In his first sit-down interview since being released by WWE in April, Santos Escobar opened up to TMZ’s Inside the Ring about “one of the worst days” he’s ever had when he got the phone call from WWE.
At the time, Escobar was sidelined with a major injury and had surgery to address the problem. He was just starting to do physical therapy when he got the release call from WWE. He didn’t see it coming because they had just re-signed him to a new deal in October 2025.
“While I’m doing my therapy, I get
the call. While I’m doing my therapy. And I remember vividly. I had this hand in a bucket of rice, and I was doing my grips. And with the other one, I was on the phone.
Of course, I have a legal team. And if you remember, I let my contract expire in October. I was ready to part ways and see what was out there. Nick Khan called me himself. He apologized for the way they had treated my character. Not myself, my character. And he said we’re gonna do things right. We’re gonna give you anything you need to thrive, to prosper. And I’ll send you down to AAA so we’ll get things squared, and we’ll get going. And that’s the reason I re-signed back then. So I had no reason to believe this was gonna end anytime soon. I hadn’t even started my run…they wanted me back, so I had no reason to believe this was coming.”
Escobar stressed multiple times that “optics matter,” because it’s a real shitty thing for WWE to release a wrestler who is injured and just had surgery. It felt to him like the infamous incident when WWE mailed Mickie James a trash bag of her belongings after cutting her.
“I told them please talk to my attorney, and that was it. I don’t think those phone calls are to plea any case. I don’t think those phone calls are to make them change their mind. I was really focused on my injury, and that’s really the only thing I could think about, was my injury. I wasn’t really thinking about nothing else. So there’s the story…that’s the only thing, optics matter.
In this case, it was like okay, let’s turn the page. And I have something coming up very important, that as of right now, is everything I have, and that was a television project in Mexico. So I went there. I had three days to fix my mind, fix my heart, and I started doing it. The rest will be history.
And I know these things usually get sensitive, and you don’t want to burn bridges, or whatever. But the truth is the truth. You guys remember when Mickie James, she was released and then they sent her stuff in a garbage bag? That’s how I felt. But I didn’t want to burn that bridge, if that makes any sense. Because I think every time anyone does that, it hurts the business itself. It doesn’t hurt my career. It’s not gonna help my career. It’s not gonna hurt them that much. But optics do matter.”
Escobar said he’s in a great place both physically and mentally now, and is ready to be the best version of himself under his new name of Romeo Malverde.
What’s your reaction to Escobar calling out WWE’s bad optics for releasing him after he just had surgery for a major injury? Let me know your thoughts on his comparison to the Mickie James’ trashbag-gate in the comments below, Cagesiders.
