Former WWE Star Epico Explains Why Carlito Never Returned to WWE

Between the multi-episode documentary, MVP's return to Raw, Edge's return from injury and WrestleMania's best matches involving John Cena and The Undertaker, the Ruthless Aggression era has made somewhat of a comeback on WWE television in recent months. However there's one promising star from that time period who hasn't made any sort of WWE return since he was released back in 2010 — Carlito Colon. The former United States, Intercontinental and tag team champion showed a lot of promise when he first arrived on SmackDown to feud with a young John Cena, but as the years went by he was consistently pushed further and further down the card.

However in a new interview with Super Luchas (in Spanish), Epico Colon revealed that he and Primo Colon managed to convince Vince McMahon to give Carlito another shot.

"We talked with Vince [McMahon], and Michael Hayes was behind us and gave Vince the OK signal - sounds good, sounds great," Epico said [h/t Wrestling Inc for transcript]. "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 continued. "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 explained in a separate interview with Wrestling Inc. that he and WWE were in talks for a return back in 2015, but couldn't agree on money. Primo and Epico were both released from WWE in mid-April as two of the 30+ active wrestlers to let go over the span of four days.