Elektra Lopez Surprised By WWE Release, Feels She Wasn't Given A Fair Opportunity

Karissa Rivera - FKA Elektra Lopez in WWE - has admitted her surprise at being released by the company earlier this year. Lopez also noted she feels she didn't receive a fair opportunity on the main roster as the former Legado del Fantasma member wanted to do more beyond being a manager.

"I was super surprised because I was just on TV that Friday. It was out of nowhere. I was at TV on Friday and we had just gotten assigned a new writer. I was super excited. I had been pitching ideas for months. I was saying I wanted to be on live events and wanted to work with girls because I want to wrestle. I don't want to just manage. I don't mind managing, but I want to be able to do both because of how it was when I was in NXT, I was mostly managing them and I wanted it to be different because I wanted to wrestle. I can wrestle and when I tried out, I tried out as a wrestler, not as a manager. I can do both and have no problem doing that, but I also wanted to build a name for myself, not just be in the shadows of the boys," Rivera said on the Fan's View podcast.

"I was on TV that Friday. People were getting released while we were at work. 'Oh sh*t, maybe I dodged this bullet this round.' I get home and it was maybe 2:30 in the afternoon and I get a call, and they told me the news. No reason given. Nothing," she continued.

"Again, I'm not saying anything bad about anybody, I don't want that to be misconstrued, but I had worked so hard for this and I feel like I wasn't given a fair opportunity. If I were given an opportunity and I failed, I can understand it, but you didn't really give me an opportunity to show you what I can do when I'm more than just a manager. You brought me up to be in the role and put me in a box and then you cut me because it didn't work out. You didn't let me open that box and show you what I can do. I was very surprised. Got no explanation as to what the reason was. I was very shocked. It was a year to the day that I had gotten called up to the main roster."

Elektra Lopez was signed to WWE from 2021 until her release in February 2025, primarily appearing on TV as the manager of Legado Del Fantasma. Lopez did have 26 televised matches across NXT, NXT Level Up, and WWE Main Event in between her stints managing Legado Del Fantasma, which included teaming and then feuding with Lola Vice. Lopez was seldom booked to wrestle on the main roster, though, and only had three matches on Raw or SmackDown in the year before her release.

Rivera will make her first appearance since being released by WWE at Mike Santana's Puerto Rican Weekend on Saturday, June 7. Her long-term future in pro wrestling is unclear, although Lopez was backstage at AEW Revolution earlier this year.

H/T Fightful

Cultaholic is now on WhatsApp! Follow us here. Sign up to the Cultaholic Wrestling Newsletter now.