5 things learned from former WWE Superstar Epico's Sportskeeda interview
Former WWE Superstar Epico had a lengthy run with WWE. Debuting in 2010, Epico's WWE career lasted 10 years before he was released by the promotion in 2020.
For the majority of his career, Epico teamed up with his cousin Primo in a variety of gimmicks. Such gimmicks included Puerto Rican timeshare salesmen, bullfighters and much more. Epico is a former WWE Tag Team Champion, winning the titles with his cousin in 2012.
Epico recently sat down with Sportskeeda's Dr. Chris Featherstone for another episode of UnSKripted to discuss a variety of topics in the world of professional wrestling.
Let's take a closer look at 5 things we learned from Epico Sportskeeda interview.
#5 The story behind how the Los Matadores gimmick was created in WWE
One of Primo and Epico's most famous gimmicks during their run in WWE was as Los Matadores. Primo and Epico would be rebranded as Diego and Fernando, portraying bullfighters. The team would also have a mascot, dressed as a bull, known as El Torito.
When asked about the origins of the Los Matadores gimmick, Epico revealed that it was originally their idea, but it turned out to be something very, very different:
"The matador gimmick was actually, it was kind of our idea. The original idea was for us to put some masks on. We wanted to replicate the Conquistadores, from the 90s, Edge and Christian and before them Estrada and Jose Luis Rivera, two fellow Puerto Ricans. So, we wanted to do something like that, similar. So we could wrestle with Sin Cara and Rey Mysterio, who at the time weren't doing much. So one day at TV we were talking and we asked Rey and Sin Cara "hey man, would you guys like to do a program with us man, and maybe do a mask vs mask match where obviously you would win and then down the road, everyone knows it's Primo & Epico, then we put our hair on the line and you guys can shave our head." They liked the idea, i liked it because it doesn't matter who wins or loses, it's how you perform, how you get it over. It would give us good exposure, a couple of pay per view matches to get our stock up again. "
Despite initially pitching to be masked heels, Epico and Primo were told that plans had changed. Instead of heels, WWE had decided they were now going to be babyfaces with a mascot, which was to be a little bull:
"When we took this to Vince, we went directly to the head, we went directly to Vince, he was always good to us and respected us, gave us the time when we knocked on his door. He loved the idea, he loved the concept, he wanted to go for it, we even flew on the private jet just to meet with him. Me, Primo and Torito. But then, plans changed instead of being heels, they told us we were going to be babyfaces and we were going to have a mascot. A little bull. So, we were like, "Ah, there goes that ok, i see it's not looking well"