Rico Constantino has shared the specific exchange that led to his WWE release in November 2004, telling Insight with Chris Van Vliet that he asked Vince McMahon for a $1,000-a-week raise after completing his original rookie contract and was told he was being released because he was not popular.
Constantino’s WWE main roster run started in March 2002 and ended in late 2004, with his official release date coming after the standard 90-day window in February 2005. He laid out the contract math.
“I wasn’t going on any shows. My final release was 90 days later, so I was under contract until February 2005.”
He explained the financial framing of the meeting he requested with McMahon.
“I went and asked Vince for a raise because I had already been under fulfilled my three year rookie contract. I’ve held the tag titles twice, once with Akishi, once with Toss, you know, and I was going to almost every show, and on TV, you know, I said I want $1,000 a week. Yeah, I thought I was worth it. And I was about to come out, Charlie and I and Jackie wrote to come out on the SmackDown magazine front cover, and he told me I wasn’t popular.”
Constantino clarified the contract terms he was working under at the time. “75,000 a year. Not including royalties, pay-per-views, and video games.”
The 1,000-a-week ask was a $52,000 raise on top of the $75,000 downside guarantee. Constantino said the response was that he was being released.
“Vince didn’t like me because of my age in the beginning. He was forced to put me there. Just hello, Mr. McMahon, good night, Mr. McMahon. I got that. And like I said, it was my age, he thought I was too old to start wrestling, but you know, it’s not the quantity, it’s quality. I had a lot of life experiences, you know, that I could help with, and I had ideas that I gave to the writers, of course. They were shot down and stuff, you know.”
Constantino also said he pitched a sideburn-shaving angle with Chavo Guerrero and Eddie Guerrero that was rejected, with the angle designed to set up his transition from the sideburn-heavy stylist look to the fully flamboyant character.
“I wanted to get rid of the cyburns, you know, and make it a whole new character, and I thought of an angle with Chavo Guerrero and Papa Guerrero that they, you know, they want the belts, because Charlie and I held them, and they jumped me in the bathroom, beat me up, and then shave one of my sideburns off, and then Charlie finds me, you know, he’s supposed to be the homophobic, you know, he finds me, and I’m, oh man, he’s like okay, and he hesitates, but then he comforts me, and he goes, we’ll go out, make this right, so we go out and have the match, we maintain the titles, and then I voluntarily shave off the other side, burn, and now I got all the makeup without facial hair, and shot down.”
Constantino’s WWE tag title reigns were as part of the Rikishi tag team in 2002 (won at No Mercy 2002) and as part of the Charlie Haas tag team in 2004 (won at Judgment Day 2004 over Rikishi and Scotty 2 Hotty). He was the only wrestler in WWE history to win the tag team championship with two different partners on the same year, with both reigns ending in switches against his pitched booking ideas.
He has since worked the independent circuit and built a multi-decade post-WWE career across podcasting, conventions, and the AEW Billy Gunn segment earlier this year.
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.
