Have WWE Wasted Alberto Del Rio?

[Guest Matt Black]

Whether you give a toss about the guy or not, surely it was depressing to see former world champion Alberto Del Rio claiming that he was passionate about chasing the Intercontinental title on Superstars this week.

 

I mean seriously, this guy was once up there with Super Cena, and now he's squabbling over the second-string belt with losers like R-Truth and Bad News Barrett.

[Guest Ciaran The King]

WWE have totally wasted Del Rio

[Guest Matt Black]

WWE have totally wasted Del Rio

 

Which is strange, when you consider the fact that he's a genuinely sound worker and the WWE is desperate for talent that can succeed at the level he's proved capable of performing at.

[DC 536]

Whether you give a toss about the guy or not, surely it was depressing to see former world champion Alberto Del Rio claiming that he was passionate about chasing the Intercontinental title on Superstars this week.

I'd rather look at it like the IC Belt is an important title to someone who is a former World Heavyweight Champion. Kind of like a promotion for the belt rather than a demotion of Del Rio.

 

In general, any title should be an aspiration to all wrestlers on the roster. After all, in the worked environment, the champions are the most important positions on the show. Besides, Sheamus is the US Champion and haven't seen anyone ask if he has been wasted by WWE.

Which is strange, when you consider the fact that he's a genuinely sound worker and the WWE is desperate for talent that can succeed at the level he's proved capable of performing at.

He is a sound performer, but apart from a brief period, he's been really dull. I blame losing Ricardo.

 

Plus, for some reason he would pull his kneepad down before hitting a superkick. I still haven't worked out why he did that and it annoys me every time he does it.

[Guest Matt Black]

I think you have a point with the loss of his valet, it makes him seem like just another guy in shiny trunks with no reason to be there week in, week out.

 

But with Shamus and the US title, I don't know, there's just a part of me that feels from the way he's been booked as a strong champion and almost seemed to win the title as an afterthought, he's just being placed on hold until the time is right for another World title run.

 

Del Rio hasn't actually won the IC belt yet and he's yapping about wanting it like his life depends upon it, kind of makes him seem like a loser to me.

 

Maybe it's because I always see the IC title as a stepping stone for the elevation of a wrestler, rather than as the stopgap that it appears to have become in recent years. Seems that so many guys who have won the belt numerous times never go further. I want to see the IC and US championships around the waists of current mid-carders who stand out as clear prospects to step up to the headline level (i.e. not RVD, Christian or Barrett).

[Omega 354]

Del Rio was a waste of a title run. Dull doesn't even begin to describe him and without Riccy Rod he has nothing. His in ring style is unremarkable even if it's technically sound. His constant push from Face to Heel didn't help because he's the WORST face ever.

[Guest Inno]

The definition of dull. AlBOREto Del Rio. If he was released/resigned tomorrow, I wouldn't miss him.

[Guest Gomi]

Del Rio had two great moments in the middle of a pinada of shit last year though. The Ziggler double turn and the IKEA table of doom LMS win over Big Show.

 

I think he can be useful but he needs something fresh. Maybe have him smashed in the head and develop a split personality, where he wears a mask and wrestles as a face as Dos Cara's Jnr and carries on as ADR as a heel the rest of the time.

 

Make him fued with himself and culminate at a blowoff match at Wrestlemania where he flips between masked and unmasked hitting himself senseless like in fight club.

 

See, this is how far one must go to get productivity out of ADR these days.

[Guest BeorimJ]

I am on the same page like Inno and Omega. I never felt anything for ADR, except a bit of glee every time he got pounded by Sheamus or Big Show or Ziggler.

He is boring, his in ring abilities might be sound, but Cena is a sound worker, and (almost) nobody defends him because of that.

 

ADR is no "wonder" in the ring, and his promos he does on his own are bland and boring - so WWE are using him more than they should. Hell, i think they should have released him, and build up Yoshi Tatsu as a midcarder ^^

[Evil Gringo 279]

That's the thing with ADR, a nail that has been hit on the head a thousand times in this thread. The dude can go in the ring, he has constantly expanded his move set, had good matches with quite a few people and aside from needing to drop the step up, springboard enziguri (he slips off the ropes so many times and botches it ffs) there is nothing that needs to change in the ring.

 

But like everyone has said, he is dull. His character is the problem here, it has been flipped and messed about with for no reason and no build. He has no reason for doing anything now, he has no real gimmick other then rich Mexican and he seems helpless to make a change by himself and also the WWE seem apathetic to doing it themselves.

 

Also part of it is the IWC as well. When he first was heel and won the Rumble and so on and so forth we all wanted him to do well, win the belt etc, etc. Then he does and for some reason at some point turns face, well we all abandon him and turn against him. Turns out the reason the IWC loved him wasn't because of ADR, it was all down to Ricardo Rodriguez.

[dsrchris 190]

I think ADR not winning the title at Mania from Edge was a big deflater of his hype too. It seemed to knock all the wind out of his sails.

[Guest HH-Evolution]

I have to agree there - He was treading water very much after that, although no foul on Edges part at all for that one really.

[dsrchris 190]

Oh yeah, it totally wasn't Edge's fault, it's just one of those weird times where events transpired against ADR, and he was never able to fully recover.

[TPIB 62]

Had WWE and Edge known that he would be forced to retire after WrestleMania 27, then things probably would have panned out differently for Alberto Del Rio. While a lot of blame can be put on WWE for how Del Rio has been booked, some of the blame has to be put on Del Rio, as well. For the past couple of years, Del Rio has been very lackluster. It just seems like he has given up on his career before it's even over. Not to mention the fact that Del Rio is a victim of the unwritten WWE rule that disregards how over someone else is outside the company. Sure, Del Rio was over in Mexico, but we have all learned that, in WWE, that doesn't matter.

 

I think that Del Rio came into WWE expecting to be the next Eddie Guerrero, but when he had to start from the bottom, I think that caught him a bit off-guard. Still, I think WWE tried their best with Del Rio. They have given him more than his fair share of World Title reigns. Maybe they tried to push him too much too soon, but the ship has seemed to sail for Del Rio at this point. Maybe WWE didn't take kindly to Del Rio's lackluster attitude about his spot in WWE and just decided that Del Rio was not worth their time.

 

Whatever reasoning you want to use, the bottom line is that Del Rio cannot get over with the fans anymore and I don't see WWE giving him any more opportunities to be their top guy (especially with WWE now only having one World Title). Del Rio should just return to Mexico and be glad that he was able to achieve a moderate amount of success in WWE. Del Rio has accomplished a lot more than other guys that have been in his position (take the original Sin Cara, for example) and his time in WWE will definitely help his star power when he returns to Mexico.