Welcome to another eWrestlingNews Question of the Day!
Yesterday’s question was whether Lio Rush (and/or someone else) should join MVP’s Hurt Syndicate in AEW. Today, after WrestleVotes spoke out about the potential of Carlito being removed from The Judgment Day, we’re shifting gears to talk about someone leaving a faction and how that could/should happen.
My question for you today is “Should WWE take Carlito out of The Judgment Day? If so, what should he do next?”
Remember to answer with your response in the comments below.
As far as my answer…
Depending on what they want to do for the next few months and at WrestleMania 41, I do think this is something worth exploring. In the grand scheme of things, I’ve never really liked Carlito being part of this group.
LWO was too bloated of a faction, I’ll agree to that. Carlito was being lost in the shuffle. I always like him better as a heel, too, so I was down for that turn. But putting him in The Judgment Day just meant he was immediately in the same position, but in a different group.
I had said before when this first started that I was curious why Dominik Mysterio didn’t leave as well and create his own group alongside Carlito. Now, I don’t think that’s necessarily an option, as it would require too many moving parts and it just doesn’t seem like that’s where this story will go.
It boils down to two avenues, in my mind. Either they go with a romantic connection between Carlito and Raquel Rodriguez so they can team up and offset Dirty Dom and Liv Morgan, while Finn Balor and JD McDonagh are a pair in their own right as the tag team champions—all of which doesn’t really mean much, to me, and I don’t think there’s much to get out of that setup—or Carlito does get removed somehow.
When I’m looking ahead at Mania, I’m not seeing many, if any, options for Carlito. Realistically, he’s not going to be a priority. Dom will get a match of some kind, but it might be a multi-man setup. Balor and McDonagh could very well still be the tag team champions defending their titles, or can be one of the teams in the mix for the belts as challengers if they lose them in the meantime. But unless we get The Judgment Day together as a unit against The Wyatt Sicks, in a setup of Bo Dallas, Erick Rowan, Joe Gacy, Dexter Lumis, Nikki Cross and maybe a returning Alexa Bliss against Balor, McDonagh, Mysterio, Carlito, Morgan, and Rodriguez, I can’t see another full Judgment Day lineup working. And without that being the case, Carlito just gets relegated to being a member of the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal.
Outside of that scenario, which I don’t mind as far as a means to get The Wyatt Sicks on the card (and, mind you, that would free up the tag titles to be defended with other teams like American Made, War Raiders, etc), I can’t see anything happening with Carlito, and I think the rest of The Judgment Day struggle to get on the card in that case, too.
So let’s say that doesn’t happen and isn’t planned. Then, I fully advocate removing Carlito from the group and doing something else with him.
My suggestion would be to put him in NXT. While it sounds like a downgrade, I would view it more as a chance for him to be working with a fresh set of talent and doing something different. He could pass on a lot of knowledge to the younger guys there. Frankly, it would be the best opportunity for him to win a title, too, as I could see him holding the North American Championship far more than I could see him winning the Intercontinental or United States titles any time soon. Or, better yet, maybe he finds a tag team partner that he takes under his wing and they become NXT tag team champions. No one stands out to me right now as the best fit for that role, but I never would have thought to pair him up with Chris Masters, and they got a lot of mileage out of that. Maybe he’s perfect to team with Lexis King or Eddy Thorpe or Javier Bernal or something.
As far as my prediction goes? I think WWE will keep him in the group and do the Wyatt Sicks match at WrestleMania 41, or keep him in the group and he just gets lost in the shuffle before being excommunicated with a bigger split of The Judgment Day post-Mania when they’re prepping for the 2025 WWE Draft. I don’t think by May 2025 he’ll still be in this group, but they might not be removing him by the end of 2024.
What do you think? Drop your thoughts below!
