Alberto Del Rio left the WWE last August 2016 after failing a drug test and asking for his release. Since then, he has returned to Mexico to wrestle and has also worked on outside ventures saying that he will probably never return to the WWE. In an interview with Sam Roberts on his podcast, Alberto Del Rio talked about his WWE career and touched on what he considers the stupidest angle he was asked to work .
Before he entered the WWE, he wrestled under the name Dos Caras Jr. and was a second-generation star whose father Dos Caras and uncle Mil Mascaras were considered two of the best Luchador wrestlers in the world for their era. However, the WWE wanted him without his mask and under a different name.
Alberto Del Rio said that he was worried about losing the mask because of the Luchador legacy and because he didn’t want his father to be disappointed in him. However, he said when his father told him that he should do it to become a WWE superstar, he knew it was the right decision.
“I’m happy I made the decision to remove the mask because when I did that I was able to do other stuff, other business. Sometimes I just think about my Uncle, Mil Mascaras, and he’s a perfect example; nobody knows him without his mask so he can’t do anything besides being Mil Mascaras.”
After taking on the role of Alberto Del Rio, he enjoyed great success winning four world titles in the company before his first departure. He said a lot of the reason for his success was because he chose to start in developmental in Florida and that helped him learn the American style.
To emphasize this, Alberto Del Rio mentioned how the original Sin Cara failed so miserably in the WWE. While Sin Cara was a huge Mexican star as Mistico, Alberto Del Rio said he came to the WWE with a chip on his shoulder. He demanded to be moved straight to the main roster with no stop in developmental and couldn’t adapt.
“It was a complete failure. He had the opportunity to do amazing things; he had his own referee, had his own guy that used to drive him around. He had a translator and everything, but it didn’t work.”
When the WWE originally fired Alberto Del Rio, it was after an incident when someone backstage made racial remarks to him and Del Rio slapped him in response. Alberto Del Rio left the WWE and did some good things in Ring of Honor and back in Mexico while biding his time.
However, when the WWE brought him back as a surprise challenger to John Cena and the United States Championship, what looked like a successful return never worked out. Alberto Del Rio said that he had lost his passion for the WWE around this time and realized he had made a mistake in returning.
Part of the misery was the angle he entered immediately upon returning. Zeb Colter had developed a great stable with the Real Americans of Jack Swagger and Cesaro. They got over with the fans, despite being heels, and the WWE chose to start the Mex-America storyline by putting Alberto Del Rio and Zeb Colter together, something Del Rio calls the stupidest storyline he worked in the WWE.
“The ‘Mex-America’ storyline was so stupid because nobody understood what we were trying to do. I couldn’t understand what we were trying to do so the people didn’t click with it because it was just really confusing.”
Alberto Del Rio then moved on to the League of Nations storyline, which was just created to put Roman Reigns over with the WWE fans , and that was where things ended for him before leaving the WWE once and for all.
[Featured Image by WWE]