"Chris came in and he broke the window and pulled her out the window," said Frances Savarino, a neighbor who watched Masters grow up in Los Angeles.
Savarino says she called the wrestler on the phone after hearing a commotion between his mother and neighbor Daniel Esquivel. She says Masters arrived 10 minutes later, but Esquivel had barricaded himself inside Masters' mother's home and set it on fire.
"'I am Diane's son, let me in this door,'" Masters said, recalling the scene. "And he was like, 'No, Chris, listen to me, I am her son now too, she is my mom,' and that's when the alarm went off to me."
Masters jumped into action, using a tree to break through a window and get his mother out.
"I don't know where it came out from, the ground or what, but all at once the tree came back and he was holding his mom," Savarino said.
Esquivel was arraigned in court Thursday. He pleaded not guilty to several charges, among them attempted murder and arson.
According to Savarino, the landlord had asked Esquivel to move out.
"I thank God when the police carried him out. And I said, 'Please don't ever let him come back here," she said.
