In February, it was reported that WWE legends Demolition — Bill Eadie and Barry Darsow — had signed new legends contracts with the company.
Eadie, who portrayed Ax, and Darsow, who portrayed Smash, were a dominant tag team in WWE during the late 1980s.
Appearing on the “Wrestling Life with Beal Veal” podcast, the duo confirmed both the signing and the duration of their deals. Eadie said,
“We were contacted by a friend — actually, a few guys, like Koko B. Ware and Tito Santana — who mentioned they’d been approached and had made appearances. Then, we got a call from the office. They discussed various opportunities, including a contract that would involve appearances and action figures. Not just Demolition figures, but also characters like Repo Man, Krusher Khruschev, Masked Superstar, and The Machines. The way they pitched it, it sounded promising — and potentially very profitable. We’d be doing appearances, maybe some DVDs and other projects.”
Eadie added that some of the new action figures were announced at WrestleCon and received a strong reaction from fans. He said,
“We signed a multi-year deal — six years, I believe. Right now, we’re just waiting to see where the next five-and-a-half years take us.”
Legado Del Fantasma — consisting of Santos Escobar, Joaquin Wilde, and Raul Mendoza — was formed in 2020 in WWE’s NXT brand. The group expanded in 2021 with the addition of Elektra Lopez as their manager, solidifying their presence as a dominant faction.
In October 2022, the trio was called up to the main roster on SmackDown, but Elektra Lopez was notably absent. Instead, Zelina Vega joined the group as their new manager.
Speaking on “The Fan’s View” podcast, Lopez opened up about what happened behind the scenes. According to her, the entire group — including herself — had initially been informed they were being promoted together. They even filmed a final NXT vignette as a unit, symbolically driving off into the future. She said,
“We were all told we were going up. We filmed our last segment together, and then waited two months without any updates. Finally, we got the call — ‘You’re debuting Friday on SmackDown.’ I got my travel, my hotel — everything. I even checked in for my flight. I was about to leave for the airport when I got a call saying, ‘The guys are going up, but you’re not going with them.’ I was stunned. I had everything booked. I’d told my family. I was ready.”
The decision came as a shock not only to Lopez but also to the person who delivered the news, who she described as clearly upset. Despite being removed from NXT training for two months in anticipation of the move, she was ultimately left behind without a clear explanation. She said,
“I never got a real reason. Maybe they wanted someone different. I have a good relationship with Zelina, and I know this is a business. But the way it was handled — it felt like it could have been avoided. For a company of that size, it just didn’t make sense. When I got that call, everything I thought I had in the palm of my hand just disappeared. I stood there in shock. I broke down — any human would. And to make it worse, I still got a notification for my return flight. They hadn’t even canceled it. I told myself, ‘Alright. This happened. Now go train harder, work harder, and prove why you belong.’ And that’s exactly what I’ve done.”
(h/t – Fightful)
