Every Wrestling DEATH Ranked By Stupidity
19. Dario Cueto Gets Shot (Lucha Underground)
Lucha Underground earned a ton of praise for melding pro wrestling action with soap opera silliness and even some intense crime drama. It was over the top and ahead of its time. LU did cinematic stuff long before that became a go to trope during the closed door COVID pandemic days (WWE ThunderDome, AEW at Daily's Place and the like). In 2025, people still talk about Lucha Underground fondly.
The promotion became a haven for those who like a little murderous intent with their grappling. What a sentence that is, but it's true! Right at the tail end of the show's third season in 2017, LU's main antagonist and authority figure Dario Cueto was shot and killed in a shocking cliffhanger designed to tease what might be possible in the fourth series.
This shooting was big news on social media at the time, and the company capitalised on that buzz as best they could. By season four, the same actor (Luis Fernandez-Gil) was back on telly playing Dario's grieving father Antonio. It was a cute little side step that caught everyone off-guard, and it definitely achieved the goal: Shake things up on Lucha Underground heading into a new series.
Again, like with Tony D'Angelo making Troy Donovan "sleep with the fishes" on NXT in 2022, this was less absurd and more drenched in realism. People had seen shootings like this on TV shows before, but never really in a wrestling context. Yes, Brian Pillman and Steve Austin did whip a gun out on Raw in 1996, but nobody was actually shot to death.
Dario was, and then Antonio debuted.