Thanks to Mike Informer:

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05215/547745.stm

Wrestler likes being a bad apple

Wednesday, August 03, 2005

Being unpopular is a dirty job, but somebody has to do it. Pro wrestler Carlito says it might as well be him.

"I'm miles apart from the competition," he said from Mellon Arena, where he spent yesterday promoting World Wrestling Entertainment while hobbling around on a sore left leg. Carlito will play his typical villainous role when WWE broadcasts its live "Raw" show from Pittsburgh on Monday night.

His father, Carlos Colon, helped launch pro wrestling in the Caribbean. Colon promoted the shows and cast himself in main events as a humble hero.

Carlito, now 26, learned as a child how dangerous pro wrestling could be. In a Puerto Rican locker room before a show promoted by his father, wrestler Bruiser Brody was stabbed to death in July 1988. Another wrestler later was acquitted of murder in Brody's death. The case remains unsolved.

Carlito said he was not all that close to his father, whose grinding schedule kept him away from home for days or weeks at a time. Even so, Carlito gravitated to the same nomadic life.

He began wrestling for a Puerto Rican company six years ago. WWE signed him to its developmental company in 2003 and elevated him to its biggest stage last October. Carlito made an instant impression by chomping on a red apple, then spitting in the eye of another wrestler.

"I don't remember who it was," Carlito said. "Some old guy."

WWE honchos liked the kid right away and decided he could sell tickets. In his first nationally televised match, Carlito defeated John Cena to win the U.S. championship.

Now Carlito carries an apple for every public appearance. Fans, he said, expect him to be bad. He insists his real appeal is because of his hair, which resembles an eagle's nest.

At 5-feet-11 and 215 pounds, Carlito is small by WWE standards. His wild hairstyle and strut make him seem bigger. "Carlito has ring presence," he said, referring to himself in the third person.

His life has turned out just the way he wanted. Nobody thinks of him as the son of Carlos Colon, but he cracked wrestling's upper echelon anyway.

		Previous coverage Harsh reality tosses pro wrestler out of WWE ring (7/24/05)

Matt Hardy, dropped from World Wrestling Entertainment after being caught in a real-life love triangle, got his job back this week. WWE executives decided to exploit the animosity between Hardy and two of its other stars, Amy "Lita" Dumas and Adam "Edge" Copeland. Hardy and Dumas, both 30, were contemplating marriage early this year. Then she began an affair with Copeland, 31, a married man.

WWE dropped Hardy from its roster in April. "I guess I was the most expendable," he said last month before appearing in an independent wrestling show in Monroeville. But Hardy's troubles with Dumas and Copeland continued to create a buzz among wrestling fans, prompting WWE to rehire him on live television Monday night.