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Santos Escobar Discusses Debuting Masked On NXT

Santos Escobar arrived in NXT under the mask under his previous identity of Hijo del Fantasma. However, upon winning the NXT Cruiserweight Title, he removed the mask and revealed himself to be Escobar as he, Raul Mendoza, and Joaquin Wilde formed Legado del Fantasma.

It’s rare for a luchador to voluntarily unmask, but it’s also even rarer to find a luchador put the mask back on. Escobar spoke with the Getting Over podcast, talking about the thoughts behind that move.

“I wasn’t wearing my mask the last two years in Mexico. [In WWE], I was given the opportunity to re-introduce the lucha libre roots to the WWE Universe. I thought the best way to do it was by wearing the mask again. I didn’t tell my dad because he still lives in Mexico. When he saw me, he’s like, ‘You’re wearing the mask again? You can’t do that.’ I already knew I wasn’t going to wear it for too long, but I managed to convince him and he was happy for me. I kept performing, I go to the finals and win, and the next week I reveal myself as Santos Escobar. I get home and get a phone call from my dad, ‘What just happened?’ I wanted to create a new legacy while honoring my country, culture, tradition, and dad. Creatively, we found a way to do all that by creating the Santos Escobar persona and Legado del Fantasmo. The group is amazing and everyone is helping us shape the product. I didn’t know how big or small lucha libre is to the company, but I knew it was big for me. I like to respect the traditions of where I go and I wasn’t going to make WWE or NXT a lucha libre place, but I will adapt the lucha libre style and I think we did. Now we have to keep it growing.”

Escobar had lost his mask in Mexico in a match back in 2018, but most fans in America had seen him under a mask before NXT as he was King Cuerno in Lucha Underground. Now, the unmasked Escobar looks set to find himself the undisputed Cruiserweight Champion when he faces Jordan Devlin in a ladder match on the second night of NXT TakeOver: Stand And Deliver.

thanks to Fightful for the quote

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