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Carlito ‘wasn’t too surprised or too shocked’ by WWE exit

Posted: Jun 17th 2025 By: Joseph Currier

During a Monday appearance on Busted Open Radio, Carlito addressed his departure from WWE.

Carlito was informed on June 1 that his WWE contract would not be renewed. He is now officially a free agent with the deal having expired last weekend. Looking back on the past couple of years, Carlito said his WWE run went better than he thought it would. He wasn’t surprised that WWE made the decision to let him go, but he wishes they would have allowed him to finish up his storyline with The Judgment Day first. Carlito thinks it’s disrespectful to the fans when things like that get dropped with no conclusion.

“I wasn’t too surprised or too shocked,” Carlito said about his departure. “I signed for two years, and it actually went better than I thought it would go. The only thing is, I’m a professional, you know what I mean? They could have told me and I would have, you know, ‘Ok, at least let me finish up the story for The Judgment Day, so they can keep on going.’ I think it’s a disrespect to the fans that they just dropped the storylines.”

On the same day that Carlito was informed of his exit, R-Truth was also told that his deal was not being renewed. But after an outcry by fans and other wrestlers on the roster, Truth has since been brought back to WWE and is now going by his real name with a repackaged character.

Carlito told Busted Open Radio that he felt worse about Truth being let go than his own departure.

“But, honestly, I just felt worse for Truth. I mean, if it wasn’t a work, I felt worse for Truth,” Carlito said. “There’s certain guys that I think they should have a proper sendoff. Sure, everybody’s time comes, right? You can’t keep everybody forever, but at least some deserve a proper sendoff. So I was glad to see things work out for him.”

Carlito said it doesn’t bother him that news of his departure did not receive the same backlash that Truth’s did. He’s just happy that people spoke out in support of Truth.

This was Carlito’s second stint with WWE after originally being with the company from 2003-2010. He told Busted Open Radio that WWE was a much happier environment this time around. Carlito believes Paul “Triple H” Levesque has done a good job cleaning up the “old school bullsh*t” that used to exist. And Carlito thinks the existence of AEW has led to WWE treating talent better because they’re not the only game in town anymore.

“I don’t mean to knock on Vince [McMahon], but, you know, he seemed to have his certain things you have to do this way and the next day it changed, whatever, you know, certain rules, just stupidity. They liked people walking around on eggshells,” he said. “Because it was the only game in town and they liked the boys knowing that, you know what I mean? I think now that with AEW being around too, it’s helped. They cant — they know they can’t bully because there’s other places for people to go. That’s added to it.

“But I think Hunter’s done a good job too of just cleaning all that crap out. Plus, it’s just a new generation, you just can’t get away with certain things you could before, you know what I mean? And I just like that a bunch of that BS is gone now. People just go there, show up, and do their work.”

Carlito noted that, while he thinks Levesque likes him personally, he does not believe Levesque is a fan of the Carlito character. Going into this second run with WWE, Carlito (46) knew he was not going to be a priority because of his age. Despite that, he was able to work his comedy into Judgment Day and had the freedom to come up with ideas.

Being part of Judgment Day was a great experience for Carlito, and he is not worried about the future of the faction now that he is gone from WWE. Finn Balor, Dominik Mysterio, JD McDonagh, Liv Morgan & Raquel Rodriguez are the remaining members.

“I think all those kids are great talents and they know what they’re doing,” Carlito said. “They helped me a lot too, you know what I mean? But I think every one of that group is talented. So I think they’ll be just fine. It’ll be a different dynamic, of course, but it’ll go on.”