Ricardo Rodriguez Opens Up About Issues With Having Non-Wrestling Role In WWE

Even though he was a trained professional wrestler, Ricardo Rodriguez spent the bulk of his WWE career in non-wrestling roles, primarily as Alberto Del Rio's personal ring announcer. It was a spot he was given as soon as he joined the company, and Rodriguez admitted it was "hard at first," for him to deal with that. 

"Just letting go of that ego of I can't wrestle anymore, I have to be a ring announcer and I have to kind of swallow my pride a bit at first, that was tough at first," Rodriguez admitted to "Under the Ring." "In hindsight, and obviously we live life backward sometimes because we learn backward, but we are expected to experience it and live it like we've already lived it." Rodriguez originally trained in the Mexican Lucha Libre style, and did get some limited opportunities to showcase his in-ring qualities while with the company. Some of those matches took place in the role of Del Rio's ring announcer, while others came in dark matches where he got to wrestle under a mask. However, he had a unique entrance to WWE, as his first opportunity came with being a ring announcer, and he was signed on the spot from that.

"I got put on the road immediately so I didn't go to developmental, I just went with Alberto right away and kind of went from there," Rodriguez said. "It wasn't until two months later that I ended up going to Florida, that I went to FCW and I was very rarely at training because I was already on the road ... I was never at training so I went backwards in the process."

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "Under the Ring" with a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.