Rico Constantino has revealed that his AEW return alongside Billy Gunn earlier this year did not unfold as he had pitched it, stating on Insight with Chris Van Vliet that his original concept for telling the story in a pre-tape was rejected and Billy Gunn instead cut the on-air promo off the top of his head.
Constantino made his first appearance on a major US wrestling broadcast in 21 years on AEW Dynamite in March 2026, attaching to a Billy Gunn segment that nodded to their shared Billy and Chuck-era WWE history. The segment played to the live crowd as a reunion and a quick payoff, but Constantino said the storytelling was constrained by the format.
“Oh yeah, I just wish we could have told a story in the pre-tape, because people weren’t really getting it, because the crowd had changed over 20 years.”
He confirmed Billy Gunn improvised the on-air promo that referenced the Billy and Chuck wedding history.
“Billy just off the cuff went down, and he cut a promo off top of his head, saying, ‘I know you’re the guy that almost made me marry Chuck, you know. So then maybe brought some stuff back, and we did the match, and Billy got his revenge at the end, you know, I interfered with the match and stuff like that, and then Billy snuck up behind me, and all of a sudden you saw the match, and, uh, oh, I know this face, I know that ass. Oh, turn around, no, Billy, no.”
Constantino noted his pitch for telling the story differently had been rejected.
“I told you off camera what I thought of, and it was shot down.”
The Billy and Chuck wedding angle from September 2002 remains one of the most iconic moments of the WWE Attitude Era’s tail end, with Eric Bischoff revealed as the surprise minister, three-minute warning crashing the ceremony after Chuck refused to go through with the wedding, and Constantino’s character at the heart of the storyline. Constantino said the K-fabe at that wedding was so well-protected that the only thing that broke it was the Tuesday-to-Thursday delay between taping and air date.
“If that had been on Raw, that’d have been one of the best K-fabs ever. It’s that we taped it on Tuesday, dirt sheets got it, and it showed Thursday. So, if it was live, because the whole wedding party clan K-fabed everybody, even Vince, K-fab, everybody brought Eric Bischoff to the arena in his limo, all dressed up as the minister. And Vince, in catering, Vince was giving Eric, he was bringing Eric’s lunch to introduce him as the minister to everybody.”
Constantino said even Bischoff was meeting people in catering as the minister, in full character.
“I watched him walk around, had the Bible in one hand and shake people’s hands like this. He was great.”
He also called out Bischoff lightheartedly for not mentioning him by name in a recent Bischoff interview where the wedding angle was revisited.
“I just heard that he did an interview about the wedding again, and he’s always put the whole thing over and mentioned me. This time, he didn’t mention me at the wedding, and in his latest interview. I was wondering about ‘what’s up, Eric?’ Tell me that you didn’t say that you didn’t mention me. I thought we were tight.”
If you use quotes from this article, please credit Insight with Chris Van Vliet and include a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
