WWE Had Huge World Title Plans For Santos Escobar Before Contract Talks (WWE News)
A lack of progress in contractual talks halted WWE's huge idea for Santos Escobar.
What a week in the life of one Santos Escobar! The SmackDown star recently watched his WWE contract tick down to zero before sensationally re-signing with the market leader amidst reports that he'd soon be plying his trade elsewhere on the wrestling map. Now, Bodyslam.net is reporting that Triple H and other top brass had massive plans in store for Santos before contractual stumbling blocks appeared.
According to their sources, WWE wanted Escobar to beat El Hijo del Vikingo and become the brand new AAA Mega Champion. It's unclear exactly when they planned to make that happen, but it seems Santos was the original choice to end Vikingo's reign before Dominik Mysterio did so at Worlds Collide: Las Vegas on 12 September.
Since then, Mysterio has been flaunting AAA's top prize on episodes of WWE flagship show Raw. He's also the reigning Intercontinental Champ, so 'Dirty Dom' has a lot of gold to show off. That might've been Escobar's fate had negotiations on a new WWE deal not stalled before his contract lapsed in early-October 2025.
Bodyslam.net's write up did also say that Escobar's win could've gone hand in hand with his Legado Del Fantasma stablemates Los Garza winning the AAA Tag-Team Titles. Angel and Berto bagged those belts on 15 June, so there's a chance that's when Santos would've beaten Vikingo too.
Los Garza have since dropped the titles to Pagano and Psycho Clown (at Triplemania XXXIII on 16 August).
There's no word yet on whether or not WWE will resume interest in a AAA Mega Championship push for Escobar now he has put pen to paper on fresh terms. Things might pick up right where they left off, or Dominik's success could ice any internal talk about an Escobar title tilt.
Opinion: Santos Must Recapture Heel Turn Form
Santos turned heel on ex-LWO stablemate and mentor Rey Mysterio on the 10 November 2023 episode of SmackDown. That plot point was treated like a big deal at the time, but WWE's writing team outright failed to follow up on it with anything meaningful. Escobar's expected push stalled badly, and it never really got going again.
In recent times, he's actually been positioned as more of a manager to Angel and Berto than as a featured in-ring worker. Indeed, his latest singles bout on SmackDown came on the 2 May edition. There, he lost a competitive bout to Rey Fenix. Before that, you'd have to go back to the 28 February SmackDown for another loss to LA Knight.
Yes, Santos has had just 2 televised one-on-one bouts on the brand this year. That tells the full extent of his woes since turning heel, departing the LWO and rejigging his once-proud Legado Del Fantasma faction.
It'd be lovely if Escobar could recapture some form and get back to the level he was at pre-heel turn. WWE seemed keen to make him a top star on the blue brand, but then things changed. Worse, plans for sanctuary on the AAA platform were also trashed due to his contractual issues.
Time to put things right? Perhaps.