Carlito : Is he THE NEXT BIG THING??
Whilst I have always loved the gimmick and Carlito's charisma, I am honest enough to admit that during his Smackdown days, Carlito was only ever average at best in the ring, and a lot of the time not even that. He didn't have any of the high flying moves he uses since turning face (and I think the fact he adapted his moveset to suit turning face was excellent), whenever he had a decent match he was carried, and he never really had an established finishing move.
His improvement over the past year or so is phenomenal, and now I can be proud to say I am not just a fan of his mic skills, but now he is an all rounder, which I believe should guarantee him a main event berth for years to come. I firmly believe his match at Vengeance was the best match of his career, and the phenomenal thing to stood out to me was that he was the star of the match, and outshining Benjamin in the ring is one hell of an achievement, even if Shelton was only allowed limited offence in the match.
If Carlito does live up to his potential it will be one of the WWE's greatest ever discoveries. A few months back I read an article about him in 'Powerslam' wrestling magazine (non kayfabe as you ask) and it spoke about how Carly Colon had never shown any star potential, he had always been overlooked, he was a poor mic worker and he couldn't do much in the ring. And somehow, the WWE brought out his inner charisma, had enough faith in his ability to do weeks of promos to hype him up before he debuted, and then put the US title on him over Cena on his debut. Talk about a meteoric(sp?) rise to fame.
I give WWE so much credit for finding the perfect gimmick for him, taking him from nothing to a star of the show, standing by him when he was clearly very flawed, and actually keeping him in a high up spot on the card. They had him interrupt a promo between Austin and Piper at Wrestlemania 21, they gave him his own talk show, they turned him face and he showed he is just as capable at being a face as being a heel, and all of those thing show just how much faith the WWE have in him, and just how capable he is.
If Carlito doesn't become a champion, and a complete legend in the WWE, he cannot blame the WWE for not giving him a chance, and whilst I might prefer Shelton in the ring to Carlito, Carlito is the best all rounder of the WWE's young talent, and he is the only young guy on the roster right now (I don't really count Cena or Orton in this cause they have both had the gold and been reasonably long term main eventers) who has a chance of breaking through into the elite club of Austin, Rock and Hogan, that's how highly I rate him right now.
WWE have booked him perfectly to this point, they just need to keep him in feuds and not just let him float around the midcard meaninglessly, and he will surely make it huge. They had him as runner up in the Elimination Chamber to show that his time would come, but he wasn't ready yet, and I hope in 2007 he gets to fued with Edge and Orton, to show he is capable of being a big time player, or go heel again in about a years time and feud with HBK, to show he is capable, and then in 2008, or late 2007 if the WWE needs a new star quickly, Carlito can hopefully get the title, and become one of the most famous ever.
So basically the question I am asking is, do you think Carlito can become one of the most famous guys in wrestling history, or is he majorly overrated?
