Primo (wrestler)

Personal life

Colón is the son of retired wrestler Carlos Colón, Sr. and the third youngest of four siblings, including Carly Colón and Stacy Colón, both of whom have performed with Colón in the World Wrestling Council. A second sister, Melissa did not enter the wrestling business. Other members of Colón's family have also been involved in the World Wrestling Council, including his uncle José Colón and cousin Orlando Colón who have been involved in several angles within the company.

World Wrestling Council (1999–2008)

Colón debuted on 1999, wrestling in the Cruiserweight division. He won the first title on February 10, 2001, when he defeated Damian Steele for the WWC World Junior Heavyweight Championship. His feud with Steele continued for a month, during which he dropped and recovered the title on March 10, 2001. He feuded over the title for six months, losing and winning it once. By autumn, Colón was involved in a storyline involving Justin Sane, continuing a similar pattern. In early 2002, Colón was involved in a storyline with Rey Mysterio, Jr., who defeated Colón for the title on January 6, 2002. Mysterio held the title for two months before dropping it back on April 6, 2002, which marked Colón's final Junior Championship reign. Following a feud with Kid Kash, the belt was held up and Colón ascended to the Heavyweight division. Shortly after Carly Colón signed with WWE, a tournament was organized to determine the new champion. Colón was considered an early favorite and reached the final, but lost. Colón then entered a feud with El Diamante over the WWC Puerto Rico Heavyweight Championship. In late 2004, Colón was involved in a Battle Royal for the first contender's position. One week later on November 6, 2004, Colón defeated El Bronco and won the Universal Heavyweight Championship for the first time in his career. He then entered a feud with El Diamante, eventually dropping the title to him. In late 2006, Colón signed a developmental contract with WWE. On July 31, 2005, he formed a tag team with his father as part of the Funking Conservatory's television show, !Bang!, competing against Dory Funk, Jr. and Johnny Magnum. The team was victorious, winning the promotion's Television Tag Team Championship. On March 5, 2006 he participated in WCW Saturday Night tribute show World Wrestling Legends: 6:05 The Reunion when he face Vampiro. Colón wrestled Christian at Aniversario 2007, the World Wrestling Council's anniversary event that took place in the José Miguel Agrelot Coliseum on July 13, 2007. The result of the match was a double count out disqualification.

He occasionally returns home to train and get better with his cousin Epico and his brother Carlito.

World Wrestling Entertainment/WWE

On May 7, 2007, Colón had a closed door workout match before the Raw television tapings where he was evaluated by the personnel responsible for talent management. On May 8, 2007, Colón participated in a dark match before that night's SmackDown television tapings, where he defeated Shannon Moore.

Florida Championship Wrestling (2008)

On January 26, 2008, Colón made his Florida Championship Wrestling debut, defeating Shawn Osbourne. On February 23, Colón and Eric Perez, collectively known as The Puerto Rican Nightmares, defeated Steve Lewington and Heath Miller in a tournament final to become the inaugural FCW Florida Tag Team Champions. The team lost the title to Brad Allen and Nic Nemeth on March 23, 2008, before winning them back via disqualification on April 15, 2008. They lost the title to Drew McIntyre and Stu Sanders on May 6, 2008. On July 17, Colón and Perez reclaimed the title by defeating McIntyre and Sanders. On August 16, Colón and Perez lost the title to Nemeth and Gavin Spears.

The Colóns (2008–2011)

On August 18, 2008, Colón made his WWE debut on the Raw brand under the ring name "Primo Colón" and was involved in a backstage segment with the brand's general manager, Mike Adamle, talking about his dislike for his brother Carlito's attitude and how he was nothing like him. His in-ring wrestling debut on the Raw brand took place on August 25, 2008, when he defeated Charlie Haas, dressed as Carlito and named Charlito, in singles competition.

After only one match on Raw, Colón was moved to the SmackDown brand where his animosity for his brother was dropped and they formed a tag team. On September 12, he debuted and teamed with his brother, Carlito, to defeat WWE Tag Team Champions Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder in a non-title match. Two weeks later, both teams competed in a title rematch, with "The Colóns" winning to become Tag Team Champions. Subsequently, Carlito and Primo entered a feud with World Tag Team Champions John Morrison and The Miz. On the WrestleMania XXV pre-show, The Colóns defeated Miz and Morrison in a tag team unification match, becoming the first team to hold the newly dubbed "Unified WWE Tag Team Championship". On April 6, 2009, they successfully defended their titles for the first time in a rematch.

On April 15, both Primo and Carlito were drafted back to the Raw brand as part of the 2009 Supplemental Draft. They lost the championship at The Bash to the team of Edge and Chris Jericho, who were added to a standard tag team match between the Colóns and The Legacy (Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase) moments before the match started. Carlito and Primo invoked their rematch clause the next night on Raw, but were unsuccessful. On the July 6 episode of Raw, they lost again to Edge and Jericho, and afterwards Carlito attacked Primo leading to a feud between the two which ended after Carlito defeated Primo on the August 3 Raw. Primo then mainly featured on WWE Superstars. That year at the Night of Champions pay per view Primo and Carlito both competed in a 6 pack challenge for the United States Championship. In that match Carito was pinned by the champion at the time Kofi Kingston.

On the May 6, 2010 episode of WWE Superstars, Primo turned heel when his brother Carlito stopped their match against each other and asked him to work as a team again and not listen to the fans. On the May 10 episode of Raw, Primo and Carlito attacked R-Truth for Ted DiBiase, who paid them straight after the attack.

The team was split up again after Carlito was released from his contract on May 21. Primo then wrestled mainly on WWE Superstars again. Primo was one of the WWE Pros for the third season of NXT, with AJ as his NXT Rookie. A romance angle started between them. On the November 23 episode of NXT, AJ was eliminated from the competition. On the January 27, 2011 episode of WWE Superstars, Primo and Zack Ryder announced they had formed a heel tag team, then defeated David Hart Smith and Yoshi Tatsu. They called themselves DZP (Down with Zack and Primo) and defeated Smith and Tatsu in a rematch. They then went a losing streak before slowly dissolving. On the April 11 episode of Raw, Primo lost to the debuting Sin Cara.

Teaming with Epico (2011–present)

On the November 11 episode of SmackDown, Primo returned to the brand by accompanying his real-life cousin Epico and Hunico to the ring for their tag team match against The Usos. Primo then began teaming with Epico, with Rosa Mendes as their manager, where they defeated The Usos on the November 17 episode of WWE Superstars. They began a feud with WWE Tag Team Champions Air Boom (Evan Bourne and Kofi Kingston), trading victories. At Tables, Ladders & Chairs, Primo and Epico failed to capture the WWE Tag Team Championships from Air Boom. The feud continued in singles and non-title matches, with both teams trading wins.

At a Raw live event on January 15, 2012, in Oakland, California, Primo and Epico defeated Air Boom to win the WWE Tag Team Championship. The following night on Raw, Primo and Epico successfully defended their titles against Air Boom in a rematch. On the February 27 edition of Raw, Primo and Epico successfully defended their titles in a Triple Threat tag team match against the teams of Kofi Kingston & R-Truth and Dolph Ziggler & Jack Swagger. In the pre-show of WrestleMania XXVIII, Primo and Epico successfully defended the title against the Usos and Justin Gabriel and Tyson Kidd in a triple threat tag team match. On the April 30 episode of Raw, Primo and Epico lost the tag team titles to Kofi Kingston and R-Truth. In May, Primo, Epico and Mendes joined A.W.'s talent agency. At No Way Out, A.W. turned on them during their #1 contender Fatal Four-Way tag team match and aligned with the Prime Time Players (Titus O'Neil and Darren Young). The following night on Raw, Primo and Epico defeated the Prime Time Players by count-out after O'Neil and Young walked out of the match. The feud continued on Superstars, where Epico lost to Young and Primo beat O'Neil in singles matches. At Money in the Bank, Primo and Epico defeated O'Neil and Young. The feud ended in August when A.W. was released from WWE. At Survivor Series, Primo took part in a 10 man elimination tag team match, but was eliminated by Justin Gabriel. Primo & Epico could not find any wins after August 2012, and by the first SmackDown of 2013, Primo was on a 20 match losing streak, and Epico was at 17. On the January 9, 2013 episode of NXT, Primo & Epico broke their losing streaks with a win over Bo Dallas & Michael McGillicutty. However, Dallas & McGillicutty gained revenge by defeating Primo & Epico in the first round of the NXT Tag Team Championship tournament to crown the inaugural champions.

On the August 19, 2013 episode of Raw, a vignette was aired introducing Primo and Epico as the masked Los Matadores. Later, on the September 30 edition of Raw, Primo and Epico debuted as Los Matadores, as a face of a team of two masked Spanish bullfighters with El Torito as mascot and faced 3MB in a winning effort. Los Matadores faced off against The Usos, RybAxel, and The Real Americans on the WrestleMania XXX preshow in a fatal four-way elimination match for the WWE Tag Team Championship. Los Matadores were unsuccessful in their bid to become champions however, when they were eliminated first. On June 23, WWE.com reported that Fernando was injured at a live event that past weekend. As a result, Diego and El Torito started a feud with Bo Dallas. At Battleground, Diego competed in a 19-man battle royal for the vacant WWE Intercontinental Championship but was eliminated by Ryback. Diego defeated Fandango on the July 28th edition of Raw (using the "Back Stabber" for the first time as Diego), while being accompanied to the ring by the Slayers. On the September 9 edition of Main Event, Los Matadores faced the NXT Tag Team Champions The Ascension in a losing effort. In March 2015, they defeated The New Day to end a losing streak. Los Matadores were in a Fatal 4-way match for the WWE Tag Team Championship on the WrestleMania 31 pre-show, but failed to claim the titles. Diego participated in the 2nd annual André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal but was eliminated by Kane. After months of chasing the WWE Tag Team Championship, Los Matadores fell out and seemingly broke up, as they no longer appeared on TV.

From April 4 to May 9, 2016, several videos aired on Raw promoted the return of Primo and Epico, who revived their Puerto Rican gimmick under the new name The Shining Stars. On the May 16 episode of Raw, The Shining Stars debuted by defeating a local tag team Scott Jackson and Brian Kennedy (actually independent tag team that regularly appear in NXT, John Skyler and Corey Hollis) in a squash match. On the November 7 edition of Raw, after R-Truth sold The Golden Truth's Survivor Series spot for a stay at a timeshare to The Shining Stars, both teams competed to qualify for the 10–on–10 Survivor Series Tag Team Elimination match, which Primo and Epico won, and Team Raw won.

On April 11, whilst sporting a new look, they debuted on SmackDown Live during the Superstar Shakeup when they attacked American Alpha after their loss to The Usos. On April 18, the team were officially renamed The Colóns, after defeating American Alpha via pinfall.

In June, Primo suffered a knee injury.

In wrestling

Championships and accomplishments