Santos Escobar Reveals How WWE Re-Signed Him In October With Promise By Nick Khan

Romeo Malverde (FKA Santos Escobar) has peeled back the curtain on his re-signing with WWE last year, before being let go again this year.

Arriving on the main roster in 2022, Santos Escobar enjoyed almost three years on Friday Night SmackDown before news emerged in October 2025 that he was set to depart WWE. However, shortly after his deal had reportedly expired, the company opted to make a new offer and re-sign him. Regardless, he was once again released on April 24, and the star has now revealed why he re-signed last year.

In a chat with TMZ Sports, Romeo Malverde discussed how a promise from Nick Khan led him to stay with WWE.

‘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 it right. We’re gonna do things right. I want to give you anything you need to thrive, to prosper. I’ll sit down with Triple H. 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 any time soon. I hadn’t even started my run. I was a free agent at midnight and I got the call the next day I think around 1 or 2 PM. They wanted me back, so I had no reason to believe this [his release] was coming.”

-Romeo Malverde

In WWE, the former Santos Escobar became a Cruiserweight Champion in NXT, before joining the LWO on the main roster. After turning on the group, he’d go on to lead Legado Del Fantasma on SmackDown, although he became one of the company’s now routine post-WrestleMania cuts almost four months ago.

On the topic of departures, the current trend sees many WWE stars being asked to take pay cuts, like New Day members Austin Creed and Kofi, who asked for their release back in May. Just yesterday, Ilja Dragunov was revealed to have departed the company after he let his contract expire, with new details suggesting WWE didn’t think he was enough of a numbers mover to reach an agreement on a new deal. You can read more about that here.

Plus, it’s believed there could be even more WWE departures of this nature coming, particularly with some more main roster contracts coming up soon. You can read more about that here.

As always, we’ll aim to provide any further updates on Romeo Malverde as soon as we hear more.

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