5 things learned from former WWE Superstar Epico's Sportskeeda interview

#2 Pitching to bring Carlito back to WWE and canceled plans to be the 'Puerto Rican Playboys'

Primo and Epico were repackaged as The Shining Stars on WWE television, urging Superstars to purchase timeshares in Puerto Rico

Primo and Epico had several WWE gimmicks during their careers. After being a bullfighting tag team known as Los Matadores for several years, the tag team was repackaged in 2016 as Puerto Rican timeshare salesmen, known as The Shining Stars.

The #ShiningStars are sending the #DudleyBoyz economy class to Puerto Rico!! #RAW pic.twitter.com/R8kqRPKILT

— WWE (@WWE) August 23, 2016

However, Epico revealed that Primo and himself had initially pitched a completely different gimmick to WWE, which involved the return of Carlito to WWE. But, the idea ultimately fell through when a return between Carlito and WWE could not be worked out:

"The gimmick was what it was. If i told you the gimmick that we were really going to debut. We pitched this idea to bring Carlito back, as good old Carlito. We pitched some vignettes for him where we show him in a yought in Miami. Where it doesnt show it's him, you just see girls in the yought and talking to this one dude with an apple and then you would be like "oh who the hell is that," and then you see me and Primo talking to somebody [and] you just see his hands, no apple. Then at the same time at RAW and SmackDown, you start seeing people laid out in the back and then security cam[era] footage would show guys in hoodies just walking out, you don't even show us beating them just as the damage was already done. Then you start putting two and two together, then we go to a club [and] have a meeting with him and we had some cool stuff and Vince was liking it. So, [we] were like "let's call Carlito." We started that process and it never happened. I don't know [why], something with money. It was a big miscommunication there. So i don't know what happened."

After the gimmick with Carlito fell through, Epico revealed another gimmick that was pitched to both Primo and himself by WWE officials. Shockingly, it involved the tag team being repackaged into a team known as the 'Puerto Rican Playboys.' The gimmick involved them being the "Puerto Rican version of Hugh Hefner" in WWE, wearing gold robes and singlets:

"We're going to go forward with you two. We're like, "Alright, what's the plan?" "Urgh, we'll get back at you." Then, the gear lady then calls me [and says] "hey you need to come over, we need to measure you for some gear." Then, when i see the gear, it was gold tights with a singlet and a Hugh Hefner robe [which was] gold and black. I go, "What the hell is this for?" and they go "can you guys order gold boots?" and then the following week they go "yeah you guys are going to be called the 'Peurto Rican Playboys', you're going to be the Puerto Rican version of Hugh Hefner. We were like, "Are you serious? You sure you want to do this?" We took some pictures, and Primo said "man, this is brutal".

Fortunately for both Epico and Primo, WWE Chairman Vince McMahon canceled the idea as he was not a fan of the new gimmick:

"Luckily Vince didn't like it at the end. The day we were going to debut it, he was like, "Ah, come back to me next week, we'll do something different"