wrestling / Columns
High Road/Low Road 12.21.07: Carlito Staying With WWE
Welcome back to the High Road/Low Road! A brief explanation of the column: Uncle Trunx takes the Low Road (negative view) on angles, gimmicks, and other wrestling related “stuff” while Sat takes the High Road (positive view).
The Results for the RAW 15th Anniversary Show:
High Road: 50%
Low Road: 25%
Both Roads: 25%
E-Mails:
These are all of the e-mails that we received this week. We do not respond to the actual e-mail, but the reply to your e-mail will be below.
okp2005 Writes:
RAW’s 15th Year Anniversary, a show I expected much out of, and came out taking the low road. I’ll start off with all the “Stars” we had for this special three hour extravaganza. Man, was it good seeing Hulk Hogan again, glad we had the money necessary to get him on the show. I think he had some dispute with the Great Khali, not sure, seems he was too busy “raising the roof” and promoting his next appearance.
-PETE GAS? :(-
No Rock, Bret Hart, or even some Macho Man on the biggest show in years? Give us something new, don’t go back in the days and get names even hardcore 411 writers couldn’t ID. I’m sure Ken Shamrock could have come down the ramp if we tried hard enough, or even Jack the snake, even if he’s has to be carried to the ring. Thanks anyway for Ted DiBiase, who should have used the money to get fans to pop for him. Dead crowd that night anyway.-PROMOTING THE SHOW-
They did a excellent job with promoting the show, to the point where you felt they were hiding some big stars from us. I know I wasn’t the only one expecting The Rock to come out at the end for a little rock bottom, but alas, Stone Cold finishes it up once again. Still, advertising “Bigger” names for the show would have been beneficial, but they did a great job either way, so not much to say on this.-BIGGER STARS?-
I’m going to go with Trunx on this. Like I’ve said before, it was nice seeing old faces, but we really lacked some big stars for the show. Hulk Hogan was a good grab, but anyone could get him with the dollar bills right now, with the divorce and crash dummy problems on his mind. I think the segments were dry for these big returns as well, seeing lita and trish hugging was dull and uncomfortable with you consider they were enemies at one point. Sure, you can’t really start a angle with retire stars, but the ending was corny. Give me a Edge, and Lita segment, that would have gotten some ratings, add Matt there for 5.0 on the drama meter.-ORIGINALITY?-
I think Trunx and myself are on the same path at the moment. The only difference from this Raw and others was the extra hour, cause this special had the “been there, done that” formula written all over it. When RVD is the only “shock” on the show, you got a problem, especially when you had bigger names on the show. But that’s the thing, they gave it all away with the promotion, and none of them were exciting enough to tune in. I’m a fan, so I tuned in as I do every Monday Night, expecting just a extra hour and more goofy moments then the usual night. Would it really have hurt to surprise us just a little?Sat, forget that Stone Cold and Hogan dream match, you know the basic wrestling mat can’t support two large ego’s. But if for some miracle it does happen, please insert RVD in the match. While Hogan is busy flexing his 60+ year old muscles, we can get RVD to point at himself and Austin to give us a good “Hell Yeah!” before the usual stunners. Now that’s original.
-EVOLUTION-
Holy cow, that video of Evolution made them look extremely important. I bet WWE could make Shelton Benjamin look like championship material with their Spielberg videos. Moving on, the whole segment wasn’t half bad, it was a watchable three on three match. I would have prefer the four man reunion, but we all knew Orton’s character requires him to be a non hugging prick.Perhaps a High/Low road on the effects wrestling had on some former stars, such as Warrior, Chyna, and Iron Shiek. It can’t be a coincidence that they all became loonies after retiring, even if Chyna just started her journey on the yellow brick road. Perhaps all the bumps loosen a few screws on the Nogan?
Sat: I keep hoping that we can see Austin/Hogan just so we don’t have to talk about. Seems like the WWE is leaning towards Khali/Hogan. Definite Kudos to the WWE for the Evolution video. As for your suggestion, that would be a real challenge for me to get some high roads for that. I have noted it, but don’t expect anything on that for at least a month maybe more. That would be a good spare column to keep though.
Uncle Trunx: Khali / Hogan is somewhat inevitable. Evil giant foreign monster? Hogan’ll sort him out…
Bill Bumgarner Writes:
No choice but to take the High Road here. This show delivered as expected and had some nice surprises (RVD, a small DX reunion [even though they just kinda let Marty janetty make his way to the back while Shawn posed with Hunter and it would’ve been way cool for them to hand Marty a DX shirt], and Lita and Trish beating the snot out of Jillian Hall). I wasn’t expecting (and rightly so, given their physical conditions) Hogan or Austin or Foley to be competing in any matches, so I wasn’t disappointed. Plus, we got to see I.R.S., Sgt. Slaughter, Scotty Too Hotty, Pete Gas, and other names from the past compete in the ring, some perhaps for the last time, and we got to see The Million-Dollar Man do his thing one more time. While it’d have been great to see a Horsemen reunion, I think perhaps the E thought that it was a bit much, what with the Rockers, DX, and Evolution all being reunited for that night. Still woulda been cool, but I can’t say I’m disappointed in the least (especially since we saw Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, and [I think] Barry Windham together a week or two ago right before the Orton/Flair match). All in all, this is the best RAW show I’ve seen since…..well, ever. I had quit watching the WWF before RAW was ever thought of because I was simply tired of the cartoony gimmicks (an evil plumber? a captain without a boat? who writes this stuff?) and endless squash matches. I would turn it on if someone told me that there was a Hogan match or something on, but the silliness had turned me away. The next full wrestling show I saw was the Nitro after Hogan showed up in WCW, and that was all I watched until they were bought by the WWF (even then, I refused to watch the WWF until I heard, you guessed it, that Hogan was coming back with the nWo). The reason for my anti-WWF bias came from the “Attitude” stuff, and that hasn’t really changed for me or the WWE, really. They needed to put on a show like this. A night without all kinds of soap opera crap, very little angles/storylines, seeing old faces again, and seeing Vince repeatedly get his ass handed to him. All in all, a good night and one that will possibly go down in wrestling history as the biggest show of the E’s history….unless they can make the twentieth anniversary show even better.
Sat: This was a good show. This was the second RAW that I have watched live in a long time (the other being the Jericho show). This show was no nonsense and it delivered. I could have lived without some stuff, but for the most part it was a high road.
Uncle Trunx: My problem with the show was that it was exactly what I expected. It was formula WWE “special” show. There were no shocking developments, nothing to make me think “wow, I must tune in next week”, which surely is what WWE needs; the audience will always grow for these specials; give people a reason to come back!
Adeledelieand Writes:
without the rock or bret hart the show was not a family reunion or anniversary it just flat out sucked
Sat: I think that the show did not suck, but I will say that it the Rock or Bret Hart had been on RAW, it would have been one of the greatest RAWs if all time.
Uncle Trunx: Indeed. I felt it needed one or both to make it truly memorable. As it was, it was good but not “all time classic”. That said, if Vince ever gets Bret back on WWE TV, I’ll be the most surprised of everyone.
freddy Neuwendyke Writes:
Definately low road It’s just sad that WWE keeps trotting out the old timers hoping to pop the ratings. Especially when it’s alrteady been done to death. We’ve already had several Stone Cold appearances this year and while they may be good for a one week ratings they sure don’t do any favors for the current stars especially when Santino Marella a guy busting his ass
to get over basically got squashed by Jerry Lawler, Punked by Stone Cold, and squashed again by RVD all in the about same month. All non-active roster wrestlers.As usual the whole show revolved around the McMahons stoking their egos at the expense of the talent and lame crap like Mae Young pretending to be a diva and Jillian Hall’s atrocious singing gag that the fans have pretty much gotten sick of.
I’m sorry but with crap like this and TNA’s penchant for playing the aisle of misfit WWE toys anyone who thinks another boom period is just around the bend needs their head examined.
Sat: You make some good points, but I think that this RAW was not about all about advancing storyline, but more about acknowledging the past. Sure, it sucks to be Santino who has gotten beaten by every all timer.
Uncle Trunx: As I said above, giving people some reason to come back would’ve benefited WWE greatly. Having all of the past stars was great and celebrating the past is also good, but nobody who tuned in who doesn’t watch every week has any reason to watch next week’s Raw.
Carlito Staying With The WWE
High Road:
It made sense for Carlito to stick around because the WWE owns his character. Most of the American fans know him as Carlito and if he had left the WWE then he would have had to use his original name. Sure, Carlito could have gotten a job with TNA or even at his dad’s promotion, but it makes sense for him to say with the WWE because they own his character.
Low Road:
They own the “Carlito” apple spitting character with the goofy music, yes. They don’t own the man himself or his look. He’s now a known quantity and could easily be recognized, even if he had to use his real name. Which, to be fair, isn’t that far from the character name, so he’d still very obviously be the same guy.
High Road:
When Carlito first arrived to the WWE, he had a ton of potential and he looked good. Eventually, he had the injury to his arm and since that time he has been lost in the shuffle. With Carlito deciding to stay with the WWE, this leads me to believe that we will begin to see some of the old Carlito. My reasoning for this is that the WWE will be pushing him, which they were when he first arrived. Plus, Carlito’s confidence level will be at an all-time high, which leads him to my next high road.
Low Road:
Carlito has suffered the fate of many WWE mid card guys; he’s got lost in the shuffle, as you say. Now, WWE have persuaded him to stay, which is good for him; he might get noticed now. However, it does set a slightly worrying precedent; is the only way to get out of mid card limbo going to be threatening to leave? Surely that means that wrestlers at that level will have two choices; stay buried or get labeled as a “problem.” Those who quietly work away and don’t complain may well end up buried further under those who shout about their woes; all it means is that those with attitude problems will be higher up the card. That can’t be a good thing. I don’t know if Carlito is seen as a guy with an attitude or if that has any basis in fact; I don’t have that information. However, it appears to be that way from the outside.
High Road:
I really feel that this is a major high road. Carlito has to be feeling really good about himself because he was asked by Vince McMahon to stay with the WWE. Vince McMahon only asks the major stars (RVD, Big Show) to stay with the WWE and he specifically asked Carlito to stay. This will really help Carlito’s confidence level because he knows that he is needed by the WWE and I believe that this will also lead to an improvement in his in ring work.
Low Road:
So what happens next time Carlito doesn’t like his character direction? He threatens to leave again? It might help short term but as I said above, I think it shows a worrying future for the WWE wrestlers who quietly get on with their job. I’m not saying that wrestlers should have no control and no right to speak out about poor conditions and unfair practices, quite the contrary. However, Carlito’s in ring work has been average at best in the past year, and it now looks like his push will be based on his threat to leave rather than his in ring work. Also, there could be a longer term implication for Carlito’s career which I’ll get into a bit later on.
High Road:
I think that Carlito staying with the WWE made sense because he looked like he was motivated in the ladder match at the Anniversary show. I have felt that Carlito has been slacking in the ring for awhile, but now that he has decided to stay, I expect to see Carlito step up his game.
Low Road:
Carlito slacks off in the ring, threatens to leave, gets rewarded with a push and is then motivated? Is it just me that thinks there’s something wrong with that sequence? I like Carlito, honestly I do. At a WWE house show last April, he was one of the highlights for me. However, I really can’t see the positives in this turn of events.
High Road:
The WWE asked Carlito to stay, while he was all ready to leave. This tells me that the WWE has huge plans for Carlito. I think one of the major things that has hurt Carlito is that he has not had the WWE behind him. With the WWE asking him to stay leads me to believe that they have some major plans for Carlito.
Low Road:
I hope they do have major plans for him, as I feel he could be a great wrestler in years to come. However, this short term gain may end up doing him longer term harm. Will Vince McMahon accept discontented employees threatening to leave in order to get what they want? Will he wait until Carlito is no longer in such a strong position, when TNA haven’t recently signed several top line guys, then release Carlito?
To me, the whole situation may do short term good for Carlito but I can’t help but think it sends out the wrong message, and will result in long term damage to a potentially great wrestler.
Are you taking the High Road or the Low Road?
E-mail us your reasons for taking the High Road or the Low Road and suggestions for future High Road/Low Road at [email protected]. Your reply will be included in next week’s column.
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