According to WWE.com, Del Rio was released for "unprofessional conduct and an altercation with an employee." You'd think guys would be minding their P's and Q's knowing WWE is basically looking for places to trim money. Del Rio apparently gave them an excuse to do so.
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Never was a fan of his. I found him to be very boring and while his ring work was fine I never got why the WWE was so high on him and kept pushing him to the top. Considering how he's been booked the last six months or so either his contract was running out soon or he fell out of favor. No big loss there. I wonder where he ends up with TNA possibly going out of business I don't see any options for him in the States.
I hope he and Ricardo do a reunion tour in TN... uh, somewhere. Mexico.
good worker. not a fan. managed to flop as both a world champion babyface and world champion heel in less than one year. may Ziggler never be armbarred again.
I hope he and Ricardo do a reunion tour in TN... uh, somewhere. Mexico.
good worker. not a fan. managed to flop as both a world champion babyface and world champion heel in less than one year. may Ziggler never be armbarred again.
I don't think flop is really a fair word for his title runs. And considering how they turned him babyface, and how they booked him, I wouldn't hang that all on his head, either.
Worth noting his in-character name only is being used on WWE.com, which isn't usually how they go about this.
Originally posted by JustinShapirogood worker. not a fan. managed to flop as both a world champion babyface and world champion heel in less than one year. may Ziggler never be armbarred again.
This is without even mentioning that he's one of the main culprits that helped bring the Summer of Punk momentum to a screeching halt.
Man, how messed up is it that Del Rio's final match would wind up being an unofficial Loser Leaves America match with Jack Swagger?
ADR had a lot of promise, but just about every aspect of his push wound up being so wrong-headed. The Royal Rumble win? Bad idea. Sacrificing the white hot Cena/Punk summer feud to give him a title run? Bad idea. Turning him babyface without explanation? Bad idea. Feuding him with heel Ziggler? Bad idea. Putting him over face Ziggler? Bad idea. Feuding him with Sheamus? REALLY bad idea. Taking away Ricardo and feuding him with Rob Van Dam? EXTREMELY bad idea!
His career turned into such a comedy of errors, I can't help but feel sorry for the guy. He should have been something better than this, you know?
(edited by It's False on 7.8.14 1745)
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Not a huge fan of his either, but WWE has no clue how to book other nationalities so I don't totally blame him for not winning me over.
If I remember correctly he was just finding his groove as a heel when they flipped him to a face for a Mexico tour. He never really recovered from that.
Originally posted by JustinShapiroI hope he and Ricardo do a reunion tour in TN... uh, somewhere. Mexico.
The thing is, Alberto moved his extended family from mexico to Florida about a year ago and TNA's been desperate for their own Latin star (and then managed to give up on the idea every time they sign someone.) They would be a perfect fit for TNA if they were where they were a year or two ago (figuratively and literally.)
Both Mexican promotions should be going after him, but he may not want to go back full time to Mexico. I always figured he'd be with WWE until he decided he was done full time anywhere and would just do a couple matches a year in Mexico (as most old luchadors do.) He's got the option of going on the Chris Masters/Carlito ex-WWE tour of random shows in strange locales, he's got the option of touring Mexico for high priced indy gigs (Sin Cara/Mistico is getting paid well for those) or maybe he could decide to just sit at home and do nothing. He's got options and Roberto Rodriguez maybe got some more bookings.
Also: WWE sent out a press release just a couple hours prior listing Alberto Del Rio as one of the guys appearing on the WWE Mexico tour. Not so much! Since Sin Cara II is busy getting squashed on the app, that makes Torito the biggest latino star on the roster. I always figured Kalisto would be working those Mexico shows, but I wonder if WWE will be looking to grab someone else from Mexico (which would set off a whole 'nother line of dominos) or if they're abandoning their once really big plans for the country.
From what I've read about him, he was interested in going back to Mexico and continuing his career there, so the lack of options stateside might not matter to him. I've heard his desire to return to Mexico was what fueled his reluctance to re-up his contract.
I was a big fan of his in-ring work, as he was almost a guaranteed *** PPV match any time he was on the card. His sliding superkick was sick, and the corner enzuigiri gorgeous. Also loved his vignettes before his debut.
Of course the character was one-note, and taking Ricardo away from him was not a good idea. His pushes were horribly shoehorned and perfect examples of how not to handle a push, but I'm not sure how that was his fault. I'll miss him.
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Originally posted by It's FalseADR had a lot of promise, but just about every aspect of his push wound up being so wrong-headed. The Royal Rumble win? Bad idea. Sacrificing the white hot Cena/Punk summer feud to give him a title run? Bad idea. Turning him babyface without explanation? Bad idea. Feuding him with heel Ziggler? Bad idea. Putting him over face Ziggler? Bad idea. Feuding him with Sheamus? REALLY bad idea. Taking away Ricardo and feuding him with Rob Van Dam? EXTREMELY bad idea!
Yeah, pretty much all of this. I do think that the Ziggler double turn at Payback 2013 was one of the more interesting things that happened last summer, so I'm okay with that one, but really, Del Rio was pushed to the moon to the point that, after 2011 there was nothing interesting for his character to do.
The best Del Rio moments were the Punk match in MSG that began his year-long run and being Edge's opponent in his last match. Both occurred in 2011.
Beyond 2011, all I can think of are the Ziggler feud and his match with Christian at SummerSlam last year as high points.
Giving him the Royal Rumble win, MITB, and the cash-in over Punk at SummerSlam 2011 were all terrible ideas. Maybe one of those would have worked (okay, not the Punk one), but all three? They really messed up with him.
My perspective is that Del Rio lost his momentum when he failed to beat Edge for the WCW title at Wrestlemania 2011. Del Rio had been built up for the longest time as being someone who's destiny was to win that title. After that, even winning the WWE belt was not sufficient to get him back on track since it wasn't the title he'd been chasing. While he eventually did win the Big Gold Belt, he had cooled off a lot by then.
Also, when was the last time they didn't wish someone well in their future endeavors?
Considering that he was waiting out the rest of his contract anyway, I don't think ADR's terribly heartbroken about this development. I wouldn't even put it past him to have finally said 'Enough of this' and start a fight backstage hoping to get fired, knowing that they were just looking for an excuse to cut some contracts.
Wasn't really a fan of him as a heel or a babyface, to be honest, and once he lost his personal ring announcer he was pretty much just there. Don't have anything in particular against him tho, so best of luck to him. Maybe since he's in Florida anyway he'll sign on for the Last Days of TNA then head to Mexico.
On a completely different, but far more important note, WWE also released Mark Yeaton a few days ago. Mark Fn Yeaton, who worked there for ages! What a shame.
(edited by Tyler Durden on 8.8.14 0822) #RIPWarrior #YesMovement
Originally posted by Tyler DurdenOn a completely different, but far more important note, WWE also released Mark Yeaton a few days ago. Mark Fn Yeaton, who worked there for ages! What a shame.
(edited by Tyler Durden on 8.8.14 0822)
These reactions always amuse me. Perhaps Yeaton was looking to retire and his contract ended/expired? This is usually the case with long time referees that are let go as well.
As for ADR. It's a shame he never rose to that level that WWE intended for him. They gave him the opportunities, he tried really hard both as a face and a heel. But he really was one of those guys that was a good solid upper-midcarder, jobber to the champion. He's one of the people that should've held the IC title for ages.
In the end, it's no big loss for WWE. In fact it opens slots for guys like Rusev, Cesaro, and others coming up.
I think the biggest problem was the "spinning their wheels" with ADR's character after the rare double heel/face turn after Ziggler came back from a concussion.
Del Rio's face turn wasn't bad actually. Fans were behind him as he defended his title against the Big Show in a very unique ending to a last man standing match I've ever seen. It's just his run as a face champion got steamrolled by how over underdog show-off Dolph Ziggler had become that infamous night after Wrestlemania. When Ziggler returned at Payback (after Swagger halted the angle by injuring Ziggler the week of the previous PPV) ADR and Ziggler adjusted on the fly with the live crowd which was the smartest way they could of handled that.
Also ADR is a great worker but how invested can people be in a character that hasn't developed in years? He started out as an arrogant Mexican aristocrat when he debuted and stayed that way with the exception of being the Mexican People's Champion as a good guy for a few months. I think the lack of interest he had was not from lack of trying.
He was almost too convincing with showing legit anger during matches. Such as the last match Sin Cara Uno had and ADR starts kicking and stomping on him after his injury was confirmed, or when he would make people tap to the armbreaker and proceed to stiff kick the shit out of them until they rolled away or this awesome thing:
Cole: "Yeah, thanks to Kane. You should buy Kane a Rolex watch for what he did for you."
Rollins: "Oh don't be silly, Kane doesn't wear watches."
Originally posted by CruelAngel777 Del Rio's face turn wasn't bad actually. Fans were behind him as he defended his title against the Big Show in a very unique ending to a last man standing match I've ever seen.
This one is my favorite Del Rio match. I remember wondering "Where has THIS guy been all this time?" Showed a lot of spunk.
Was there ever a Del Rio t-shirt? Did anyone buy one?
Thread rated: 6.20
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