Folks, we’ve got ourselves a big one, okay? It’s RAW, it’s controversial, and it’s Carlito in the center of the ring—but not the way he intended. Our beloved Carlito, the man known for spitting apples, accidentally spit out something far worse: a line that’s got WWE fans and insiders asking, “Did he really just say that?”
Here’s the scoop: following an important backstage pow-wow between Adam Pearce, IYO SKY, and Kairi Sane, Carlito casually strolled in and made the classic mistake of referring to SKY and Sane, two proud Japanese superstars, as Chinese. Now, I don’t know about you, but that’s not exactly what I call getting over with the crowd. Social media lit up faster than a pyro malfunction at WrestleMania, with some fans and at least one independent wrestler, Kevin Ku, calling out the line as casual racism. And trust me, folks, casual racism is about as welcome in WWE as the Gobbledy Gooker’s second coming.
The million-dollar question that’s making its rounds: was this Carlito gone rogue or part of WWE’s brilliant (not-so-brilliant) script? According to Fightful Select, this wasn’t a creative team’s brainchild. Nope. Carlito went off the cuff like a man who hadn’t studied his geography since the 5th grade. One WWE staff member even claimed to be in “disbelief,” which—let’s be honest—is a regular state of mind after watching some of WWE’s creative choices in the past.
WWE, of course, wasted no time scrubbing the incident from their digital platforms faster than Vince erasing memories of the XFL. When you go back and watch, the clip mysteriously begins after Carlito’s line, right when he’s chatting with Pearce like nothing happened. Classic WWE sleight of hand, folks.
Backstage, it’s clear the reaction was colder than Glacier’s WCW debut. While Carlito isn’t getting the red carpet treatment, it remains unclear if any punishment is headed his way. So far, no public apologies, no comments—just radio silence. You know, kind of like that awkward quiet after a botched finish.
Now, this isn’t IYO SKY’s first rodeo dealing with ignorant comments. During her NXT days, a lovely fan (and I use “lovely” in the same way I describe an unexpected Brock Lesnar run-in) told her to “go back to China.” But in a moment that belongs in the WWE Hall of Fame for clapbacks, SKY responded, “I’m Japanese, b****!”—and the crowd popped harder than a Stone Cold stunner at a beer-chugging contest.
So where do we go from here? Who knows? But if WWE wants to avoid a PR disaster, they’d better figure it out faster than they book a Roman Reigns title defense. Stay tuned, folks, because in the world of wrestling, one thing’s for sure: it’s never boring.