10 REAL Reactions From WWE Wrestlers Being Punished On Air
3. Carlito (Monday Night Raw, 2007)
This is...sort of brilliant.
Wrestling apocrypha has it that Ric Flair's scathing verbal assault on Carlito during a 2007 edition of Monday Night was entirely unscripted and orchestrated as such in order to get the best possible reaction from the second generation star. If that was the case, it was an expert choice, not least because of the motivation behind the b*llocking.
Carlito was set to leave with Torrie Wilson for the night having lost the match before running into a downtrodden 'Nature Boy' who tore strips off him for taking his entire life for granted. Channeling his own self-confidence issues as well as his psychotic dedication to the craft, Flair ripped into him for being entitled and unappreciative of the opportunities he'd had and would have again. He spoke like he believed it. And if he didn't, plenty within WWE did.
The whole segment was devised to try and motivate a sagging Carlito, with Flair selected as the perfect mouthpiece for the job. It fed into a pithy mutual respect tag team between the two thereafter, and more's the pity. That had none of the spice this was loaded with.