Santos Escobar Talks His Family History With Lucha Libre, His Mask, And His WWE Story

Santos Escobar is a rising star in WWE, acting as the leader of Legado Del Fantasma, with his success coming after years spent building up his skills as a luchador in Mexico. Speaking to "WWE NXT" commentator Booker T on the "Hall of Fame" podcast, Escobar talked about being a second generation wrestler and making the move to WWE in 2019.

"You know, traditionally [in] lucha libre, your dad, as a legend, inherits his name and his lineage to you, and you have to carry it on in the ring," Escobar said, regarding his previous persona as El Hijo del Fantasma. "Well, hear this, Book: my dad didn't give me his name. He gave it to my cousin." Escobar felt that meant his father didn't want him to wrestle, but it ended up causing him to train even harder. After three years, his father decided he was good enough to carry on the name Fantasma.

Over his career, Escobar has suffered a number of injuries, as most wrestlers typically do. A big part of why the WWE star believes his father initially discouraged him from pursuing wrestling as a career was to protect him from the difficult lifestyle. Over time, Escobar feels that he has fully won his father over, and convinced him that he is exactly where he's supposed to be with his career.

For a number of years, Escobar performed under a mask as El Hijo del Fantasma before losing a match against LA Park that stipulated he had to remove his mask. In lucha libre, it's rare for a wrestler to re-don a mask after losing it, but it's something Escobar felt he had to do upon arriving in WWE.

"My thing has always been to represent who I am, where I come from, and what I am about, and that is lucha libre," Escobar continued. "That's my life, in a nutshell — lucha libre." Escobar stated that when he first arrived at NXT, he discussed his mask with Paul "Triple H" Levesque, Shawn Michaels, and others, with everyone coming to the conclusion that it made sense to introduce him as a masked luchador before eventually having him remove the mask.

"I think the result was positive," Escobar stated. "We did get that lucha libre ... stint when I first became the cruiserweight champion." Escobar was happy that he later had an opportunity to unmask, adopt his new name, and explain himself to the WWE audience in his own words.

Escobar, along with his fellow Legado Del Fantasma members, debuted on the main roster last October. In recent weeks, the group has formed a new incarnation of Latino World Order alongside Rey Mysterio, further establishing themselves as performers to watch in WWE.