Wilde then expressed interest in a singles match with L.W.O.’s Rey Mysterio.
In early 2020, both Cruz Del Toro and Joaquin Wilde were part of the NXT brand and in the span of several weeks, they were ‘abducted’ by individuals who jumped out on them from SUVs.
This led to the formation of Legado Del Fantasma with Wilde, Del Toro and Santos Escobar at the helm. Prior to this, Wilde sporadically appeared on NXT TV and he had a conversation with Performance Center trainer Terry Taylor that made him reconsider his on-screen presentation.
Wilde told Ryan Satin on the Out of Character podcast that he’s grateful to have been ‘abducted’ by Legado Del Fantasma and feels he eventually earned Terry Taylor’s approval.
My journey was very different. It was I get to WWE and they just completely change everything about me and I think for the better, you know? One crazy story that I think about all the time, I’d only be here in WWE for like a month or two so I’m super new. Terry Taylor was a little intimidating to me at first just because he was like, I don’t know, people respected him. There was just a lot of respect I guess is the word that comes to mind when it came to Terry Taylor so I was a little intimidated at first and so I was like, I wanna win this guy’s approval. So we get to a show and saying my hellos to everybody. I go up to Terry, shake his hand and he shakes my hand and just kind of holds it and then he goes, ‘What’s that thing that you do?’ And I’m a little obnoxious at times so, I do it, like full commitment right in his face, ‘Ba, ba, ba, ba!’ And he doesn’t sell it at all. He’s still shaking my hand and he goes, ‘Do you think you’re gonna main event WrestleMania with that?’ And I just went (chuckled). Just start busting out laughing thinking this is a joke. He’s not laughing. He’s still shaking my hand, just glaring at me and then, he’s like, ‘I’m serious’ and I’m like, ‘Yeah, I don’t know’ and I just kind of walk away awkwardly but then it just kind of got me thinking like, yeah, is what I’m doing now going to work long-term? Is this something that is going to get me to a WrestleMania level? And yeah, at that point, I started really second-guessing myself, second-guessing what I’d done, my character and tell you what, I was so thankful when the opportunity for Legado (Del Fantasma) — I was so thankful to be kidnapped. It gave me a new energy, a second chance in all this.
The best part of it all was I feel like I eventually did win his approval. He’s a coach, a mentor, someone that I’ve learned so much about wrestling from… I noticed I’ve never gotten a picture with him in all these years so I made sure to get a picture with Terry. Thank him for all the help, all the advice he’s given me. He said he loved me and I’m just like, man, we’ve come such a long way from him glaring at me and making fun of my airhorn.
Present day, Joaquin is part of the L.W.O. and the group was spotlighted in Bad Bunny and Damian Priest’s San Juan Street Fight at Backlash in Puerto Rico.
Years ago, Wilde had the chance to share the ring with Rey Mysterio in a tag match but he is still looking to have that one-on-one with the WWE Hall of Famer.
I’ve been fortunate to wrestle with a lot of big names in wrestling. Rey Mysterio definitely one of them and I hope — yeah, we’re doing stuff with him right now on the same team but, I still want that dream match one day. Me and Rey Mysterio one-on-one because the match you’re (interviewer) talking about… I was kind of robbed of that opportunity in that high school gym. We did like two minutes of a singles match and then some heels came down, beat us up and then we did a tag team match but man, that two minutes was just a taste and I’m like, there’s more meat on this bone. We can do this again some day, do it properly.
Savio Vega was part of the San Juan Street Fight as well and he spoke about how that came to fruition.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit Out of Character with Ryan Satin with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
