Legado del Fantasma (LdF) is a professional wrestling stable performing in WWE on the SmackDown brand. The group currently consists of leader Santos Escobar, Joaquin Wilde, Cruz Del Toro & Zelina Vega. The stable is a part of the Latino World Order (LWO)
The trio of Escobar, Wilde, and Del Toro was formed in 2020 in WWE's developmental territory, NXT, when Escobar, who at the time performed under the masked persona of El Hijo del Fantasma, turned on Drake Maverick and joined forces with Wilde and Del Toro (then known as Raul Mendoza) and unmasked himself, thus changing his ring name to "Santos Escobar" and forming Legado Del Fantasma. As part of the group in NXT, Escobar was a one-time NXT Cruiserweight Champion. From August 2021 to August 2022, Elektra Lopez served as the group's manager.
On August 16, 2022, during the NXT Heatwave special, Tony D'Angelo defeated Escobar in a street fight, and per stipulation, he had to leave NXT. The following week, Escobar took the rest of the stable with him away from NXT, except Lopez, ending their tenure on the brand. Legado Del Fantasma then debuted on the main roster nearly two months later as part of SmackDown with Zelina Vega replacing Lopez as their manager. After turning face and assisting Rey Mysterio in early 2023, Mysterio brought the group into the revived LWO stable to feud with The Judgment Day.
History
Formation and Cruiserweight title reign (2020–2021) On the June 3, 2020 episode of NXT, El Hijo del Fantasma defeated Drake Maverick in the finals of a tournament to become the interim NXT Cruiserweight Champion due to outside interference by the two masked abductors who had attacked various cruiserweights. The following week, on NXT, Maverick congratulated Fantasma and demanded a title shot but then two masked men who had been attacking wrestlers randomly confronted the duo and then Fantasma turned on Maverick by attacking him and unmasked himself. He changed his name to "Santos Escobar" while the two masked men were revealed to be Joaquin Wilde and Raul Mendoza. On the night one of The Great American Bash, the trio was named "Legado del Fantasma". In their first match as a team, Legado del Fantasma defeated Maverick and Breezango in a six-man tag team match on the second night of The Great American Bash.
The group was focused on ensuring that Escobar retained the Cruiserweight Championship while Wilde and Mendoza also began competing in NXT's tag team division and 205 Live. At NXT TakeOver XXX, Wilde and Mendoza competed against Breezango (Fandango and Tyler Breeze) and the team of Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch in a triple threat match to determine the #1 contenders for the NXT Tag Team Championship. The match was won by Breezango. At the night one of Super Tuesday, Legado lost to Isaiah Scott and Breezango in a street fight when Scott pinned Escobar, leading up to a match between Escobar and Scott for Escobar's Cruiserweight Championship at NXT TakeOver 31, where Wilde and Mendoza assisted Escobar in retaining the title.
In 2021, Wilde and Mendoza entered the 2021 Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic in which they lost to the eventual winners MSK (Nash Carter and Wes Lee) in the semifinal round. They also faced MSK and Grizzled Young Veterans (James Drake and Zack Gibson) on night one of NXT TakeOver: Stand & Deliver in a match with the Tag Team titles on the line, which MSK won. On the night two of Stand & Deliver, Wilde and Mendoza assisted Escobar in defeating the reigning Cruiserweight Champion Jordan Devlin in a ladder match to become the undisputed Cruiserweight Champion. However, Escobar lost the title to Kushida on the April 13 episode of NXT. Escobar would fail to regain the title from Kushida in a two out of three falls match on the May 11 episode of NXT.