10 Things We Learned From Speaking To Orlando Colón
7. He Was Expecting To Be Released In 2017
While his WWE release would happen in April 2020, Orlando Colón actually expected his release to happen back in 2017 - less than a year after he and Primo were rebranded as The Shining Stars.
In the aftermath of WrestleMania 33, the contracts of the Colón cousins were due to expire, and Orlando thought that the writing was on the wall for the pair's time with the company to come to an end. Only that wasn't the case, and Epico and Primo would be offered new deals at double the money.
On expecting to be let go in 2017, Colón told us, "Our contract was going to be up that summer, so I was just, 'You know what, let's start planning for our career outside WWE, because we don't even feel that we fit in.' I talked to my wife, we had everything ready, we knew we were going to get the call to be released."
That call did indeed come, but it was a phone call that saw a bumper contract on the table.
"All of a sudden, they offered us a new three-year deal which was double the money," Orlando revealed, "I'll stay at catering for this amount of money. I'm not getting hurt, I'm not taking bumps, I'm home more often, I can give my son a really, really good education, spend time with my wife and travel."
Continuing on, Orlando said how he was "surprised that we lasted this long" and how "it's been about five years that mentally we're not even there, we're checked out."