10 Things We Learned From Speaking To Orlando Colón
Epico on his WWE release, Carlito's planned WWE return, being in The Ascension, and granny piss.
The date of April 15, 2020 was a grim day for the wrestling business, for that was the date on which WWE began to make a mass release of employees the like of which the industry had never before seen. And one person who found themselves amongst those releases, was Orlando Colón.
Known as Epico during his WWE tenure, Orlando's time with Vince McMahon's company saw him win the WWE Tag Team Championship alongside his real-life cousin Primo. But while that title win was clearly a career highlight, the Epico and Primo tandem was also handed some god-awful gimmicks in the shape of the bull fighting Los Matadaroes and the time share shilling Shining Stars.
Having amassed ten years in WWE, Orlando has largely remained silent since departing the company two months ago. Luckily for us, we were able to sit down and grab an hour with the current WWC Universal Heavyweight Champion to discuss a whole array of topics - from how he was able to work for WWC while under WWE contract, to the specifics of his WWE release, to being an original member of The Ascension, to plans for Carlito's big WWE return, and plenty more.
Here then, are just ten things we learned from speaking to Orlando Colón.
10. Why He Was Able To Work For WWC While Still Being Contracted To WWE
Despite departing WWE this past April as part of the company's multitude of releases, the tandem of Primo and Epico hadn't been seen on WWE TV for well over a year.
In terms of televised encounters, the Colón cousins were involved in a triple threat contest against The Bar and The Club during an August 2018 episode of SmackDown, and then Primo and Epico were part of a huge 20-team elimination match on the kick-off show for the 2018 edition of Survivor Series.
Throughout 2019 and into 2020, though, Epico was actually working for World Wrestling Council under his real name of Orlando Colón.
Bar a company with whom WWE has a working relationship with, Vince McMahon's organisation never allows contracted talent to work for other promotions. So then, why was Orlando - and also Primo, for that matter - allowed to compete for WWC while under WWE contract?
As Orlando explained to us, "That's a pretty unique thing that we had going on. It's not just me and Primo, it was also Carlito. When we signed our deal, my uncle was able to work out a handshake deal which said that if we don't have any dates that conflict with WWE's schedule, we're free to go and work for my uncle - Carlito's dad and Primo's dad - in Puerto Rico."
Orlando continued, "I mean, we weren't being used since 2018, so me and Primo said, 'Let's just got to Puerto Rico and have fun' - because we weren't doing anything at the time. We have that deal, let's take advantage of that deal."