I feel bad for Alberto Del Rio (Rant)

[BigJerichool222]

Despite being given so much, he's been given so little.

I'm not certain if I'm in the minority or not, but I thought that Alberto's face run as World Champion was fantastic. A lot of people just write it off as OH WELL IT WAS JUST RICARDO BEING OVER, but I will disagree with that completely. Del Rio works so much better as a babyface. They could have done so much more with the Mania buildup between He and Swagger...so many missed opportunities. THANKS A LOT WEED. THANKS A LOT GLENN BECK.

And even before that, he had so much momentum heading into WrestleMania 27. And what happens, he not only loses to Edge, but Edge with an INJURED arm, completely kills the Cross Armbreaker dead by staying in it far longer than anyone had any right to be at that point. Del Rio not winning that match is one of the very, VERY few things that legitimately upset me as a fan of WWE. And then because Edge retired, they gave the belt to Christian so Del Rio moved to Raw where what little was left of his momentum DIED in filler feuds with Big Show.

With no momentum left he won Money in the Bank and then the WWE Championship. He started what appeared to be a Bo Dallas-esque character of being a Champion of the People, but then lost the belt immediately to John Cena because.....um....well Cena was angry and uh....he needed a 10th WWE title reign cause it sound better than 9? Del Rio was somehow in negative momentum at this point, and even when he won the belt back and retained it in a LMS match, all the focus was on the godawful Awesome Truth. Then CM Punk mercy killed his title reign where he was made to look like a f***ing joke the entire buildup.

Then of course, we transition to the ever popular SHEAMUS vs. DEL RIO matches (of which there were only THREE, despite what the popular picture implies), but the problem was Sheamus came out on top every time. Eventually Del Rio turned face thanks to 3MB and randomly won the World Title off of Big Show and that's where I personally think his career began to be saved. But people liked Dolph Ziggler better and a double turn happened and HOW DO THEY TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THAT SWEET DOUBLE TURN? By having Del Rio go through forgettable, boring matches with Ziggler, Christian and RVD until Cena just randomly got a World Title shot because he's John Cena.

And as much as everyone complains about overbooking Del Rio, he hasn't gotten anything worth of note since then, except for tiny adorable Mexican flags that aren't even there anymore. HELL, Del Rio is only in the main event of MITB because he qualified before they were sure of Daniel Bryan's condition.

So yeah, I'm sure I'll get a lot of responses to the tune of WHO CARES, DEL RIO SUCKS. But he really kind of doesn't suck. I'm not a huge fan of his, but I still feel kind of bad for the cards he's been dealt. Every time they have a chance to do something with him, he got the rug pulled out from under him.

[Magic knows Black Lives Matter]

On one hand, Alberto has been given a raw deal. The few times he actually had any momentum (the build to WM 27, face run), he got his legs cut out from under him. It doesn't help that WWE insists on having him beat the same six jobbers over and over again in the exact same match.


ON THE OTHER HAND, ADR can EAD.

[Perd]

That's a lot of perrographs.

[thelonewolf527]

But we already knew that...

[kinginthenorth]

I was a HUGE Del Rio fan going into Mania 27. Did great heel work, Ricardo was funny, great wrestler. And I was still a fan for a while after that, but...I dunno. He just got...f***in' boring. I mean, he's not bad, he can have a good match. But I just...don't care.

[BorneAgain]

Del Rio is like ceremonial royalty (JBL: descended from kings Maggle!) in WWE. Given the proverbial crown and a nice comfortable position, but no real power, influence, or legacy. Beyond the triumph of WWE's beyond stale heel formula of taking away every interesting element, his lack of injuries or time off have meant his repetitive booking has happen with even greater frequency than with other talent. He's stuck in the ultimate limbo of being important enough to tap out Kofi, but not vital to ever advance, evolve, or change.

WWE Limbo has many prisoners, but Alberto may very well be its king.

[slappy]

I agree and disagree.

I agree that Del Rio could be used better but I disagree that Awesome Truth was god awful.

The first thing he needs to do is lose the "perros" and "chihuahuas".

[slappy]

Jun 22, 2014 22:58:32 GMT -5 BorneAgain said:

Del Rio is like ceremonial royalty (JBL: descended from kings Maggle!) in WWE. Given the proverbial crown and a nice comfortable position, but no real power, influence, or legacy. Beyond the triumph of WWE's beyond stale heel formula of taking away every interesting element, his lack of injuries or time off have meant his repetitive booking has happen with even greater frequency than with other talent. He's stuck in the ultimate limbo of being important enough to tap out Kofi, but not vital to ever advance, evolve, or change.

WWE Limbo has many prisoners, but Albert may very well be its king.

King of the Ring 2014 winner. Do it WWE.

[Starshine]

Even some of his face run was sabotaged when they had the bright idea to book his big Mania title defence to be against perennial midcarder Jack Swagger.

A proper Ziggler/Del Rio feud following the double turn was one of the biggest missed opportunities I can remember in a long time. IIRC both were pretty damn hot immediately after that.

[Deleted]

I feel bad for people having to watch ADR. He's just one guy. Millions are punished when he appears on TV.

[kinginthenorth]

Jun 22, 2014 23:06:46 GMT -5 Starshine said:

Even some of his face run was sabotaged when they had the bright idea to book his big Mania title defence to be against perennial midcarder Jack Swagger.

A proper Ziggler/Del Rio feud following the double turn was one of the biggest missed opportunities I can remember in a long time. IIRC both were pretty damn hot immediately after that.

What really sabotaged his face run was RUNNING OVER SANTA.

[Red Impact]

The rich guy gimmick has been played out for a while, and unfortunately it's always going to be compared to Million Dollar Man, who played that role as absolutely perfectly as it could be in wrestling. No one that has followed has really been able to match what made it good, despite how many different permutations they try to give it.

[metylerca]

Edge beating Del Rio was to get WrestleMania started on a high note. WWE is a face-centric promotion and will almost always put the face over on the big stage. I do think Del Rio should have beaten Christian or whomever took over for Edge in the rematch, but there was nothing fundamentally wrong with Edge winning that night. And as it stands, it now serves as a great sendoff to one of the modern greats.

[tekkenguy]

I think Alberto is a great worker, but his gimmick has been stale for ages. He went from "Rich Mexican Heel" to "Mexican Face" to "Mexican Heel." I believe he should stick in the midcard rather than get shoved into the main event all the time. I'm sure he'll put on a great performance from MITB, but I don't think WWE sees him as main event material anymore. There are many heels above him right now, like Lesnar, Orton, Batista, Rollins, Wyatt, and Cesaro.

Alberto's momentum was killed with those horrible WWE title reigns back in 2011. He was booked like a coward and nobody bought him as a threat. Likewise, his feud with Sheamus put neither man over and just devalued the WHC.

[Raskovnik]

I feel bad for him because people underrate just how insanely talented he is because of poor booking decisions combined with some shitty meme that no one ever cared about him. It's definitely frustrating.

[Bear Skin Rug]

He was a hot babyface during the Big Show feud. I thought it was the last great work we've seen from either guy.

But the Swagger angle seemed to go on FOREVER and of course they stuck him in a bunch of comedy vignettes instead of being a fiery, Pride of Mexico babyface.

I think they should have used a few weeks to have Del Rio mend his relationship with Mysterio to show that he was truly a changed man.

[xxshoyuweeniexx]

Jun 22, 2014 23:06:46 GMT -5 Starshine said:

Even some of his face run was sabotaged when they had the bright idea to book his big Mania title defence to be against perennial midcarder Jack Swagger.

A proper Ziggler/Del Rio feud following the double turn was one of the biggest missed opportunities I can remember in a long time. IIRC both were pretty damn hot immediately after that.

I still think Del Rio/Swagger could have been bigger if WWE didn't pussy out with Zeb and Swagger. Have them basically rip off JBL's border patrol and do stuff like that, Swagger tossing illegals over a fence while Zeb cheered him on, then Del Rio shows up and makes the save. But once people got actually offended at Zeb's tame illegal alien promos, which can't fly in today's corporate and child friendly WWE (though no one's complained about the xenophobic racist Rusev shit yet but I digress) and then add on Swagger's getting busted for weed...yeah there was no was the build up was gonna be anything good or major with those two things looming over their heads.

[Deleted]

I still don't think he was a good baby face (how long is "I like Mexico, I like the USA, immigration is always good!" going to be a nationally-popular character?).

But I do think ADR could and should be a respected and successful heel or face. He has ALL of the tools he needs. But WWE won't let him be interesting. They took away the wealth, the flamboyance, and the Ricardo. What's left? Aggression? Yawn. He's a very good wrestler. But it's like D-Mac's heel run when he debuted where the writers seemed to think making a guy agonizingly boring masked people boo him. No it doesn't. That failed. This failed.

Del Rio is a classically-trained luchador, who knows all the ways to really emphasize everything about his personality...if he's allowed to have one.

[Nic Nemeth]

And even before that, he had so much momentum heading into WrestleMania 27. And what happens, he not only loses to Edge, but Edge with an INJURED arm, completely kills the Cross Armbreaker dead by staying in it far longer than anyone had any right to be at that point. Del Rio not winning that match is one of the very, VERY few things that legitimately upset me as a fan of WWE.

Momentum but not a single ounce of charisma, the crowd were cheering for Santino to win the Rumble and literally went complete silent on his victory. WWE made the wise choice by giving Edge the win to cement his legacy.

With no momentum left he won Money in the Bank and then the WWE Championship. He started what appeared to be a Bo Dallas-esque character of being a Champion of the People, but then lost the belt immediately to John Cena because.....um....well Cena was angry and uh....he needed a 10th WWE title reign cause it sound better than 9? Del Rio was somehow in negative momentum at this point, and even when he won the belt back and retained it in a LMS match, all the focus was on the godawful Awesome Truth. Then CM Punk mercy killed his title reign where he was made to look like a f***ing joke the entire buildup.

I agree with you here, they made a complete mistake there. They should have never given him the title at all or let him win MITB. There were seven far more deserving talents in that match. Hell the fact the crowd died there too was hilarious. When they let him cash it in, it's when I truly despised him and finally felt how devalued the WWE Title was that it went from the hot Punk-Cena feud to an accessory to get ADR over.

Then of course, we transition to the ever popular SHEAMUS vs. DEL RIO matches (of which there were only THREE, despite what the popular picture implies), but the problem was Sheamus came out on top every time. Eventually Del Rio turned face thanks to 3MB and randomly won the World Title off of Big Show and that's where I personally think his career began to be saved. But people liked Dolph Ziggler better and a double turn happened and HOW DO THEY TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THAT SWEET DOUBLE TURN? By having Del Rio go through forgettable, boring matches with Ziggler, Christian and RVD until Cena just randomly got a World Title shot because he's John Cena.

Again I agree with you, the follow-up plan should have been to let Ziggler beat ADR clean at Summerslam after overcoming Langston and AJ then transition into a face champion.

HELL, Del Rio is only in the main event of MITB because he qualified before they were sure of Daniel Bryan's condition.

Which is why I wished they had retcon it and placed him in the briefcase one and put someone more deserving in the actual one or just kept it at 6. It's pretty much who out of six will win the title not who out of seven.

[Starshine]

Jun 22, 2014 23:51:24 GMT -5 xxshoyuweeniexx said:

Jun 22, 2014 23:06:46 GMT -5 Starshine said:

Even some of his face run was sabotaged when they had the bright idea to book his big Mania title defence to be against perennial midcarder Jack Swagger.

A proper Ziggler/Del Rio feud following the double turn was one of the biggest missed opportunities I can remember in a long time. IIRC both were pretty damn hot immediately after that.

I still think Del Rio/Swagger could have been bigger if WWE didn't pussy out with Zeb and Swagger. Have them basically rip off JBL's border patrol and do stuff like that, Swagger tossing illegals over a fence while Zeb cheered him on, then Del Rio shows up and makes the save. But once people got actually offended at Zeb's tame illegal alien promos, which can't fly in today's corporate and child friendly WWE (though no one's complained about the xenophobic racist Rusev shit yet but I digress) and then add on Swagger's getting busted for weed...yeah there was no was the build up was gonna be anything good or major with those two things looming over their heads.

It would have also helped if they'd built up Swagger a little before he was shoved into the title picture. Guy leaves for a bit as a total jobber, and returns as a main eventer out of nowhere. Del Rio really needed a more legitimate heel to work with at that point.