WWE: Santos Escobar on LWO Revival in WWE, More on Mustafa Ali & Baron Corbin in NXT, More News

WWE

Jun 8, 2023

Santos Escobar Comments on Triple H Initially Turned Down Idea to Bring Back LWO

A recent episode of the Out of Character with Ryan Satin podcast featured Santos Escobar as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Escobar’s thoughts on him wanting to reform the LWO since day one of his career in WWE.

“That was something I wanted since day one. So here’s the thing. I’ve always thought that, as a minority, we have to stay together somehow to present who we are, where we come from, and what we’re about. If we present those three every time we go out there, eventually everyone will know what lucha libre is, who I am, where I come from, and all these rules and regulations and traditions that lucha libre has.”

Escobar also gave his thoughts about WWE CCO Paul “Triple H” Levesque had initially turned down his request to revive the LWO in the company.

“The very first conversation I had with Triple H, and he asked me, ‘What do you want to do?’ I told him, ‘Can I bring back the LWO?’ Before I said the letter ‘O,’ he said, ‘No. I want you to be you, and I want people to see you, and not think of anybody else. I want you to think of something. You want a group? We can do a group. But write something down, think about it, give it to me, and we’ll see. So that kind of shot down my initial desire, but Triple H was right. The time wasn’t right, it wouldn’t have been what it is right now. Also, it needed a very important ingredient, an O.G, an original LWO [member], and that’s Rey. So that’s why Legado came about, and it was beautiful. It gave ne the opportunity to do everything I wanted to do. Who I am, where I come from, what I’m about, and that’s what I did every single time I was out there. Every promo, every backstage, every scene, every feud, every rivalry was letting people know that I’m all about lucha libre, that lucha libre is about tradition, heritage, culture, familia. All the values that you have, whether you’re Mexican, Latino, or not, are the values I have. We relate, and that’s how Legado got over, that’s how Santos got really over on NXT. Because everything I say, it’s real.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

More on Mustafa Ali & Baron Corbin’s Recent Appearances on NXT

As noted before, last week’s NXT show featured Mustafa Ali and Baron Corbin making their surprise appearances and return to WWE’s NXT brand.

Fightful Select reported that their sources stated that WWE officials had tentative plans in place quite a while ago for both Ali and Corbin to work for their NXT brand. This reportedly was one of the reasons why WWE officials decided to give Ali and Corbin the free agent tags as part of last month’s WWE Draft. One source spoken to reportedly stated “despite a lot of things from the previous regime that made that cynicism around the free agent tags understandable, there was more of a plan for them this time.”

It was reported that several NXT talent had specifically requested to work with Ali and Ali was more than happy to oblige in return.

In regards to WWE’s plans for Ali and Corbin in NXT, it was reported that WWE officials main goals are to help add interest for NXT shows, refresh Ali and Corbin’s direction in the company, assess the developmental talent they will be working with, and to get more experience for NXT talent with people who already work the main roster TV style.

It was reported that while Ali and Corbin will continue to work for NXT, this is not a completely permanent move and instead they can still appear on RAW and SmackDown whenever needed by WWE officials.

WWE News & Notes

Edge is currently scheduled to be making an appearance at the August 18th SmackDown show in Toronto, Canada based on recent ad from WWE and host venue Scotiabank Arena.

WWE Hall of Famer Jerry “The King” Lawler was recently honored by the Autozone Liberty Bowl with their award for The Most Distinguished Person Award in a ceremony held this past Sunday in Memphis, Tennessee.

In a recent interview with the Insight with Chris Van Vliet podcast, NXT commentator Vic Joseph stated that Rey Mysterio vs. Brock Lesnar from WWE SummerSlam 2019 is his favorite match that he called during his commentary career in WWE.

In a recent interview with the New York Post, UFC fighter Amanda Nunes stated that she is interested in the idea of a potential career in wrestling for WWE after she retires from MMA. Nunes stated “It depends on the contract, you know? If the contract is amazing, why not? What I wanted to do in MMA, I did already — even more than I thought in my head when I went through my whole career. I became a double champion. I wanted only one — I had two … I’m so happy, and whatever comes after I’m done with UFC, we’ll see. For sure you guys will see me around, anyways.“

In a recent fan signing event for Whatnot, actor Stephen Amell stated that he is currently working on a project for WWE that will be released around the same time as the premiere of the second season of STARZ’s Heels series. Amell stated “We have talked about various avenues for promoting the second season of the show (Heels on STARZ) and obviously, we’re a little less than two months away from it coming out so we still have a little bit of time but, we’re kicking around some ideas. I mean obviously, if Cody (Rhodes) was still with AEW, it’d be pretty cut and dry that we’d do something with AEW. Now I’ve got Phil, CM Punk, who’s on the show with AEW, we got Cody back in WWE. So, I have a connection with Phil, I have a connection with Cody. I haven’t done anything with AEW. I’ve done stuff with WWE. AEW feels like it might be a little bit more of a natural path right now but I also am involved in a project for the WWE that comes out right around the same time as the second season of Heels comes out so it’s like, I don’t know. These are champagne problems (he smiled).” (Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com)