Karissa Rivera, formerly known as Elektra Lopez in WWE NXT, has revealed the full story behind her planned main roster call-up with Legado Del Fantasma, which was abruptly canceled just three hours before she was scheduled to fly out for her SmackDown debut. Speaking on the “Muscle Memory” YouTube channel, Rivera detailed the confusing and disheartening experience.
She confirmed that the original plan was for the entire faction—including herself, Santos Escobar, Joaquin Wilde, and Cruz Del Toro—to move to the main roster together. “We were told, after Santos had his final match with Tony D’Angelo, we were all told as a group that we were all going up to the main roster,” she explained. “That was in, I think, like August. So for those few months, we were just waiting to get the call to find out when we were going to officially be going up and what brand we would be on.”
The call finally came in October. “We got a call on a Wednesday that all of us are going to be going up onto the SmackDown debuting that Friday,” Rivera recounted. “I got all my travel everything that Thursday, it was about three hours before my flight was taking off. I was checked in and everything.”
It was at that moment the plans suddenly changed. “And I get a phone call from somebody not going to name names, and they told me that, unfortunately, I wasn’t going to be going up with the boys,” she said. “So there was no real explanation. And it was months of me thinking I was going up with them, up into the point of literally, the flight to leave to go to the city.”
Rivera said she had to call someone else to confirm the news was real, who told her they were “in the works of canceling your flight.” Adding to the chaotic situation, the flight was apparently not canceled properly, as she stated, “The next day I got a notification to check in for my return flight. So that was a big ‘Oh.'” Legado Del Fantasma would debut on SmackDown that Friday with Zelina Vega taking her place in the group. Lopez joined the group months later.
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit Muscle Man Malcolm with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
