Epico Recalls Vince McMahon Wanting To Rehire Carlito, Why It Didn't Happen
It's been ten years since Carly Colon, a.k.a. Carlito, has appeared in a WWE ring. His cousin, Epico Colon, recently sat down with Anthony Pineiro of SUPER LUCHAS in an exclusive interview and discussed how Vince McMahon wanted to bring Carlito back to the WWE as part of Epico and Primo's tag team stable. What seemed like a great opportunity for him, was turned down instantly by other higher up's in the business.
"We talked with Vince [McMahon], and Michael Hayes was behind us and gave Vince the OK signal – sounds good, sounds great," Epico began. "So we (me and Primo) said, 'So, let's bring Carly (Carlito)!" But during this process, three months happens and, politically, other people of power within [the] WWE make an interference. I don't know if Carly made this person mad, but when he called Carly, he just offered him the money of a development contract. Take it or leave it! So Carlito said, 'No, I don't need the WWE, the WWE needs me.' So, we understand that there was something interfering between us and Vince because we had a great relationship with Vince.
"One day we were talking with our Director of Talent Relations [Mark Carrano]. We asked him about Carly, but he told us that Vince has not given the 'OK.' So we told him, 'Let's go talk to Vince! He's there!' [Carrano] was afraid of that, but we said to him, 'Yes! We have confidence in Vince'. So, we grabbed him by the arm and we go to Vince's office. He's on the phone and we asked him about Carlito and our director asks, "What are we doing with Carlito?" And Vince made the thumbs-up signal. Vince approved the idea, but after several weeks, we realized that Carlito's return to the company was no longer going to materialize."
Carlito recently spoke to Wrestling Inc. President Raj Giri and admitted that he had talks with WWE, however the two sides could not agree on financial terms.
"We spoke a few years back," Carlito said back in March. "The last time we spoke was maybe 2015 but we couldn't come to terms with money. At least they didn't accept my offer on money."
Both Epico and Primo's time in the WWE were cut short too, after they both were released last month, due to budget cuts.
You can view Epico Colón's full interview above. If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit SUPER LUCHAS with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
William Beltran contributed to this article.