Alberto Del Rio On Why He Was Pushed In WWE, When WWE First Contacted Him About A Return, MexAmerica
On episode 121 of Sam Roberts' Wrestling Podcast, professional broadcaster and professional wrestling enthusiast Sam Roberts caught up with Alberto el Patrón, formerly WWE's Alberto Del Rio. During the podcast, Del Rio talked about why he was pushed during his first run with WWE, getting fired by WWE, and why his second run with the world's largest professional wrestling promotion failed.
According to Del Rio, he was pushed during his first run with WWE because the company was lacking stars at the time.
"They needed new stars. When that happened, all the big stars were retiring, going into movies, or soap operas, or whatever. They were not working for the company anymore. They needed new stars and that's the reason they started pushing me. And they did it well. And, I mean, in such a short period of time, I became one of the most relevant wrestlers, in like 10 months. And then, that other incident happened and I had to leave the company the first time."
On the subject of getting fired by WWE, Del Rio said the reason was "completely stupid" and it showed him that he could do well without WWE. According to 'Mexico's Greatest Export', WWE called him about returning to Titan Tower only three months after he was turfed and again after seven months. When WWE scoffed at the money he wanted to come back, 'The Mexican Aristocrat' reminded them that it was them calling him and not the other way around.
"I mean, it was a person doing a racist joke and I will never understand how in the hell it was me that went in and then [ended up] losing my job. I don't want to really get into that. It was pretty stupid, but at the end of the day, it was me that won, winning in the situation because they were calling me back. And they were calling me back, like you have no idea how many times they called me. They actually called me three months after they fired me to bring me back to WrestleMania in California and I said, 'no way'. And then, they called me, they kept calling me and the same very important person from the company called me seven months after to bring me back and I threw a number out there and he said 'Alberto, this is ridiculous' and I said, 'don't forget that it's you who is calling me, not the other way around.'"
Del Rio claimed that he made just as much money on the independent scene as he did in WWE while working fewer dates.
"I'm not going to lie. The first two or three days I was really worried about being fired, but after the second [or] third day, I had people calling me from everywhere and I did amazingly. I was making the same amount of money that I was doing in WWE, working once or twice a week, so I was like, 'oh my God! This is fantastic! Why was I there for so many years?'"
With respect to his second run with WWE, Del Rio admitted that no one understood the MexAmerica gimmick.
"It's because they? the storyline that the company had for me was pretty stupid. The MexAmerica storyline was so stupid because nobody understood what we were trying to do. I didn't understand what we were trying to do, so, the people? it didn't click with the people because it was just really confusing."
Del Rio said that all of his friends were gone from the company by the time of his return in 2015 and that he did not relate to a lot of the younger talents.
"I did everything in my power to make it work, but the storyline wasn't there. And then, from there, I started to feel like I was not comfortable with the company. All my friends were gone, Rey [Mysterio], Edge, Chavo [Guerrero]. All my friends weren't there. I was just there in the locker room surrounded by great kids, great, great guys, but we're different generations. And they were [reading] comic books and playing video games on their iPads or whatever. And I'm just from a different generation. I remember Vince saying this to me, 'why don't you try to blend [in] with the guys?' I said, 'because we're so different. I read books. They play video games and they read comic books. They're 19, 20 years old. I'm 38, 39 years old, so we have nothing in common."
Del Rio divulged that he was unhappy during his second run and that prompted his departure.
"They brought me back and I was just unhappy." Del Rio continued, "I was there. I was just not happy. That's the reason I decided to quit. I said, 'you know, my contract is going to be up in two months and I'm not coming back. See you guys.' And they did everything in their power to keep me there, but I just didn't want to be there."
Find out what's the haps here. If you use any of the quotes from this article, please credit Sam Roberts' Wrestling Podcast with an H/T to WrestlingINC for the transcription.
Source: Sam Roberts Wrestling Podcast