The Reality of Wrestling: Carlito

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The Reality of Wrestling: Carlito
By Phil Clark

Note: J.D. is taking off this week, so you’re only going to have to put up with me

With RAW apparently traveling back in time to 1998, it should seem as no surprise that the young talent is getting put on the backburner in favor of the stars of old (Steve Austin, the McMahons, Hogan, etc.) In fact, the greatest career transition that a younger has had in the last few months was Kid Kash moving from OVW and dark matches to Velocity (a now Internet show). And Kash isn’t even that young with about 15 years of experience under his belt. Shelton Benjamin was given the most promising beginning to a push last year, but is now stuck in mid-card hell looking for anything to turn it all around. Yet on RAW, the worst casualty of this whole nostalgia trip seems to be Carlito. Despite the fact that he is now just a guy with a talk segment and no real threat to anything or anybody on RAW, there is no doubt that he will be main-eventing some day. The question is all about when and why.

P.C. Says: Carlito will be main-eventing RAW pay-per-views by Backlash 2006

Carlito first caught my eye last summer when his promos would air every week on SmackDown! He seemed to be that Randy Orton cocky heel type guy with the apple-to-the-face being his gimmick (besides the hair). In his first televised match, he beat John Cena for the U.S. title. I did not go for that (too much too soon), but it did say that the E may have been trying to push someone new. An injury thanks to Heidenreich at a house show derailed the push and when Carlito was all healed up, he was forgotten by the writers and forced to go through the motions until he was brought to RAW in June.

Since coming to RAW, Carlito has quickly become a fantastic heel, and may be the best on the show. Jericho was able to do the heel thing during the summer, but the suck up heel can only get you over if your name is Kurt Angle. HHH was gone for the summer and his act hasn’t changed dramatically since he came back from the quad injury in 2002. And then there’s Carlito. He brought a newer, more sarcastic type heel interview, a fun interview segment, and a new look for a heel; a cool look if you will.

Carlito’s matches have been less than stellar and he hasn’t shown any real improvement since his SmackDown! debut last November (that’s 11 months). The fact that he doesn’t even have a finisher is proof that Carlito’s involvement with the E in the first place may have been a favor to Carlos Colon (Carlito is the son of the famous Caribbean wrestling star). If it was a favor, it was a good one to keep as Carlito has become another of an ever extended fraternity in the wrestling business, more specifically in the E; the wrestlers that can’t wrestle really good, but have the look or charisma, or whatever to get over.

Carlito will main event by early next year for that reason. The fans have already taken to this guy’s bit (I have since the beginning) and he seems to gain a little more each time his Cabana segment airs. That may even add something to his matches in an anticipation sense since he doesn’t wrestle singles matches too often does he?

Also, I get the feeling that Edge’s main event push isn’t going to go to plan (is there one?). Edge won the “Money In the Bank” ladder match a little over seven months ago at WrestleMania and has just used it as a prop since. When is this guy going to use his damn title shot? I’ve heard rumors that the E wants Edge to be a main-eventer by Wrestlemania. Newsflash: you’ve blown a shot to make Edge into a main-eventer not once, but twice and as a heel and as a face. In early 2003, a bad neck injury derailed his first main-event push. After the “Money in the Bank” win, Edge could’ve been propelled to the main-event position, but wasn’t because HHH needed two more matches with Dave that didn’t do monster buyrates. Because of all of this, Edge’s Money in the Bank match with Cena, which will likely be at Survivor Series, won’t help the pay-per-view sell as well as it would had Edge taken on Dave at Backlash.

So, what do we have here? We have no watchable heels in the main-event pool, an extremely over face champion looking for a new opponent, and fans eager to see something new. I say Backlash for Carlito simply because Edge and HHH need their title shots. Carlito’s time is rapidly approaching and hopefully when it comes, he’ll have a finishing move.

The Reality is…this is going to happen at one point or another. Carlito’s entrance to the main-event scene was sealed and approved the minute he stepped foot on RAW. The fact that he could be so much more in the long run if the powers that be would allow him time to hone his craft in the ring and on the mic isn’t a factor. With HHH basically booking the show, nobody has been able to get really over as a heel and Carlito is looking to be the ONLY one who might be able to break through. Edge had it before the Matt Hardy angle became just another angle. Kurt Angle is allowed to be a great heel, but only if he’s not allowed to get any big wins to up his credibility in the main event circle, something that has plagued Angle’s whole career with the E. In the end, it all comes down to the booker man. The most likely outcome to all of this is that Edge and Carlito will both be allowed in the main-event scene, but only as second place guys, the replacements in case HHH gets another boo-boo or something. Fantasy booking on my part dictates that HHH gets the title win over Cena at Wrestlemania in the undercard allowing Batista to stand tall in the main event for the second year in a row. Will it crack a good buyrate? Hell, it’s Wrestlemania, what do you think? Will it help anybody in the long run? Probably not.