wrestling / Columns
High Road/Low Road 12.28.07: The Christmas Special
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 Carlito staying with the WWE:
High Road: 44.4%
Low Road: 44.4%
Both Roads: 11.1%
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.
Stephen Straka Writes:
Someone explain to me how a lazy slob (in terms of his wrestling performance) is treated to stay while people who bust their asses are regarded as an afterthought? Explain to me how it benefits the ‘E to give Carlito their attention when he can so easily slip back into his unmotivated ways and as a result is only slightly more reliable than Scott Hall? If they have plans for Carlito, they can very easily be handed to another guy who’s shown himself to be motivated and reliable. It disgusts me how Vince is essentially giving a big “fuck you” to the people who deserve pushes yet focuses on a midcard glorified jobber with a horrible attitude. Absolutely ridiculous.
Sat: My feeling on Carlito is that he got lazy because the WWE gave up on him. He was motivated when he came into the WWE and he motivated when he was moved to the RAW. I think if the WWE pushes him, he will be okay.
Uncle Trunx: As I said, I think it sets a worrying precedent; whine and get a push, keep working hard and get ignored. I also feel it will be bad news down the line somewhere for Carlito, when Vince hasn’t recently lost a few top liners to TNA and can afford to let people go more easily.
Olive Oil Writes:
Vince should have let him go. he is no big loss he is only a mid card jobber and that’s all he will ever be. i am SO not behind a push for Carlito because he doesn’t deserve one. spend time on someone who deserves it and will not threaten to leave when he doesn’t get his way, the little bitch!!!
Sat: One of the High Roads that I did not mention at the time that came into my mind was when I was writing the Sat-for-All news report and that is if the WWE is planning on expanding into South America, then Carlito will be a huge assest.
Uncle Trunx: WWE could afford to sign half of Mexico if it wanted. Carlito may be an asset but if he has a crap attitude, it will be far more detrimental longer term.
Wade the Great
Carlito was one of the brightest up and comers of the new generation of wrestlers. He came onto the scene and immediately grabbed the attention of the masses, not to mention the Intercontinental Championship. He had a unique presence in the ring that was reminiscent of Razor Ramon. A kind of harder than nails, don’t give a (expletive deleted), but I’m still cool chico feeling. His character should have been pushed again immediately following his recuperation from the arm injury, while he was still a face that people recognized as talented. Instead he was shuffled into the deck of midcard wrestlers, asked to bow his head and take his beating because he got hurt when The Company was investing in him.
How would you respond if some bowling gangsters shoved you hands into the ball return and you couldn’t write your column for a couple of months, and promptly upon returning you were cast into an assistants position with proof reading responsibilities. I would not presume to believe that you would go at it with a flourish. And neither did Carlito.
The WWE has the opportunity and the responsibility to recognize some of tomorrow’s biggest names. They have done very well in pushing talents like MVP, CM Punk, and Jeff Hardy, but they have missed out on names like Kevin Thorn, Kenny Dykstra, The Boogeyman, Turk, and Marcus Cor Von. Each of these characters brings game to the table and they have the potential of reaching into the stratosphere… if the direction is there, and Carlito is no different. Taking (excuse the pun) the Ladder from under him when he was so close to the heavens, for lack of better words, pissed him off.
They stopped moving his character into a main event spot light, and slowly but surely the hand began to write on the wall. He may have whined a bit more than was necessary, but he definitely needed to make his voice heard.
Now, with Vince’s blessing, his confidence can return, and so can his level of professionalism. He can begin to have the great matches that he is capable of. He already has the on screen personality that will make him a star, but now he know that the WWE knows it. They have saved him from a very very very very very very very very slow death in TNA, which by the way could stand to do something with their young talent. It would also be a good idea to FIRE RUSSO, but that’s another story for another time. Thanks for helping me find the high road. Peace.
Sat: Awesome job connecting it to the writers. I agree with you 100%. As I wrote above in an email above and I kind of touched on it last week, is that the WWE hurt Carlito. He lost all of his steam during the injury and the WWE also stopped pushing him as well.
Uncle Trunx: I like Carlito and agree that his heel run was significantly better than his later face stuff. However, I do feel that it takes two to tango; he was still on the main roster, still on the A show and still had ample opportunity to step it up a gear and prove that he should be the next guy into the spotlight when the chance came along. It’s not as if there weren’t opportunities recently, with ¾ of the main event talent being out at some point recently; a fired up Carlito could’ve been one of those they turned to. Sure, he’d lost momentum when he came back but he could still have worked hard to try to get the new direction over, rather than turning in paint by numbers performances.
Bill Bumgarner Writes
I fear that Carlito’s WWE days are numbered anyway and that this is, as Trunx said, a short-term solution at best. While Carlito may get a push for the moment, he may soon be relegated back to mid-card jobber status unless he makes a damned good showing. If he could, say, take the I.C. title again and make a good showing, then Vince might keep him a little longer. But, at this point, Carlito is either Puerto Rico or Florida-bound. It’s just a matter of time.
Sat: The only way that I see this happening is that if the WWE gives up on their expansion plans to South America. Plus, another thing that just came into my mind was that Carlito’s brother is in development. It would make sense to keep Carlito around to team them up and have Carlito give a rub to his brother.
Uncle Trunx: If he can stay motivated, he might just be there for the long haul but I can’t see him being the future world champ that some were proclaiming him to be when he first started with WWE. I hope he can get it together and realizes that he’s not indispensable because a motivated Carlito could be an asset. However, I doubt he’s going to be the guy they build the company around and I can easily imagine him ending up back in Puerto Rico sooner rather than later.
Comments:
411 has added a new feature to the columns. The last two weeks have had one comment, but when I checked Saturday night, there were these three. So, if you posted after Saturday Night, then it will be in next week’s column (if I remember to look of course).
Ryder’s Comments:
This is a low road, and not just because of the Carlito/ Santino connection, but for a larger problem that was already mentioned. A lot of wrestlers who are disgruntled with their pushes will threaten to go to TNA if they don’t feel that they are getting pushed in the WWE. Knowing TNA’s propensity for pushing ex-WWE guys, it will be all the more enticing. That said, Vince had better get his creative team to work on developing more than one star at a time.
Sat: I think that we will continue to see people threaten to leave. The biggest problem for Carlito right now is that he is on RAW. I believe that he will be fine on SmackDown and ECW.
Uncle Trunx: I think that’s more likely to be a problem for morale in TNA; I personally think it’s a good thing if there’s competition for WWE; it brings out the best in them and means that a wrestler who doesn’t fit the WWE mould can still have a career. However, pushing the latest WWE guy instead of your loyal workers who have sweat blood for the company isn’t going to help morale and could easily lead to a “them and us” locker room.
Willie D Comments:
Vince couldn’t care less about Carlito going to TNA. He wants to expand globally and feels Carlito will help him with the Latin America market. He realizes that Rey Mysterio is breaking down and that while Carlito is not big outside of Puerto Rico, it might help business when/if they do try to expand. Do you think TNA would know what to do with Carlito? TNA’s creative is so bad that you might get a push as an ex WWE guy but the direction of the company is so bad that you will eventually get buried because of their shitty booking. If TNA had any sort of brains in that booking department I guarantee they would get double the ratings. So in short WWE doesn’t care about Carlito as far as TNA but rather care about him for their global expansion
Sat: You basically made the point that I made above. This is a great point that came to me when I was writing the Sat-for-All News Report, but it was too late to make an addition to this column.
Uncle Trunx: You could well be right, but that ties in with the point about this being a short term reprieve. Once the Latin American market is established and solid with a few more stars established, Carlito will be disposable. He will then be disposed of.
Malice 666 Comments:
I highly agree with the comment about Vince not caring. This is Vince we are discussing here, Vince is like Bill Gates. Do you think Gates is EVER truly threatened by competition? He laughs at it, so does Vince. Vince and his WWE buried WCW. Sure, WCW had bad politic problems, financial problems etc, but Vince still stole the viewers and helped that company get run under, and they were a head on contender. All this “Vince fears TNA so he is keeping Carlito” is complete speculation and has no logical basis to it. A show that barely pulls in decent ratings, is known for having the same problems now that WCW suffered at the end of its reign, and has MAJOR stars in Sting/Angle but still doesn’t pull ratings, Vince thinks *Carlito* will harm WWE by leaving? No. Sorry all you fans that want WWE to fear TNA(hell, I am one of them, WWE is at its best when it has real competition) it just isn’t the case here. Carlito has potential to draw viewers, Vince does know this, but being how he is, Vince sees this only as what that popularity can do in the WWE, he will never worry about TNA. Let’s face it, TNA may have its moments, but it is years of solid creativity away from coming close to competing with the WWE.
Sat: I don’t think that Vince cares about TNA. He kept Carlito because he is an asset to his expansion plans.
Uncle Trunx: Vince doesn’t fear TNA but I’m willing to bet he doesn’t want to give them a hand at every turn; losing Booker T to them and the speculation about RVD going over may possibly have prompted him to a) bring RVD back for the 15 year anniversary RAW and b) make sure Carlito didn’t leave at this time. Vince is a shrewd businessman and while there is no fear of TNA he knows it exists, and I’m pretty sure he realizes that if they get enough name talent there and (it’s a bit speculative) manage to book it properly, they may one day reach the point of being real competition. It may well be that it wasn’t a single factor which kept Carlito in WWE but a mix of several. That, to me, seems more logical.
Christmas and Wrestling
Sat: So this week we decided to put together a special Christmas and Wrestling edition. Basically, it is a few of the things that happened in the WWE/TNA that are Christmas related. There was a ton of stuff out, so I only picked a few of them.
Uncle Trunx: This week, I fully expect to be visited by the ghost of wrestling past, the ghost of wrestling present and the ghost of wrestling yet to come. I expect them all to look like HHH…Bah! Humbug!
TNA Christmas Special 12-20-2007
High Road:
I figured that this had to be thrown in here because it aired last week and I did the recap of it (which can be found here. This show had it High Roads and its Low Roads. I’ll leave the Low Roads for Uncle Trunx, but I will mention the High Roads. This show did a great job in catching the Christmas spirit. Everybody was dressed in the Christmas spirit and every match had something Christmas related. TNA managed to do something that I thought was not possible and that was to make an entire show based on everything that is Christmas.
Low Road: I applaud their effort and creativity, but have to note that as usual, the backstage nonsense and extra curricular activity ruined the show. Why were Team 3D messing about with midgets? What’s all that Christmas party nonsense? It reminded me of the worst of WWE in about 1995, when they had Todd Pettengill doing this sort of rubbish. I agree with Joe’s sentiment, that the time ought to be allocated for wrestling. That, to me, is what is holding TNA back. Too much goofy nonsense taking up time where wrestling should be and in the matches themselves. Loser wears a reindeer suit? I hated that sort of thing in 1987 and it hasn’t grown on me since. Humbug!
Austin Stuns Santa
High Road:
This was awesome at the time because Santa making an appearance on a WWE show was very rare. Now, it seems like Santa makes a yearly appearance at the WWE. I might be wrong, but I think that this happened in 1996, when Austin was just starting to develop his character. All I can say about this is that it was awesome at the time, but it has not aged well at all.
Low Road:
Stupid segment which WWE insists on repeating all the time. Topical character, in this case Santa, gets in the ring so Stone Cold can deliver a stunner to them. It wasn’t funny then and isn’t now. Humbug!
Trish and Mickie Plus Mistletoe
High Road:
Now, this is something that I remember. This was when Mickie James was Trish’s number one fan. This was an excellent way to use the mistletoe because we all knew that Mickie was in love with Trish, so it makes sense for her to try to get a kiss while using some mistletoe. Plus, how is Trish and Mickie making out not a High Road.
Low Road:
Mickie is great. Trish is great. The angle was fantastic and this segment was a joy for sad lonely men everywhere. However it was extremely brief and wasn’t making out so much as a very swift, stolen peck. Plus we no longer have the greatness that is Trish in WWE, and Mickie seems to have lost her way somewhat until very recently. It could be so much more and reminds me of how great this angle was, something we’ve not seen since in the diva division. Humbug!
Santa’s Little Helpers Tag Match – Team Mickie vs. Team Melina
High Road:
This is something that the WWE does every year. We will see the divas teaming up together and wearing Christmas related stuff. It has become a WWE custom. Now, a point could be made that this happens too much, but I for one am a fan of this. This has never hurt the show and it has become somewhat of a Christmas tradition.
Low Road:
I’d be all for this if it was any sort of decent; I may be in a minority here, but I’d like to see women who can wrestle. What we saw there was a whole load of time wasted with bad singing, (a joke which stopped being funny after one outing), botched snapmares and rope running, (basic wrestling which a first year trainee ought to be able to pull off) and a total lack of psychology and drama. Even the hot tag was botched and didn’t feel at all special. Yes, it’s nice to see women in skimpy clothes, but there are other channels and publications which scratch that itch far more effectively. I’d rather see the focus on the women who can wrestle and do so well, rather than trying to get as much partially covered flesh into the ring as possible. Humbug!
The Rock’s Twelve Days of Christmas
High Road:
I don’t remember seeing this at the time, but I found this doing a search on Dailymotion. The lyrics that the Rock is singing is awesome, but it is about Test? That really hurts this segment and one of the reasons that it is not managed that much. Definite High Road on this because of the Rock and the fact that the lyrics are awesome.
Low Road:
The Rock was a very funny man, and some of his promos were laugh out loud funny. This was no exception and reminds me of how hard it has been to find someone to fill the void left since the Rock has been gone. WWE is poorer for him not being there. Humbug.
Boiler Room Brawl – Mankind versus Santa Claus
High Road:
Now, I don’t remember seeing this originally and I found this doing a search. There were some good things in this with Mankind telling Santa that he can take the win. That is something that Mankind would do. But, besides that this is make a definite Low Road, when the multiple Santas came out.
Low Road: I love Mick Foley and I love a lot of what he has done, but this isn’t one of his better matches. As Sat said, the multiple Santas adds nothing to this; it just turns into a generic WWE backstage walkabout brawl with props. This mocks and makes light of Mick’s brutal legacy. Humbug!
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. We hope you’ve had a very Merry Christmas and will have a Wonderful New Year.
Well, at least one of us does…
Humbug!
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