10 Things We Learned From Speaking To Orlando Colón

7. He Was Expecting To Be Released In 2017

Epico Primo
WWE.com

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."

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.