The Royal Rumble is a special event on WWE’s calendar for a number of reasons. It begins the official kickoff into WrestleMania season. It’s always exciting to see who the winners will be. And of course, it’s always fun to speculate about which WWE Superstars of years gone by might be returning to take part.
Carlito made his Royal Rumble return in the 2021 edition of the famed battle royal. After ten years away from WWE, it was great to see him mixing it up with Sami Zayn and Shinsuke Nakamura. But for the former U.S. Champion, there was one crucial element that was missing: the fans!
Carlito spoke during a virtual K&S WrestleFest signing in which he opined about his Rumble return. He said, “Originally I was supposed to do the Legends Night a couple of weeks before that. It was great. What sucked was people not being there.”
Obviously, the pandemic restrictions precluded fans from attending the event, so the 2021 Royal Rumble happened in WWE’s Thunderdome.
Carlito entered eighth before being eliminated by Elias. The next night on RAW, Carlito competed alongside Jeff Hardy to defeat Jaxson Ryker and Elias. It was his first match on RAW in ten years. He still enjoyed his time back, “It would’ve been cool to be in front of a WWE crowd again, but it was pretty fun.”
