On the Smackdown episode in November 10 Carlito confronted Santos Escobar of causing Rey Mysterio to lose his United States Championship match against Logan Paul at Crown Jewel. After this, Escobar betrayed the LWO by assaulting Rey Mysterio and Carlito.
Following this, WWE confirmed a match between Escobar and Carlito for the Survivor Series. In today’s episode of Smackdown, Dragon Lee, a member of LWO, replaced Carlito for the match against Escobar.
Dragon Lee replaces Carlito to face Santos Escobar
On today’s episode of Smackdown, it was confirmed that Santos Escobar would appear and express his thoughts about the attack he made against Rey Mysterio. Escobar made his appearance and stated that he did not get any recognition in WWE because of Rey Mysterio. Then, Zelina Vega entered the ring and slapped Escobar.
After this, the remaining members of LWO came into the ring and confronted Escobar, stating that he crossed the line. Following this, Escobar started to attack the members of LWO, which prompted Carlito to come to the ring. Escobar said that Rey will never come back to WWE ring. Then the two started to brawl and the security came and separated two men.
Dragon Lee intervened and prevented the situation from getting worse. Then Escobar attacked Carlito from behind and Carlito got injured after the attack. Following the attack Smackdown general manager Nick Aldis said that Carlito will be replaced by Dragon Lee for the match at survivor series.
Why is Carlito not fighting Santos Escobar?
After the attack from Escobar, Carlito seemed to have a injury in his left arm. In the Back stage of Smackdown Nick Adlis said, ” He’s hurt badly. I don’t know how badly but I do know that he is not in the condition to compete in the match tomorrow. I have no choice than to postpone the match”.
This made Dragon Lee to compete in the match against Santos Escobar. Dragon Lee is set to make his PLE debut in an upcoming match, marking his first appearance in a premium live event on the main roster.
Since his debut on SmackDown, Lee has maintained an undefeated streak, with his most recent victory coming against Axiom on the November 17 episode of SmackDown.
Some WWE fans speculate that Carlito was intentionally removed from the match, considering he is wrestling his one-on-one Premium Live Event match after a decade, and WWE might want to avoid having him lose in his return match. Nonetheless, a match between Dragon Lee and Escobar would still be exciting to watch, given Lee’s undefeated status and Escobar’s high confidence in winning the match.
