Santos Escobar was one of two dozen talents released by WWE this past Friday night , which capped off a tumultuous time in his professional wrestling career.

The former NXT Cruiserweight Champion saw his contract with WWE expire last summer, only for him to be re-signed to a reported big-money deal several hours later. That came amid rumored interest from rival All Elite Wrestling.

The financials of his agreement were said to be significant enough that it would be unreasonable to keep him on the sidelines, according to Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful Select , but that's exactly what ended up happening.

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Escobar never made a main roster appearance under the new contract, but Ross Sapp has now learned more about the open negotiation period that ultimately saw him return to WWE.

"Sources familiar with the situation said that CMLL actually expected him to join the company around that time, and naturally he would have ended up likely making AEW appearances," Ross Sapp said…