Carlito (wrestler)
| Carlos Colón, Jr. | |
|---|---|
| File:CarlitoPortrait2.jpg | |
| Born | February 21, 1979 Santurce, Puerto Rico |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | Carly Colon Carlos Colon, Jr. Carlos Colone Carly Columbus Carlito Caribbean Cool Bando "Caribbean Cool" Carlito Carlito |
| Billed height | 5 ft 10 in (178 cm) |
| Billed weight | 235 lb (107 kg) |
| Billed from | The Caribbean |
| Trained by | Carlos Colon, Sr. Ohio Valley Wrestling |
| Debut | 1999 |
Carlos Colón, Jr. (born February 21, 1979) better known as Carly Colon or by his stage name Carlito, is a professional wrestler performing for World Wrestling Entertainment on the RAW brand, as well as the World Wrestling Council. As Carlito, his gimmick involves him, when faced with someone he deemed "not cool", taking a large bite out of an apple, chewing it and then spitting it into their face - similar to a previous WWE character, Razor Ramon. He also frequently uses underhanded heel tactics to win matches, including his matches where he won his first Intercontinental and United States Championships.
After winning the WWE United States Championship in his first televised match, he became one of a few WWE wrestlers who have won a major championship belt on their debut in World Wrestling Entertainment.
Carlito is the son of Puerto Rican legend Carlos Colon, the brother of fellow professional wrestler Eddie Colon and brother of Stacy Colon who has teamed up with Carlito in a few wrestling matches in the WWC. He is also cousins with Orlando Colon, an upcoming independent pro wrestler.
Career
World Wrestling Council
Carly Colon continues to compete in Puerto Rico's World Wrestling Council, where he is currently holding a feud with his brother, Eddy Colon. Using his WWE "Caribbean Cool" gimmick, Carlito has become a much hated heel at WWC, especially after spitting in the face of his own father, Puerto Rican legend Carlos Colon, on the "Llamado de la sangre" event November, 2004 at Caguas, Puerto Rico.
On March 26, 2005, Carlito made his return to the ring (after a forced recess due to a shoulder injury) in a match against his brother in Caguas.
"Rowdy" Roddy Piper defeated Carlito Caribbean Cool on May 20, 2005, at the Friday Madness event, held at the Ruben Rodriguez Colisseum in Bayamon, Puerto Rico. The match was inspired by the events that took place at Wrestlemania 21, when Carlito attacked Piper on the Piper's Pit segment.
Ohio Valley Wrestling
In June of 2003 Carly Colon signed a developmental contract with WWE and was assigned to Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW), WWE's training territory. In OVW, he was briefly managed by Kenny Bolin.
On December 15, Carly was placed in a special dark match before RAW where he teamed with Brent Dail to face Bart Gunn and Jim Steele.
During his time in OVW, Carly Colon was still wrestling in WWC. In April of 2004, WWE prevented a scheduled match between him and TNA's Abyss, which would have taken place in Puerto Rico.
World Wrestling Entertainment
On October 7, 2004 Colon made his debut on SmackDown! as Carlito Caribbean Cool and defeated John Cena to capture the WWE United States Championship.
Carlito would later team up with Kurt Angle, Luther Reigns, and Mark Jindrak to face Eddie Guerrero, Rob Van Dam, The Big Show, and John Cena for Survivor Series 2004 in an eight-man elimination tag-team match, but when John Cena made his way into the ring, Carlito ran and drove away with his associate, Jesús after John Cena tried to attack him.
SmackDown! General Manager Theodore Long, forced Carlito to defend the WWE United States Championship with an injured shoulder and he lost the title in a match with John Cena. His bodyguard and "associo", Jesús, later attacked John Cena in the kidneys, causing Cena to be absent from SmackDown! for a while. In reality, he was filming a movie produced by WWE Films called "The Marine".
The major feud that Carlito had with Cena for the WWE United States Championship was back-tracked since Carlito separated his shoulder and was scheduled to be out of action four to six weeks.
On the final SmackDown! of 2004, he stated that his new year's resolution for 2005 was to remove Theodore Long as general manager of SmackDown! Carlito created a petition with signatures collected from WWE superstars, referees and the fans to show to the board of directors of World Wrestling Entertainment. Prior to 2005's Royal Rumble the directors decided to retain Theodore Long as General Manager of SmackDown! In rebuttal, Long forced Carlito to do embarrassing things, such as shovel snow, dress up and sing as Elvis Presley and confront The Undertaker face-to-face, which resulted in a tombstone piledriver to Carlito.
Carlito had a small part in WWE's parody of Taxi Driver, promoting WrestleMania 21. When he was supposed to put his hand out, he pulled out an apple and took a bite. When the director told him to put the apple away, he spit it out and said "That's not cool."
When he returned to the active WWE roster on March 31 2005, he faced the same man with whom he feuded on his SmackDown! debut, John Cena. The match was ruled as no contest when JBL ordered some "policemen" to "arrest" John Cena for vandalizing JBL's limousine the week before.
Carlito made a high profile appearance at WrestleMania 21 on April 3, 2005, interrupting the interview segment, "Piper's Pit", between "Rowdy" Roddy Piper and Stone Cold Steve Austin. After insulting both men, Carlito attacked Piper before being pummeled by Austin and given a Stone Cold Stunner, Austin's finishing maneuver. This eventually led to a WWC match between Piper and Carlito at Friday Madness.
On the following episode of SmackDown!, Carlito told fans that what happened at WrestleMania was "not cool" and vowed to debut his own interview segment, called Carlito's Cabana, on the next SmackDown!. Carlito's Cabana debuted on the April 14, 2005 episode of SmackDown!. The ring mat was lined with carpet to represent the sand and water of a Caribbean beach. There was also a hammock, fluorescent chairs, and palm trees to complete the set, as well as baskets of his signature apples. His first guest was Rey Mysterio Jr. The interview was interrupted by MNM. Carlito made a point to establish that he thought MNM was "cool." They insulted Mysterio and eventually got into a fight with him, while Carlito stood idly by. The Cabana ended with Rey lying in the ring and Carlito biting his apple and walking out.
Carlito faced The Big Show at the SmackDown! pay-per-view, Judgment Day 2005. This feud started when Carlito offered Big Show the chance to become his bodyguard on the May 12, 2005 episode of SmackDown!. When Show refused, Carlito proceeded to retrieve an apple he had but Big Show grabbed it and bit into it. Soon after that, Show fainted and Carlito revealed that the apple had been "poisoned". Carlito instead hired Matt Morgan as a bodyguard. With the help of Morgan, Carlito defeated Show.
WWE RAW
On June 20, 2005, Carlito was the third pick for RAW in the 2005 Draft Lottery. He was immediately given a match against WWE Intercontinental Champion Shelton Benjamin in which he succeeded in winning the championship, just as he did in his debut match on SmackDown!. Carlito retained the title against Benjamin at Vengeance.
After Vengeance, Carlito continued his feud with Benjamin for the Intercontinental title in the next few weeks. Because Carlito had retained the title on several occasions by walking out of the ring and getting himself disqualified intentionally, rumors say he was scheduled to have a "No DQ", "No count out" match at Summerslam 2005. But the feud was abandoned in early August, and he started to help Jericho in his feud with Cena. Leading up to Summerslam, Carlito teamed with Chris Jericho in a handicap match against Cena and lost. He then defeated Cena next week on Raw with the help of guest referee Jericho to get the WWE Title shot in the following week. However he lost the title match to Cena even though both Jericho and Bischoff interfered.
On the August 22, 2005 edition of RAW, Carlito interviewed Ric Flair on the Cabana and Carlito spit an apple in Flair's face, enraging and starting a new feud with Flair.
On a August 26, 2005 RAW brand House Show in Puerto Rico, Carlito had his dad Carlos Colon as a guest on the Cabana and spit an apple in his face, causing Ric Flair to make the save. Flair promised Carlos that he will school Carlito when they meet again.
Carlito continued this feud with Flair by brutally assaulting Flair backstage on an edition of RAW and eventually, Flair challenged Carlito for the Intercontintental Championship. At WWE Unforgiven Carlito lost the Intercontinental Championship to Ric Flair by submission to Flair's trademark Figure-4 leglock.
Carlito lost to WWE legend Mankind at the second Taboo Tuesday event. Mankind finished Carlito off with Mr. Socko (for this match, Foley added an afro to Mr. Socko).
On November 7, 2005 he defeated Shelton Benjamin on RAW by illegal use of the ropes to represent RAW in the 5-on-5 Elimination Match on Survivor Series. At Survivor Series, Carlito was the third man eliminated on his team, getting pinned by JBL after the Clothesline From Hell. Team SmackDown! went on to win the match, with Randy Orton as the sole survivor.
On the December 12th, 2005 edition of RAW, Carlito defeated Shelton Benjamin to win a spot in the Elimination Chamber main event at New Year's Revolution for the WWE Championship - his first elimination chamber match. The announcers played up Carlito's multiple victories over Benjamin in high stakes matches. After Benjamin hit his T-Bone suplex on Carlito, he went to grab Carlito's apple. He took a bite to spit in Carlito's face, but was quickly rolled up by Carlito for the win. At Raw's Tribute to the Troops in Afganistan on December 19th 2005, Carlito lost to the Big Show.
On the December 26th, 2005 edition of RAW, Carlito beat Victoria in a Beat the Clock match, which would determine who entered the chamber last at New Year's Revolution on Sunday, January 8th, 2006. The opponents for these matches were chosen randomly. Carlito won with a time of 2 minutes 36 seconds following a Rolling Cutter after Victoria hit him with low blow and Candice Michelle's 'magic wand' on the left knee in an attempt to win the match. This is the first time Carlito has won a match with this new finisher move.
On January 8th Carlito was the last person to be pinned in the Elimination Chamber seconds after eliminating Chris Masters. Then the next day on Raw he was teamed with Masters (whom he "doublecrossed" in the Elimination Chamber after they agreed to work together) against Shawn Michaels and Kurt Angle (who have a long rivalry). Angle and Michaels eventually fueded with each other leading to Angle passing out to the Master Lock.
Finishing and signature moves
- Modified Swinging Neckbreaker (Rolling Cutter)
- Cool-Breaker (Overdrive)
- DDT
- Figure-four leg lock
- Spinebuster
- Lifting reverse STO
- Cool Cracker
Personal information
- "The reason Carlito is so fluent in the English language is because his mother is Canadian. Carlos wrestled in several Canadian territories early in his career and they grew up speaking English at home." (quote by Dave Meltzer in the July 18, 2005 Issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter).
- Carlito didn't always have the afro. He has been seen with cornrows and a shaved head during his early years.
- Is of African and Canadian decent.
- He has good relationships with his collegues backstage.
Championships and accomplishments
- 1-Time WWE Intercontinental Champion
- 1-Time WWE United States Champion
- 10-Time WWC Universal Heavyweight Champion
- 2-Time WWC World Tag-Team Champion (with Eddie Colon then with Konnan)
See also
External links and references
