Two WWE Legends Return At Backlash, Join LWO

Puerto Rican superstars make surprise splashes in front of hometown fans.

by Scott Carlson
Carlito WWE
WWE.com

WWE's first PPV/PLE in Puerto Rico in nearly 20 years had some heavy local flavor, with Zelina Vega fighting for the SmackDown Women's Championship, and Bad Bunny and fellow Puerto Ricans Damian Priest battling each other in a San Juan Street Fight.

But it was during that street fight that WWE leaned all the way into their surroundings, bringing two former superstars who were born in Puerto Rico back to the company at Backlash.

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During the street fight, the Judgment Day ran down to interfere on Priest's behalf, only for Rey Mysterio to intercede. But he was outnumbered... until Carlito made his return sporting an LWO T-shirt, taking out Finn Balor and Dominik Mysterio and chasing them off alongside Rey.

As Finn and Dom retreated, they found themselves face-to-face with Savio Vega, who brought the rest of the LWO out for a 6-on-2 beatdown. Vega himself got involved, striking and kicking both men as they fled to the back. The entire LWO would return to ringside after the match to celebrate with Bad Bunny, as the group has nearly doubled in the past two days. (It's pretty clear that Vega, Carlito and Bunny will be more like honorary members who are part of the group when they show up, not fulltime stable members.)

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Vega was released from WWE in 1999, while Carlito was released in 2010. Carlito returned in the 2021 Royal Rumble and competed on Raw the following night, but hadn't been seen since.

Contributor
Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.