Ex-WWE Star Had Original Main Roster Promotion Changed At Last Moment
A former WWE superstar was supposed to be on the main roster a lot sooner than when it happened.
The Legado Del Fantasma group was initially formed on the WWE NXT brand in 2020 when Triple H was running the brand. The group was led by Santos Escobar, joined by Joaquin Wilde and Raul Mendoza, who is now known as Cruz Del Toro. Elektra Lopez joined the group in August 2021.
When the group was called up to the WWE main roster in October 2022, the guys were on SmackDown, but instead of Lopez, Zelina Vega was put as the female ally of the group. Lopez was part of the new Legado group, along with Santos, Angel, and Berto, until she was released in February.
In an interview with the Fan’s View podcast, Elektra Lopez detailed how her WWE main roster debut was supposed to happen but didn’t go as planned.
“Let’s go back to how it all began. People don’t realize what actually happened. We were all told we were called up together. We had our last vignette where we all drive away from NXT, together. I’m not talking bad about the company or anything, I’m just stating what happened.
Two months go by and we’re waiting for them to tell us when we’re going to debut. Finally, we all get a call on Wednesday. ‘You guys are debuting this Friday on SmackDown. This is your flight and travel.’ We got all of that, including me. Thursday comes, I’ve finished up packing, I’m in the gym working out, thinking, ‘This is what you’ve worked your entire life and it’s finally happening.’
I get back home, I had checked in and downloaded my boarding pass. I’m about to leave to go the airport and I get a missed call from someone. ‘The boys are going up and you’re not going with them.’ ‘Are you sure? I have all my travel and hotel. Are you sure?’ ‘Yeah, I just got word this morning.’ This person was actually upset, too. You could hear it in his voice. ‘Unfortunately, they put it on me to give you the call to tell you.’
It’s something where it’s everything you worked for and you’ve finally accomplished it….I even told all my family. That day I was supposed to fly out, I started telling my close family and friends. When I got that call, everything you think you have in the palm of your hand, it was just gone.
I hung up the phone and literally stood there for ten minutes in disbelief. As any human, I broke down. You had me thinking for almost three months that this was happening. If you knew this wasn’t going to happen, you probably knew ahead of time. Why give me my flight information, my hotel, everything, and then tell me, ‘Actually, you’re not.’ That’s what it was.”
Elektra Lopez Wasn’t Told Why Her Original WWE Debut Plan Was Changed
It is easy to see why Elektra Lopez was frustrated about the situation. She was specifically told she would debut on the WWE main roster on Friday, but then she was informed that it wouldn’t happen a day earlier. When asked why, Lopez explained that she didn’t know why.
I don’t know. Maybe they wanted somebody….I have a good relationship with Zelina. It’s a business. I honestly don’t know. I feel like they knew that’s what was going to happen, and it was a mistake. Not trying to talk bad about the company, but for a billionaire company, how was there a communication mistake like that?
You should know ahead of time, especially when I’ve been taken out of classes at NXT for two months because I was going up. I took it as, ‘Alright. This happened. All I’m going to do is train harder, work harder, and prove to them why I deserve to be up there,’ and that’s what I did.
What if I didn’t answer the call? That flight, the worst part is, they didn’t even cancel the whole thing out. My return flight home, I got a notification, ‘You’re ready to check in for your flight.’ I was like, ‘Are you kidding me? They didn’t even cancel the flight so I get a notification? Really?’ Just twist the knife and really dig it in.”
Lopez is moving on as Karissa Rivera (her real name) by wrestling AEW’s Deonna Purrazzo at House of Glory’s Puerto Rican Weekend show on June 7th.