Forgotten Favorites 06.01.10: Unforgiven 2006 – Randy Orton vs. Carlito

&fsWelcome back, wrestling fans. Living in a world without Lost isn’t easy, but at least I have the sweet joy of wrestling to comfort me in my time of need.

This past week, when I wasn’t binging on old island mysteries, I was going through my list of possible featured matches for this thing called Forgotten Favorites. I learned this: 1.) Having an excuse to watch old wrestling tapes is the most beautiful thing ever, and 2.) I won’t run out of matches for a long time.

To get into the spirit of the mindblowing new revolutionary PPV concept, next week we’ll be going into the Fatal 4 Way territory. I already have a choice in mind (which shall remain a mystery), but I’m interested to hear what you guys can come up with as well. Multiple weeks of Fatal 4 Ways is not a bad thing. That, says the yoga specialist, is a good thing.

In light of recent events involving a certain former Intercontinental, United States, and Unified Tag Team Champion, this week we’ll be taking a look back at what might’ve been, along with possible reasons for why destiny never seemed to take its proper course.

So, who wants great wrestling?

Unforgiven – September 17, 2006
Randy Orton vs. Carlito

HOW IT WENT DOWN

As the Freshest of Princes once said, Okay, here’s the situation… You’ve got two young hot performers who are, despite being over with the crowd and possessing unique and marketable personalities, going through a rough patch in their careers. One of them is the victim of a trigger being pulled too quickly, stuck floundering in the upper midcard for some time as a result of the poor foresight of those guiding his career. The other is an entertainer who has been on the verge of superstardom for years and yet is still struggling to make the leap to that next envied level of top billing. The rest of your card is well organized and matched up, with your major and secondary title rivalries already in place, and yet you still have these two young guys left over, talent that you’d like in the top spot but for one reason or another it hasn’t quite worked out.

So what do you do? No-brainer, wrestling fans; you put these two guys up against each other and see what happens.

Randy Orton made history at the 2004 installment of SummerSlam, becoming the youngest wrestler to ever win the WWE’s top prize when he defeated Chris Benoit for the World Heavyweight Championship. Unfortunately, the period of time that followed his title victory, all the way up until the latter months of 2006, was not nearly as groundbreaking for the Legend Killer. His failed World Title reign and face run led to a painfully drawn out burial at the hands of the Undertaker once Orton dove back into heel waters, a multi-month rivalry that did next to nothing for the second generation star. For most of 2006, save a few shining moments of domination here and there, Orton played the role of jobber to the stars, repeatedly laying on his back for the “more important” guys of SmackDown and Raw’s main event scenes.

Throughout all of his poorly-booked failings at the time, it remained clear that, despite their questionable methods of achieving their goals, WWE remained confident in Randy Orton’s potential as a star. This idea was hammered home when SummerSlam ’06 rolled around, when Hulk Hogan returned to have what has been to date his very last WWE match. You don’t just put anybody in the ring on PPV with Hogan, and the E’s choice to give the spot to Orton was a sign that the company still had faith in the man who would later become the villainous Viper. But even then, with all the awareness that a PPV match with Hulk Hogan can earn, Orton still came up on the losing end to an aging legend in a midcard match. Again, it’s another case of poor booking hurting Orton in a big way, where while the match itself helped Orton’s career to an extent, it might’ve helped him a hell of a lot more had the match been given stronger promotion as well as ended up being a victory for the heel. I mean, he is the Legend Killer after all.

Another guy who had been floundering in the midcard attempting to regain past successes was the former United States and Intercontinental Champion Carlito. Winning the US Title from John Cena in his first WWE match, as well as picking up the IC Title in his very first Raw match, Carlito seemed destined for great things at the top of the card. But after both his US and IC Title reigns fizzled out, the E seemed unsure of exactly what to do with the apple-spitting entertainer. He tagged with fellow flounderer Chris Masters for a period of time, even making it into a WWE Title Elimination Chamber match, but this ended up being nothing more than momentary flirtations with the main event scene. Turning face after the dissolution of his partnership with Masters seemed to be the jolt that Carlito’s career needed, but even then the creative team were still scratching their heads on what to do with the guy.

Luckily for Carlito, things looked like they might be turning around as the summer of 2006 progressed. He was earning solid face pops from the crowd, was once again a serious contender for the Intercontinental Title, and the lovely and ever-over Trish Stratus was suddenly standing by his side. Although he might not have made it onto the card for SummerSlam that year, Carlito remained optimistic about his future on the Raw brand. And even then, missing out on SummerSlam was still better than making it only to be laying down for an over-the-hill washed-up old man.

Observe as Carlito and Randy Orton have a less-than-friendly confrontation on the night after SummerSlam …

Later that night, Orton stepped into the ring with Ric Flair for one on one competition. The Nature Boy put up a noble fight, but his best efforts were not enough to compete with the awesomeosity of the RKO, resulting in a pinfall victory for the Legend Killer. Being full of rage and anger and heelishness, Orton was not satisfied with simply defeating the 16 time World Champion, and after the bell he unleashed all sorts of evil destrucity on Flair. The referee, being the true humanitarian he is, decided that the unsportsmanlike behavior called for a reversed decision, and the match was awarded to the defeated Nature Boy. Of course, this just added more fuel to Orton’s heelish fire, and he was all set to resume the kicking of the ass… BUT WAIT! Out from the back comes the ever-cool Carlito to deliver Orton his babyface comeuppance and save the day!

The following week on Raw, it was revealed that there was some emotional strife existing within the world of one Carlito Caribbean Cool. It had been announced that Carlito’s sort-of girlfriend Trish Stratus was going to be leaving WWE after Unforgiven, the upcoming PPV event. The undeclared couple were trying to sort out this complication backstage, but their intimate moment was ruined by the interference of Randy Orton, who barged in on the two and violently slammed both of them into a wall. Straight up no good evilness right there.

But justice does indeed exist within pro wrestling, because later that night Orton paid for his sins against love. He was on the verge of defeating Jeff Hardy in a match to determine the Intercontinental Title’s number one contender when Carlito appeared to spit some tasty apple goodness in the Legend Killer’s face, causing enough of a distraction to allow Hardy to pick up the victory and title shot.

The next two weeks were all about six-person tag team action, featuring a pair of matches that saw Orton and Carlito mix it up amidst the other top stars of the Raw brand. One week after costing Orton his number one contender’s match, Carlito teamed up with Trish Stratus and John Cena to take on Randy, Edge, and Lita, in a match that saw Lita get the pinfall over Trish following Orton’s fiendish RKO on Stratus. The next week on the September 11th edition of Raw, Carlito once again teamed up with Cena, this time with Jeff Hardy joining the mix, to earn a victory over the team of Orton, Edge, and Johnny Nitro.

And so with neither man having earned a decisive one on one victory over the other, it was necessary to settle it inside the ring at Unforgiven. The Legend Killer was looking to re-establish himself in singles competition, and Carlito was setting his sights on getting that all important major PPV victory over a former World Champion.

So could Orton get himself back into the main event slot with an impressive showing? Or could Carlito finally make good on all the hype WWE had been building him up with since his debut?

WHY IT SHOULD BE REMEMBERED

As much as I can’t believe I’m going to start this thing off by defending Ultimate Warrior, there’s something about his recent war of words with Ted DiBiase that’s been on my mind, and I think it’s applicable to the case of the recently released Carlito. In this vintage 80’s throwback of a showdown, DiBiase has criticized Warrior as being a guy who was completely dependent upon his opponent to guide him through a match, essentially calling him a roided up, mindless meathead with no wrestling know-how whatsoever. Warrior has countered these claims by reminding the Million Dollar Man that comparing the drawing power of the two is laughable, considering Warrior made so much more goddamn money than DiBiase could’ve dreamed of. And more than that, Warrior questions what kind of respect DiBiase shows to the business when the fiendish millionaire suggests that it’s possible for a guy with no knowledge of the business whatsoever to achieve the successes that Warrior enjoyed, including going over the biggest hero of all time at WrestleMania. By DiBiase’s logic, success in the wrestling industry has absolutely nothing to do with an individual’s talent and everything to do with whether or not Vince McMahon wishes to create a star. And not only does that not sit right with Warrior, it’s leaving a bad taste in my mouth as well.

And so the question is this… Can a wrestling company simply “make” someone a star, regardless of a wrestler’s (lack of) skills and (low) level of talent?

As much as this may upset the Goldberg-critics, the answer is most definitely a resounding No.

Vince McMahon, or any wrestling promoter, can desperately want someone to succeed, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that their wishes are going to come true. I don’t think the Ultimate Warrior was a tremendously gifted ring technician, but the guy had to have some idea of ring psychology and theatrics or else he never would’ve started turning heads in the first place. A company needs to believe in the individual, of course, because without the support of the higher-ups it’s next to impossible to make it (See: the WCW midcard, ’97-Death), but success is also impossible without the right execution by the talent. Criticisms can be thrown at guys like Goldberg, Warrior, and even Batista for lacking in certain technical areas, but, without an understanding of a live crowd and how to respond to the audience, all the company support in the world wouldn’t have made a difference.

And so this brings us to Carlito. Here’s a guy who, from day one, was baptized in the waters of “Pre-Ordained WWE Main Eventer,” given push after push, title after title, and opportunity after opportunity. This last part, opportunity, is the key here, because when comes down to it, all that WWE can offer to its talent is the chance to show both the company and the audience that they’ve got “it.” WWE could make Carlito the United States Champion. They could make him the Intercontinental Champion. They could even make him a challenger in a WWE Title match. But they couldn’t make Carlito… at least not completely. All they could do was give the guy the ball and see if he could run with it. Unfortunately, more often than not, it seemed as if he couldn’t.

One of the main criticisms that comes Carlito’s way (the Pacino reference had to come eventually) is the popular IWC trend of calling the guy lazy, unmotivated, and lacking any passion for the business. I’ve always been irked by this, as most of the people making these allegations are fans with no closer link to the business than I am, people who know absolutely nothing about Carlito’s personal life, his experiences, and his career goals. Strangely enough, a lot of this Carlito-hate stems from his participation in one of the IWC’s favorite activities: bashing the WWE’s creative staff. Dissatisfaction with your superiors does not in any way translate to being uninspired or any less of a company man, nor does it make you a prima donna who is simply complaining about his spot on the card. Carlito was not happy about the direction his character he was being taken, and he voiced his disapproval. He’s not the first wrestler to do it, and he surely won’t be the last.

Of course, further complaints against Carlito are regarding his delivery inside the ring, when at times he seemed to be underperforming or phoning it in. When it comes to this area of Carlito-dissent, I can’t offer any kind of all-encompassing defense, because admittedly the guy was simply not on for many, many outings. The best that I can do is remind myself (along with my fellow obsessors via the wonder of 411) that despite his lack of, er, on-ness on several occassions, the fact remains that when he was performing to the best of his ability, Carlito showed no lack of star potential.

To back this up, I offer you Unforgiven 2006. I consider this match with Randy Orton to be one of Carlito’s last great performances, where the Puerto Rican-born grappler understood what was on the line and delivered whole-heartedly. Carlito’s moves are crisp, well-timed, and impressive, all while he takes the time to properly acknowledge the crowd and keep them hot. Credit goes to Orton, of course, but, going back to the Warrior argument, a competitive and engaging match is not fought by one guy. Carlito brought his A-game to Unforgiven and even in a losing effort he looked the closest to a star that he’d been since his brief rivalry with Cena.

The point of going back and checking out a match like this is that, short as it is, it proves that Carlito was more than just company hype. He may have had his flaws, and he may have had less-than-stellar performances throughout his career, but the fact remains that the dude had/has the potential to be at the top of the sport. Whatever it may be that’s restricting his development — be it the alleged laziness or perhaps the recently revealed drug problems — it is seriously impeding the progress of what could be a very successful wrestling career.

Based on the WWE’s midcard of 2004, the main event scene of the present day might’ve been predicted as such: John Cena, Randy Orton, Edge, Shelton Benjamin, and Carlito. Of course, we’ve had some surprise explosions since then (Batista, Mysterio, Jeff Hardy), but even up until a couple of years ago it seemed that Carlito and Benjamin might eventually catch up to their fellow ’04 midcarders. Sadly, while both guys were capable on the mic and in the ring, neither was able to remain consistent in both areas. Benjamin struggled on the stick, and Carlito was never able to consistently perform at the level that he showed himself sometimes capable of. It’s a shame considering the successes that Cena, Orton, and Edge all blazed past them to enjoy.

Carlito was never the best wrestler on Raw or SmackDown. He was never the guy tearing the house down, and I can’t recall any event where I’d point to the guy and say he stole the show. The best description of his WWE career that I can come up with is years of mediocrity sprinkled with flashes of brilliance. And yes, I believe that this Unforgiven match is a display of one of these flashes. If Carlito could’ve kept up having the kind of match he had with Orton on a consistent basis, keeping the fans on the edge of their seats by combining a unique character with fun and realistic ring-action, then I firmly believe Carlito would be right up there at the top of the Raw or SmackDown card, duking it out once again with Cena and Orton with greater main event implications.

WHY IT ISN’T REMEMBERED

Carlito was given multiple opportunities to break the glass ceiling and prove himself as the main event quality contender that WWE higher-ups believed him capable of becoming. From runs with midcard singles titles to clashes with top card talent to even competing for the WWE Title on PPV, Carlito experienced botched push after botched push, always seeming poised to elevate to the next level right when the rug was swept out from under him. Whether portraying the apple-spitting asshole or the smartass babyface, the character was so unique and well performed that a main event slot as either a hero or a villain would’ve suited Carlito perfectly well. Yet, it never happened.

In the Fall of 2004, John Cena was red hot with the WWE audience. His reign as United States Champion had been going strong ever since the Doctor of Thuganomics defeated The Big Show at WrestleMania, and although he was still in the midcard, Cena was easily the most popular wrestler in the company. Thus, when the debuting Carlito won Cena’s belt in his very first WWE match, the title change was a bit of a shocker. Right off the bat, viewers were being told that this Carlito dude was going to be a big deal. When you job your most popular star out for his title on television against a stranger to the American audience in said stranger’s first match, you’ve obviously got high hopes for this new guy.

The only problem was that the high hopes never really materialized into anything. An injury cut short his reign with the US Title, and the Intercontinental Title that he won in his Raw debut several months later ended up meaning just as little for the guy’s career. From there we had alliances/rivalries with Chris Masters, Ric Flair, and his own brother Primo, and yet none of it really seemed to matter. The career that was once saved by the potential of the brilliant “flashes” slowly degenerated into something lacking any “flashes” at all. Over time, Carlito went from a main-event-groomed talent to just another midcard jobber, useful only for Beat The Clock matches or other throway qualifying contests.

It all comes back to the original point that Warrior was getting at with DiBiase. A company can try their damndest to make you into their next big thing, but if the performer isn’t up to task then the whole thing is going to fall flat on its face. For all of the talent that Carlito appeared to possess at times, it just wasn’t clear that he possessed that talent all the time. From Billy Gunn to Mr. Kennedy, there have been a variety of cases where the performer has seemed capable and the company has seen willing, and for some reason or another the individual is just not able to make the right things happen inside the ring. Carlito is just another in a long line of guys who seemed to have all the tools necessary to make it, and for one reason or another they were just never able to put it all together and make it happen.

All the Carlito talk aside, there’s a reason this match doesn’t stand out when reviewing Orton’s best performances. This is definitely a great match here, but it’s far from on the level of some of Orton’s performances over the last couple of years since he’s truly come into his own. And as we covered before, this wasn’t exactly a time for career highlights in the life of the Legend Killer. He spent the majority of 2006 looking up at the lights and was far from a legitimate contender for either brand’s World Title. His career was only taken on an upswing immediately after his match with Carlito, when Orton formed an alliance with fellow evil-doer Edge and the two embarked on a quest to destroy D-Generation X. When you’re talking 2006’s Randy Orton, you’re talking about “Eddie’s in hell”, jobbing to the Hulkster, or Rated RKO, and that’s about it. Rated RKO was the shot in the arm that Orton desperately needed at the time, and it was at that point that he started on the main event path that WWE had hoped for from the beginning. Therefore, it stands to reason that whatever immediately preceded the path’s beginnings would be swept up under the rug to a certain extent.

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BONUS MATCH(!)
Raw – March 12, 2007
Money in the Bank Qualifying Match
Randy Orton vs. Carlito vs. Ric Flair

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Feedback! (The Return!)

“…get ’em GOLDIE!!”

Posted By: Booker T

OMGzz!!!1! Black Snow reads Forgotten Favorites!

What a bizarre combo these two, but my god did they have great chemistry.

Posted By: 5time5time5time5time5time

This was a funny pairing that I wish got more time. Really, there wasn’t much reason to back then. They had great movie reviews too, IIRC.

Posted By: Guest#0475

The contrast in personalities is exactly what made this an awesome team. The fact that they were both insanely gifted performers didn’t hurt either. I demand a Booker/Goldust reunion tour. I demand it.

I know opinions are subjective, yada yada…

BUT

Once again, you picked a dud. There is a reason this match is ‘forgotten’. It just wasn’t very good…..

Posted By: This column is flawed

My column can’t exactly be flawed based on your reasoning, but your logic might be. Opinions are indeed subjective, and since I’m choosing my own favorites there is really little room for error. Unless, of course, I am confused as to which matches are my favorites and which aren’t, which I guess you can make a case for but probably not. Also, if this match was indeed forgotten, as you have suggested, then it seems to be a perfect fit and not quite a flawed choice in any way.

Whatever the case, I find that match pretty damn entertaining.

I thought booker t and goldust were a fun team but I always sort of looked at them like the poor mans rock n sock connection

Posted By: SuckA

I see where you’re coming from, but I attribute this largely to the direction the company took the team. Rock’N’Sock were legendary performers, but they were also booked to be an integral part of the program. Goldust and Booker might not have achieved what Rock and Foley did, but they could’ve at least been given a little more exposure or roles of more importance. I think they could’ve accomplished a lot more within WWE, not to mention make the company a lot more money.

I loved Booker & Goldust, just so funny, that Lumberjack segment is pure gold.

Posted By: jbardo

It was hard not to include every Goldust/Booker clip I found on YouTube in last week’s column. Every skit was beautiful.

A great example of WWE “dropping the ball” with that team. They waited waaaaay to long to put the titles on Bookdust, and then had them lose the titles right away. A lengthy title rain would’ve been MONEY. Too bad nobody realized it…..

Posted By: Uwe

I’m totally with you, Uwe. Booker and Goldust were at insane levels of overness when they were teamed up, and WWE never did anything to capitalize on it. I still believe this was the peak of Booker’s career/overness, as everything he did within his face role at the time was pure money. Goldust was also his best in years, and yet nothing ever came of it.

you forgot the classic 7/11 skit!

Posted By: shabba

As I said a few comments up, I wanted to include all of these classic moments, but there were just so many and I didn’t want to bog down the column with too many videos. I strongly encourage any fan of Booker, Goldust, or joy to go to YouTube immediately (after reading the rest of this column) and search for clips of this tag team. From the 7-11 to Darth Vader to the hotel bedroom, these are all pivotal moments in wrestling history.

I loved Book/Dust. I had completely stopped caring about both guys by Wrestlemania 18 but the evolution of their team brought me back as a fan of both guys. I think it was arguably the strongest period of both of their careers for their characters.

Someone above called them a poor man’s Rock and Sock, but I don’t see anything poor about them. The problem was that the WWF didn’t capitalize on the momentum of either guy after the team split. Booker T. did make it to the title match at Wrestlemania 19 due to how over he got with Goldust. If there was ever a time for him to be a legit World Champion it was then, but Hunter kept the title and Booker dropped back into the midcard where he would stay until they ran out of options during the King Booker period.

Goldust came out of the tag-team with an almost inspirational character. He could have continued as a strong upper-midcard babyface, but then he was saddled with the unfortunate electro-induced turrets gimmick. He never even got a proper feud with Orton to blow off the assault and he’s undeservedly been treated as nothing more than punch-line ever since. I’m sure this statement will be argued, but I wholeheartedly believe he could be a much more valuable asset to the company than they allow him to be. At the very least he should have had an angle with Cody.

This odd couple pairing was a formula that worked remarkably well twice now. In both cases Booker and The Rock constantly seemed like they were on the verge of attacking their weird new friends. I was so expecting Foley to receive a Rock Bottom during the this is your life segment and Goldust to suffer a Booker led NWO beat down to establish T’s allegiance to the group. Then the unexpected thing happened and the freaks won over their skeptical partners with their loyalty and dependability. It was like a pair of mis-matched buddy cop movies.

I’d love to see them do this again. I guarantee it would have worked for MVP if they’d developed a partnership between him and Santino to turn him face instead of the much weaker losing streak angle. Santino’s really the only guy I can think of in the WWE right now who has the Mankind/Goldust lovable goof quality enough to get something like this over.

Posted By: Schmidty

Well-said, Schmidty; I agree with everything. I was never much of a Goldust fan until he teamed up with Booker, and I think it was this pairing that really brought out the absolute best in the performer and his character. He took a bizarre freak of a character and made himself into something sympathetic, along the lines of Foley’s Mankind, and he somehow made it work. To this day I remain a supporter of Goldust, both the performer and the character itself, and I think he still has another strong run left in him. I’d say he just might be in his best ring shape since his time spent with Booker T, and he could be a valuable asset to the tag division or as a consistent midcard hand.

That was a damn good match

Posted By: Phil

Damn right it was damn good.

If they bring back Shelton, I wouldn’t mind if Goldust teamed with the Gold Standard.

Posted By: Guest#5227

They might be able to run another similar Odd Couple type pairing with the two, with Shelton being so anti-personality and Goldust basically being the cartoon that he is.

Great tag match. Of course Raw/HHH would just shit on all the momentum Booker and Goldust had coming into 03.

Posted By: BlackMan90

Ah yes, 90th BlackMan, for it seems that HHH was quite fond of shitting on many things back in 2002. But remember, it was far more important to focus on the proven draws. Like… Scott Steiner… and… Kevin Nash…

Wait, what was I saying?

Meh… good match but nothing special and I do usually agree with your choices… and REALLY man a Khali match??

Posted By: Chad

The Khali thing was a test. I figured I’d alienate a large portion of my audience with the JBL/Show match and then I’d completely cut all the fat the next week by offering Punjab Playboy Precautions. Then this week only the true Forgotten Favorites fans would come back around and stand behind me, like monkeys ready to be shot into space, ready to serve the greater good, blowing up credit card companies and shit.

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That’ll do it for this week. Until next time, you guys stay safe and out of Dundalk. And to whoever asked, it’s Dundalk, Maryland. Beware. It is menacing.