Carlito opens up about his return to WWE.
At WWE’s Fastlane Premium Live Event, it was advertised that Bobby Lashley and The Streets Profits (Montez Ford & Angelo Dawkins) would be taking on Santos Escobar, United States Champion Rey Mysterio and a partner who Mysterio made a phone call to.
When Escobar was down on the floor, Mysterio was making his way over to the corner but no one was there and then out came Carlito. He secured the victory for his team. After his return, Carlito was officially added to the SmackDown roster.
The Ringer Wrestling Show’s Cheap Heat podcast invited Carlito onto the show and he spoke about his time away from the company over the years. He thinks both sides thought there was heat between them. Carlito expressed that he was never the type to go backstage and try to be too close to everyone because it comes off as if one is looking for a job.
He added that when there was communication, he got the feeling that they felt he was anti-WWE. He’s glad they were able to finally sit down and hash everything out.
I just had this feeling that I would be back (in WWE) somehow. I don’t know how. The reason I think it took so long, I think there was miscommunication between both sides. I thought I had heat with them, they thought they had heat with me and there was just days we didn’t communicate. Sometimes, time goes by and you see things a different way and like I said, I always had love for WWE, I always wanted to be in WWE. It’s just, I needed a break. I didn’t need a 13-year break, but, because even when they would talk to me, they were kind of hesitant. They thought I was anti-WWE, you know what I mean? I’m like, no, it’s not that. I don’t do the go backstage and say hi to everyone… It looks like you’re looking for a job so I don’t do that, you know what I mean? My résumé is out there… I don’t wanna be anywhere where they don’t want me. So I was like, my résumé’s out there. If you want me, I’m here but, so I think they took that kind of just as he wants nothing to do with us so, I’m glad that we were finally able to sit down and air everything (out) and show there’s love on both sides I think.
Circling back to Fastlane, when Carlito made his way to the ring, he had a new theme song. He shared that WWE approached him about having a new theme. He initially was not a fan of it, but hopes it could be something that grows on people. He was involved in the process of creating the new theme.
You mean the intro? It’s a little different. I wanted to do something a little different, you know what I mean? It’s been so much time, you know, you gotta change with the time a little bit so I wanted to kind of keep the cool going but just show up with something new. From what I heard, people weren’t crazy about the new theme song yet but I think — I wasn’t either, so maybe it’s one of those things that might grow on you later on. But, we’ll see.
They ran it by me. They wanted to change it. I wasn’t crazy about changing it. I, like everyone else, wanted to keep it. I liked it the way it was but, they said, ‘We wanna change it.’ ‘Alright, let’s see what we can do’ and they asked me for my input here and there… ‘It could use a little bit more bass here, more drums,’ little things like that and then the lines, I wanted to change them. I didn’t want the old lines from before. Like I said, I wasn’t crazy about it, but also, it was like one of those earworms where I’d be humming it to myself during the day, you know? Because they said, ‘You listened to it 1,000 times’ and then I’d find myself just humming it here without even noticing so, it grew on me a little bit so maybe, hopefully — I know people don’t like change. I’m that guy too. I’m not crazy about change but, I think it’s something that needed to be done and just to, you know, put a fresh coat of paint on everything.
Carlito has not wrestled in a singles match for WWE since 2010. He thinks there will be a ‘little bit’ of nerves when it comes time to have his first televised singles match since coming back to the company.
Probably a little bit (of nerves will be there when I have my first singles match back in WWE). I assume yeah. It’s the first match in… my first singles since, my God, who knows how many? 13 (years) at least. A little pressure. I wanna do good for a first match, but I’m gonna pace myself. I don’t wanna come out the gate trying every trick I got just to prove I still got it so I just — I think it’ll be more or less contained, but, it’ll be a little bit of nerves.
On the 10/13 Friday Night SmackDown, Carlito’s backstage segment was interrupted by Bobby Lashley. Carlito suggested that they have a match, but he was ambushed from behind by The Street Profits.
The 10/20 SmackDown will feature Santos Escobar versus Montez Ford. Carlito and Rey Mysterio will be in Escobar’s corner.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit the Cheap Heat podcast with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
