Carlito Was ‘Very Excited’ For 2021 WWE Royal Rumble Appearance

Carlito recently looked back at his appearance in the 2021 WWE Royal Rumble and how he thought it was something that “would maybe never happen.” The WWE star made his return to the company with the appearance, which opened the way for his eventual return to0 the company, on the latest WWE Retrospective video.

“Something at that time I thought would maybe never happen again,” Carlito said in the video (per Fightful). “When the situation presented itself, I was very excited to be back in a WWE ring. It was interesting, a little weird with the setup. No people. Bunch of flat screens there. Very happy to do it, just wishing that small, well it’s the biggest piece, that the crowd would [have] been there. I remember everybody talking about my physique, what does that mean, what did I look like before, was it that terrible? [laughs].”

He continued, “But it just made me laugh. You go in there, there’s a bunch of new faces. I had never met Nakamura before, it was during COVID too, so I couldn’t spit the apple on anybody. Had never met Ali, Sami Zayn, I’d never met him before. As it happens in the business, a lot of them, you know, grew up watching me, so they were kind of fans of mine from back in the day. They were more excited to meet me than I was to be there. Another guy, Elias, I’ve never been in the ring. Big E. Ziggler and Edge, the only two [people] I knew. Just seeing the reaction online and how crazy people went after seeing that, it made me happy and humbled that people still remembered me after all those years, especially after not really seeing me anywhere for so long.”

Carlito eventually made his full-time return to WWE in 2023. He is currently a member of the Judgment Day.