457: The November 19 episode of Rampage , Jurassic Express defeated Cole and Bobby Fish . On the January 5, 2022 episode of Dynamite , Jurassic Express defeated the Lucha Brothers to win their first World Tag Team Championship. At the Revolution event on March 6, Jurassic Express successfully defended the championship against the Young Bucks and reDRagon (Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reilly ) in

3036-540: The Young Bucks. On the September 24 episode of Rampage , Cage and Jurassic Express were defeated by the SuperKliq ( Adam Cole and the Young Bucks), with Luchasaurus taking the pin. On the October 6 episode of Dynamite , Cage, Jurassic Express and Bryan Danielson were defeated by Cole, Omega and the Young Bucks. At Full Gear , Cage and Jurassic Express defeated the SuperKliq in a falls count anywhere match. On

3102-556: The contract and Killswitch relented. Cage then defeated Copeland to regain the TNT Championship. Cage eventually lost the TNT Championship to Copeland again in March 2024. On the July 21 episode of Collision , The Patriarchy defeated the Bang Bang Gang ( Juice Robinson and The Gunns ) for the vacant AEW World Trios Championship , after interference from Mother Wayne. On August 25 at All In , The Patriarchy lost

3168-461: The death of Giant Baba and retirement of Antonio Inoki , which effectively broke their control over the promotions they founded, the major promotions began looking to the smaller promotions for talent. In 2000, the first major signing from an independent, Minoru Tanaka by NJPW from BattlARTS , took place; soon after NJPW stocked the junior heavyweight division with independent talent such as Masayuki Naruse , Tiger Mask , Gedo , and Jado . On

3234-553: The end of this period, All Star had effectively replaced Joint (by now owned by Max Crabtree , brother of Shirley) as the dominant promotion in the UK. Joint, renamed Ring Wrestling Stars in 1991, dwindled down before closing with Crabtree's retirement in 1995, All Star has continued to be the dominant non-import live promotion in the UK up to the present day. Its principal competitors since that time have been Scott Conway's TWA, John Freemantle's Premier Promotions, RBW and LDN Wrestling. Since

3300-533: The independents that were signed included Akitoshi Saito , Takahiro Suwa , and Taiji Ishimori ). Although AJPW, NJPW, and Noah remain committed to their dojos, the reliance on independents is growing as obscure talent is recognized for its ability. For most of the years of ITV 's coverage of British Wrestling, the dominant promoter in the United Kingdom was the Joint Promotions cartel, which

3366-416: The late 1960s up until the early 2000s and then sporadically until his death in 2009. From 1982 to 1995, Williams had a Welsh language TV wrestling show "Reslo" on S4C. Brian Dixon, a referee for Williams, set up his own company Wrestling Enterprises of Birkenhead later renamed All Star Wrestling c.  1984 . An alliance with promoter and former top star Jackie Pallo failed to prevent Joint gaining

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3432-405: The limelight ( Wrestling Association "R" , Universal Lucha Libre , Pro Wrestling Fujiwara Gumi , Fighting Network Rings , Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling , and Hustle respectively) . As the 1990s ended, though, things began to change. Independent promotions began gaining more prominence as they were featured in major specialized media such as Shukan Puroresu and Shukan Gong magazines. With

3498-654: The match, White announced that he was giving Robinson a share of the Unified Trios Championship held by White and the Gunns, thus invoking the Freebird Rule . However, on the July 13 episode of Collision , interim AEW Executive Vice President Christopher Daniels overruled Bang Bang Gang's attempt to invoke the Freebird Rule and stripped them of the Unified World Trios Championship. On the following week, The Gunns and Robinson failed to win

3564-426: The need for an on-site ambulance and trained emergency medical personnel at each bout. After the business was thus exposed and deregulated, just about anyone could be a promoter or a wrestler since no licensing beyond a business license was then required. Many thought they could save money by holding shows in lesser towns and smaller arenas with little to no televised exposure, leading to many shows being held only once

3630-635: The new gimmick and ring name Luchasaurus , defeating Alex Reynolds on the first night and winning on the second night in a three-way by defeating Matt Riddle and Willie Mack . In May 2016, Matelson, under a mask and the ring name Vibora, made his Lucha Underground debut as a part of the Reptile Tribe stable. On May 7, 2016, Vibora along with Pindar and Drago won the Lucha Underground Trios Championship . On October 11, at Ultima Lucha Tres , Reptile Tribe lost

3696-475: The pin. On the November 22 episode of Dynamite , Cage renamed Luchasaurus as Killswitch (named after Cage's finishing move ) and dubbed Killswitch as his "finisher". At Worlds End , Killswitch won a 20-man battle royale for a future TNT Championship title match. Later that night, Cage lost the TNT Championship to Copeland in a no disqualification match. As Killswitch was about to sign off his title match contract on Copeland, Cage demanded Killswitch to hand over

3762-534: The same year, following the Pro Wrestling Noah split, AJPW was forced to fill its ranks with independent talent; Nobutaka Araya , Shigeo Okumura and Mitsuya Nagai signed up (Araya is the only one who remains, but other signings since then have been Kaz Hayashi , Tomoaki Honma , Hideki Hosaka , and Ryuji Hijikata .) Noah admitted one wrestler from the independents, Daisuke Ikeda , to its ranks as well (Ikeda has since left, but other wrestlers from

3828-412: The save and forming an alliance with Billy. This marked Billy's removal from the Gunn Club. Austin and Colten resumed their alliance with Stokely Hathaway, as they joined his group of wrestlers The Firm and changed their name to The Gunns. Gunns began mocking FTR by impersonating them during their matches, also including attacking them post-match at Final Battle . This led to a match between both teams at

3894-578: The stable Jurassic Express . Luchasaurus also sporadically competed as a singles competitor, most notably participating in the Casino Ladder match at Double or Nothing on May 23, 2020. On the August 12 episode of Dynamite , Jurassic Express unsuccessfully challenged Page and Kenny Omega for the AEW World Tag Team Championship . The following year, Christian Cage began mentoring Jungle Boy, which saw Cage become

3960-452: The start of his alliance with Cage, Luchasaurus was presented as a "monster heel" and started squashing a number of opponents within minutes, all at Cage's direction. At week two of Fyter Fest , Luchasaurus turned on Christian Cage to realign with Jungle Boy. However, this was also a short-lived reunion, as at All Out , Luchasaurus cemented himself as a heel by attacking his tag partner once again and solidifying his alliance with Cage. As

4026-556: The team name "Team Big Brother", they defeated HATE ( Peter Avalon and Ray Rosas ) in a match for Bar Wrestling. After Matelson became known for his work as the Vibora character in Lucha Underground, he started to use the character in the independent circuit. He changed the name to "Luchasaurus", after fans chanted that during his Lucha Underground debut. On November 17 and 18, Matelson wrestled for House of Hardcore under

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4092-504: The vacant AEW World Trios Championship, which was won by The Patriarchy ( Christian Cage , Killswitch and Nick Wayne ) after interference from Mother Wayne . Independent circuit In professional wrestling , the independent circuit (often shortened to the indie circuit or the indies ) is the collective name of independently owned promotions which are deemed to be smaller and more regionalized than major national promotions. Independent promotions are essentially viewed as

4158-464: Was originally modelled on the NWA and later amalgamated into a single company. Nonetheless, throughout this period, untelevised alternative promotions flourished with at least one significant competitor to Joint for live shows. Initially the main rival was the former dominant promotion in the territory, Atholl Oakley 's BWA. By the time of its demise, wrestler/promoter Paul Lincoln had established himself as

4224-627: Was released in 2014 after a severe hip injury suffered in March 2013. He would be inactive from wrestling. Matelson made his return to professional wrestling in 2016, having not competed since his release from WWE in 2014. On June 17, 2016, in a match for Millenium Pro Wrestling (MPW) under the ring name Austin Draven , he defeated Ryan J. Morales. On September 30, 2016, under the ring name Just Judas , he defeated Danny Divine to become MPW Heavyweight Champion. On November 9, 2017, Matelson teamed with fellow Big Brother contestant Jessie Godderz under

4290-491: Was released in 2014. After a two-year hiatus, he signed with Lucha Underground as Vibora and worked there from 2016 to 2018. He also began working on the independent circuit in 2016 under the Luchasaurus gimmick until he signed with AEW in 2019. He continued his partnership with Jungle Boy as Jurassic Express , becoming a one-time AEW World Tag Team Champion . He later aligned with Christian Cage , which saw him win

4356-413: Was rushed to the hospital where they found his blood oxygen level was below 80% and was days away from permanent lung damage. Matelson has been told his recovery period could take up to a month so it is unclear when he will return. In the summer of 2015, Matelson appeared as a contestant in the 17th season of Big Brother . He was evicted during the twelfth week and placed fifth. He returned during

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