Carlito officially returned to WWE this past weekend at Fastlane. When he did, it was surprising not to hear his old entrance music. The intro “I spit in people’s faces who don’t want to be cool” was gone and replaced with “You know what’s cool?” Since I am”. The Caribbean-sounding beat is also a little different.
In an interview with The Ringer Wrestling Show’s Cheap Heat, Carlito explained the process behind the WWE-driven change. And if you’re not a fan of the new song, he says he wasn’t either… but it might just captivate you as it did him:
“It’s a little different. I wanted to do something different, you know what I mean? So much time has passed, you know, you have to change a little with the times, so I wanted to kind of stay cool but just come up with something new. From what I’ve heard, people weren’t excited about the new theme song yet, but I don’t think I was either, so maybe it’s one of those things that comes to mind later. But we will see.
“They ran it from me. They wanted to change it. I wasn’t crazy about changing it. Like everyone else, I wanted to keep it. I liked it the way it was, but they said, “We want to change it.” “Okay, let’s see what we can do,” and they asked me for my input here and there… “It could use a little more bass here “, more drums”, little things like that and then the lines, I wanted to change them. I didn’t want the old lines from before. Like I said, I wasn’t crazy about it, but it was also like one of those catchy tunes where I found myself humming it during the day, you know? Because they said, “You’ve listened to it 1,000 times” and then I was just humming it here without even realizing it, it grew on me a little bit, so maybe, hopefully – I know people don’t like change . I’m that guy too. I’m not crazy about change, but I think it’s something that needs to be done, just to, you know, give everything a fresh coat of paint.”
Elsewhere in the interview, he explained why it took so long for his new contract to finalize, despite his appearances at Royal Rumble ’21 and Fastlane in Puerto Rico earlier this year:
“The reason it took so long, in my opinion, is because of the miscommunication between both sides. I thought I had heat for them, they thought they had heat for me, and there were just days where we didn’t communicate. Sometimes time passes and you see things from a different perspective and like I said, I’ve always had a love for WWE, I’ve always wanted to be in WWE. It’s just that I needed a break. I didn’t need a 13-year break, but even when they talked to me, they were a little hesitant. They thought I was anti-WWE, you know what I mean? I think, no, it’s not that. I don’t go backstage and greet everyone… It looks like you’re looking for a job, so I won’t do that, you know what I mean? My resume is out there…I don’t want to be anywhere they don’t want me. So I thought, my resume is out there. If you want me, I’m here, but I think they kind of put up with it because he doesn’t want anything to do with us. That’s why I’m glad we were finally able to sit down and air it all out and show it. I think there’s love on both sides.”
With those misunderstandings cleared up, it looks like Carlito will continue to work with Bobby Lashley & Street Profits after the group attacked him during his interview on SmackDown last night (October 13). He and Rey Mysterio will be in Santos Escobar’s corner during Escobar’s match against Montez Ford of the Profits next Friday.
This should give us enough time to get used to the new entrance.
H/t Post Wrestling for the podcast transcription
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