10 Things You Didn't Know About Santos Escobar
In a short amount of time, Santos Escobar has built quite the resume in NXT. Since 2019, he has won the NXT Cruiserweight Championship and has formed one of the most dominant stables in NXT history, Legado Del Fantasma. Along with Joaquin Wilde and Raul Mendoza, Escobar has become can’t-miss television.
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Before joining the WWE, Escobar was one of the top luchadors in Mexico. Dating back to 2000, Escobar performed as El Hijo del Fantasma. Under a mask, Escobar competed on Mexico’s biggest stages and even had success in some other promotions in the United States. For fans of Escobar, there are many things that should be known about his accomplishments prior to joining the WWE.
10 Wrestled For CMLL
Escobar has been competing in the squared circle for over 20 years. His first big break came after joining CMLL in 2008. CMLL is the oldest major wrestling promotion still in business today. Founded in 1933, CMLL has been one of the top wrestling promotions in the world. In Mexico, it is among the top two wrestling promotions in the country.
Escobar’s first major achievement as El Hijo del Fantasma was winning the trios title in CMLL. Among his partners in the Mexican promotion was Hector Garza, who is the uncle of current WWE stars Angel Garza and Humberto Carrillo.
9 Middleweight Champion
In 2009, Escobar won the CMLL World Middleweight Championship. He won the title after emerging victorious in a two out of three falls match against Averno, who had held the title for almost three years.
Escobar would go on to hold the title for almost seven months before losing it to Negro Casas. As middleweight champion, Escobar added his name to a prestigious list of luchadors to win the title. Legendary names such as Blue Panther, El Dandy, and Jushin 'Thunder' Liger have held the title. The championship is currently held by Soberano Jr.
8 Wrestled For AAA
In 2013, Escobar made the jump to the other major wrestling promotion in Mexico, AAA. For 30 years, AAA has been an alternative to the classic CMLL promotion. For the past three decades, the two promotions have battled back and forth for the top spot in Mexico.
In his debut, he made it to the finals of the Copa Antonio Peña tournament, named after the AAA founder who passed in 2006. However, he lost in the finals to the late La Parka.
7 Cruiserweight Champion
The NXT Cruiserweight Championship is not the only cruiserweight title Escobar has won in his career. In 2014, at Triplemania XXII, Escobar won the AAA World Cruiserweight Championship. Triplemania is AAA’s version of WrestleMania. On arguably the biggest stage in Mexico, Escobar won a ten-way match to combine the AAA cruiserweight title and the AAA Fusion title. The match featured some of the top luchadors in the world including Rey Fenix, Pentagon Jr., Daga, Angelico, and Drago.
Escobar would go on to hold the title for over two years. He lost the title to Johnny Mundo, who is better known as John Morrison in WWE. Overall, Escobar had the second-longest reign in the title’s history. The current champion, Laredo Kid, has the current longest reign at over 1,000 days.
6 Latin American Champion
In 2017, Escobar redeemed his AAA debut and won the Copa Antonio Peña tournament. He won a 14-man battle royal to win the AAA Latin American Championship.
Escobar also got his revenge on Mundo, who was the current Latin American champion at the time. He would go on to hold the title for over a year before losing the title to Drago. The AAA Latin American title has been held by some of the best wrestlers in Mexico over the past decade including Dr. Wagner Jr., L.A. Park, Blue Demon Jr., Psycho Clown, Pentagon Jr., Daga, and current champion Black Taurus.
5 Lost His Mask
Towards the end of his AAA run, Escobar made the biggest sacrifice any luchador can make and put his mask on the line in the main event of Triplemania XXVI.
In 2018, Escobar put his mask on the line in a four-way steel cage match. The match also featured L.A. Park, Pentagon Jr., and Psycho Clown. The rules of the match were simple, the first two men to escape the cage were safe. The final two would compete in a match where the loser would have to take off his mask. Pentagon Jr. and Psycho Clown escaped the cage and L. A. Park defeated El Hijo del Fantasma resulting in him losing his mask.
4 Lucha Underground
In 2014, Escobar began working for Lucha Underground, a unique wrestling program that aired for four seasons on the El Rey Network in the U.S.
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Wrestling a King Cuerno, Escobar was a “big–game hunter” in the temple that was Lucha Underground. Among his biggest achievements in the promotion was winning The Gift of the Gods Championship, a title that worked the same way as WWE’s Money in the Bank. However, he lost the title to Rey Fenix before he could ever get an opportunity at the world title. At the end of the second season, Cuerno hunted possibly the biggest game in Lucha Underground, Mil Muertes. However, at Ultima Lucha Dos, Muertes defeated Cuerno in a deathmatch.
3 Lawsuit Against Lucha Underground
In 2019, Escobar was part of a lawsuit against Lucha Underground. The lawsuit stemmed from the promotion not allowing wrestlers to work for other promotions while under contract.
Being strictly a television show that had seasons, and did not run year-round like WWE and other wrestling promotions, wrestlers could not work for other promotions with television in-between seasons. As a result of the lawsuit, wrestlers such as Ivelisse, Joey Ryan, Thunder Rosa, and Escobar all received their release from Lucha Underground.
2 Wrestled For Impact
Starting in 2017, Escobar made numerous appearances for Impact Wrestling. At that year’s Slammiversary event, Escobar made his debut while competing for the Impact tag titles.
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In a losing effort, Escobar teamed with Drago and lost to the then-champions Santana and Ortiz, who currently wrestle for AEW. The match also featured WWE’s Angel Garza teaming with Laredo Kid and Pro Wrestling Noah’s Naomichi Marufuji and Taiji Ishimori. At that year’s Bound for Glory, Escobar was a part of a six-man tag match where he teamed with fellow AAA wrestlers Pagano and Texano in a losing effort against Ethan Carter III, Eddie Edwards, and James Storm.
1 Best Suicide Dive In The Business
Regardless of if you are watching Escobar compete in NXT, CMLL, AAA, Lucha Underground, or Impact Wrestling, there is a good chance you are going to see the best suicide dive you have ever seen in a match.
During his time as El Hijo Del Fantasma, and King Cuerno, Escobar earned the claim of having one of the best running dives to the outside of the ring. While doing a suicide dive, Escobar is able to launch himself much farther than many other wrestlers who do the move.
