As of today, Santos Escobar is no longer part of WWE and is a free agent. His contract expired and he didn’t sign a new deal. WWE even offered a contract with a higher salary, but Escobar turned that down as well.
Escobar’s decision not to renew his WWE contract reportedly had less to do with money and more to do with creative direction.
In an update from PWInsider, Escobar was upfront with WWE officials about his hesitation to sign a new deal in recent weeks. Sources say his main concern wasn’t salary or promises of a push, but rather the lack of a defined plan for his character and role moving forward.
Escobar wanted to ensure that if he re-signed, WWE had a clear creative roadmap for him. Without that, he feared being locked into a contract only to spend months “spinning his wheels” and not being used meaningfully on television.
According to the Wrestling Observer, people in WWE expect Santos to join All Elite Wrestling:
“They’ve been expecting him to leave for some time. They obviously took him away from Angel and Berto for that very reason… not expecting him to stay and yeah, he is gone.
I do know multiple people there who expect him to go to AEW. I don’t know if he does or he doesn’t. He’s 41-years-old. I don’t know. Some people they take, some people they don’t.”
A special edition of AEW Dynamite: Title Tuesday will go head-to-head with WWE’s NXT vs. TNA Showdown tonight. Santos is free to appear in AEW as soon as tonight if he got signed by Tony Khan. Below is the card:
– AEW World Champion “Hangman” Adam Page and AEW Trios Champion Samoa Joe will come face-to-face
– Pac vs. Orange Cassidy
– Jon Moxley vs. Tomohiro Ishii
– The Hurt Syndicate vs. The Demand in a Street Fight
– Mercedes Mone will defend the TBS Women’s Championship
– Kyle Fletcher (c) vs. Kyle O’Reilly for the TNT Championship
– Brodido (Brody King and ROH World Champion Bandido) (c) vs. AEW Unified Champion Kazuchika Okada and Konosuke Takeshita in a Double Jeopardy Elimination Match
If either Brody or Bandido scores a pin, they challenge for Okada’s Unified Title. If The Don Callis Family win, they get a Tag Title shot.
– Jurassic Express will be in action for the first time since 2022
Also Read: 2 WWE Hall Of Famers Will Appear At NXT vs. TNA Showdown Tonight
