Welcome to another edition of WWE Heat Index, where one of the biggest stories from the past week is examined under a microscope and picked apart for analytical purposes.
While the two main focal points of WWE television this week were the build to Great Balls of Fire and the return of John Cena, another story that needs some attention is the situation with The Colóns and their possible exit from WWE.
Of course, nothing has been clarified about the issue, leaving nearly all points of view to be birthed out of speculation and conjecture, but that’s what we typically do until more information comes out, so keep this all in mind.
This all started when Epico—real name Orlando Colón—popped up on the merchandise site Pro Wrestling Tees with two designs for himself.
As he is under contract with WWE, the standard operating procedure is that nobody is allowed to sell merchandise outside of WWE since, obviously, WWE would want to be receiving those profits.
This kicked off rumblings that The Colóns had requested their release from WWE, which they were not granted, causing them to be in a sort of limbo period between being free from their contracts and still needing to follow the rules.
However, as of the writing of this article, Epico’s t-shirt designs are still posted on Pro Wrestling Tees, along with a description that specifically names him as “currently performing in WWE as Epico” and pointing to his Twitter handle, which hasn’t changed from @WWEEpico.
Typically speaking, none of this makes sense.
If he is under contract with WWE, he shouldn’t be able to sell merchandise, and it definitely would have been taken down by now as a copyright problem.
If he isn’t under contract with WWE, why is he able to advertise himself as a current performer and why is WWE still putting him to use?
To make things even more confusing, while we’ve seen Epico perform at house shows and on this week’s episode of SmackDown Live in the Independence Day Battle Royal, Primo, has been absent.
If this were the other way around and Primo were wrestling but Epico was missing in action, it would add up a bit more. Then, at least we could surmise that Primo was still employed, but Epico was on his way out.
In due time, there should be more information clearing up the confusion about all this, but another question needs to be asked: If The Colóns do leave WWE, does it even matter?
Primo made his main roster debut on August 18, 2008, where he started off with a gimmick of disliking his brother Carlito. Very quickly afterwards, the gears switched, and he teamed up with Carlito, and soon enough, the two would become tag team champions on two occasions.
The duo saw success for quite some time before inevitably splitting as Carlito was released.
On November 4, 2011, Epico made his debut to start teaming with Primo, and the two have been inseparable ever since. They, too, became tag team champions, but only once, in January of 2012 when they defeated Air Boom—the makeshift team of Evan Bourne and Kofi Kingston.
With Rosa Mendes by their side, they held the titles until Kofi Kingston found a new partner in R-Truth, forming R-Boom, as ridiculous as that sounds.
Never again would Primo and Epico be able to reach the zenith of the tag team division with or without a brand split making it easier to accomplish that goal and over the course of the next five years, they would struggle even to be featured on television.
To change things up, they were repackaged as Los Matadores. For a few weeks leading up to their re-debut, people seemed to care, but that quickly changed and they were overshadowed by their mascot, El Torito.
Now known as Diego and Fernando, they would perpetually lose matches unless they were against another jobber team like 3MB—and even then, as well. A heel turn with a split seemed to be in the cards, but nothing happened, and they went away for a while once again.
This time, they would return as The Shining Stars, where their big change in gimmick that would save their careers was to hand out pamphlets about how people should visit Puerto Rico. The whole idea was awful and never resonated with seemingly any audience in either a serious or joking manner, so they were right back in the jobber position again.
Then, after the Superstar Shake-Up, we would see a darker and more serious side to the two as they would go back to using the generic name The Colóns, attacking American Alpha to start a feud that...went nowhere.
Weeks have gone by, and the most they’ve accomplished has been a random tag team match here and there against The Fashion Police or The Hype Bros, which is hardly demonstrative of changes for the better.
Over the course of nearly a decade for Primo and just over half of one for Epico, they’ve consistently been in the bottom section of the totem pole as far as WWE’s hierarchy of importance goes and nothing they’ve done as babyfaces or heels, comedic or serious, has truly changed that.
The only thing that would probably save them from continuing down this path would be the return of Carlito, which has always seemed to be a possibility, yet has never come to fruition. There’s no indication that he is actually coming back to WWE as he is still part of his father’s World Wrestling Council promotion and even appeared on two episodes of the Netflix GLOW series.
There’s a chance both Epico and Primo stay in WWE, and these rumours of their release are coming from nowhere or are being exaggerated, but if they do end up leaving, it’s doubtful it will cause a fuss.
Sure, SmackDown would be losing another tag team, and it seems as though The Hype Bros will be splitting up as well, but we all knew from experience that during a brand split, WWE tends to kill off tag teams and destroy those divisions. It’s been a year. It’s time for them to go back to making the same mistakes they did before without learning from them, right?
Primo and Epico going to any company, whether it be WWC, Global Force Wrestling, New Japan Pro Wrestling or Ring of Honor won’t hurt WWE in the slightest bit. If fans cared enough to follow them over to those companies, they’d have been tuning in to watch their matches on Raw and SmackDown—or, more accurately, Main Event—but they didn’t.
In the coming weeks, we should see a formal release for one or both of The Colóns and some more details on how this whole thing went down, or we will see the two continue to wrestle as if nothing happened, which would indicate that this was all a bunch of scuttlebutt that meant nothing.
Either way, it’s doubtful this is going to end with some kind of career resurgence for The Colóns, as that’s been tried numerous times in the past and amounted to nothing.
The only question is whether the fans would rather see them keep doing what they’re doing in WWE, losing most matches and rarely making appearances, or if it’s time for a mercy release to see what they can do elsewhere.
Which option would you rather see happen? Are you fond of The Colóns and wish to see them succeed or do you not care one way or the other? Tell us your thoughts in the comments section below!
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