When news broke that Penta was leaving his Lucha Bro behind in AEW purgatory to debut in WWE solo, fans had pretty high expectations for the pride of Mexico City. Soon, fans of the biggest wrestling promotion in the world would get to see one of the greatest luchadors in the business perform against some of the top stars in the industry.
And yet, right from the jump, it became rather apparent that Penta maybe wasn't as big of a priority as some fans thought he was going to be.
First, Penta was going to debut alongside Rey Mysterio in a tag team match on RAW‘s debut on Netflix, before the match was pulled from the card via a hasty promo segment on the show. Then Penta was all but announced as Chad Gable's mystery opponent on Netflix RAW Round 2, with his new logo shard on the show for eagled-eyed fans to appreciate.
But then, multiple hours before the show even broadcast on the air, it happened: WWEShop shared a social media post informing fans that Penta merch was available online on their official website, showing his official rendering, his mask, and two different shirt designs for fans to check out before the show.
Come on, couldn't they just wait a few hours?
Now again, Penta's debut was anything but surprising; it's been very well choreographed by the promotion both officially and unofficially that the former Pentagon Jr. was coming to WWE, and in the end, only uber online fans will even see the post.
With that being said, there are some question marks about his debut that fans were excited to see play out live on television, like which name he would use in the promotion, if his mask would change from what he used in AEW, and whether or not he was going to have a manager to translate for him. Granted, some of those questions remain, as the merch ads didn't mention a manager or whether or not he would still be allowed to hit Canadian Destroyers like they were going out of business, but still, why not wait to share this post until after the match, instead of some eight hours before the match?
Who knows, maybe Penta will dazzle fans, become an instant crowd favorite, and turn into the new masked luchador star WWE has been looking to cultivate since Mysterio started to slow down a decade ago. But having his debut moved back, his official image leaked, and his merch casually put on sale hours before his match really doesn't bode well for becoming a future WrestleMania main eventer, as no one said a word about Cody Rhodes or CM Punk's returns before they officially landed on television, even if they too could have sold some shirts hours before the PLEs officially went live if the promotion wanted to.