The Alberto Del Rio Appreciation Thread

[The Brain]

Alberto Del Rio gets a lot of hate around here. Good for him. He is a heel and his job is to be hated. He’s such a good heel that he’s even hated in a place where it’s cool to like a guy that is supposed to be hated. Sorry ADR but I love you. Del Rio has the qualities that everyone here looks for in a heel and people don’t even realize it because he’s so good.

Del Rio looks like a star. He acts like a star. He has the natural confidence of a star. Everything about him fits his character perfectly. His expensive cars, his music, his personal ring announcer, his scarf, his wink, everything. Ricardo Rodriguez is a great lackey. He is not a manager or a business associate. He is a lackey. He is always willing to sacrifice himself in any way for Del Rio. ADR is Rodriguez’s top priority and that makes ADR seem even more important.

I’m convinced the only reason people hate Del Rio is because CM Punk buried him on the mic last year. There’s that evil word again. Buried. It’s overused but accusing one wrestler of burying another is seemingly the worst thing you can say about someone around here. Unless of course you’re IWC poster boy CM Punk. Then burying someone is cool. Punk told everyone that Del Rio is boring and just like that the majority of the IWC decided to believe it. Punk accused Del Rio of just repeating the same thing over and over. This led to countless posts of people regurgitating Punk’s words as their own causing them to become boring by repeating the same thing over and over. Had Punk made that comment about anyone else the IWC would have simply agreed with that and they would not be so hard on Del Rio. I didn’t realize being repetitive was such a terrible thing in wrestling. Maybe I’m wrong. If you think repeating the same thing every week makes a character boring give me a hell yeah. What?

What’s most interesting to me is the same people who call Del Rio stale and boring are the same people that sing the praises of people like Dolph Ziggler and Cody Rhodes. I don’t have any hate for those two but I don’t see how anyone can call them so great while calling Del Rio boring. Ziggler does nothing to stand out from the pack. His generic music can be given to pretty much any other heel. He was paired up with Vickie not because they fit naturally together but in a desperate attempt to get him some heat. Rhodes is ok but is he any better on the mic than Del Rio? He’s well spoken but what’s with the monotone gimmick? Monotone is pretty much a definition of boring and Cody has been doing this monotone thing for over a year. I don’t see how either of these guys are any better than ADR.

If anyone else recognizes Alberto Del Rio for the great character he is please share your thoughts here. If you want to insist on still hating the man, that’s fine too. After all, he wants you to hate him. But you already knew that.

 

[Con T.]

Vince had one of these
But Rio threatened to quit
And made Vince Cranky.

 

[George Steele's Barber]

He 's incredibly good at what he does but a gimmick tweak may be in order. Like only speak in Spanish and insult America a lot or make Ricardo carry him to the ring or reveal that his family made their fortune by bribing Clinton to sign NAFTA or reveal that he is really an Armenian aristocrat (Americans don't really know where or what Armenia is) or that he is responsible for making Ricky Martin the man he is today.

I would hate him more if I didn't appreciate his taste in fine automobiles and unfinished looking tattoos.

Next feud he should pummel his nemesis unconsious backstage and then strap him to the front of one of his cars as a hood ornament.

This was unproductive, stay thirsty my friends.

 

[Alastor]

I like him, but I won't turn the channel over to watch him, if that makes any sense.

 

[Harthan]

I founded the Alberto del Rio fan club like, six years ago. <3

 

[Death Before Disco]

I agree with The Brain completely. He's a great heel overall, but I'd like to see him more vicious. His match with Santino this week on RAW was a good start.

 

[FunKay the Inevitable]

He's solid in the ring, but he's by jove is he dull.

 

[Poop Master Flex]

Del Rio is awesome and is one of my favorite 5 in WWE currently.

Personally I think everything about him is great. I think he's solid in the ring, plays his heel character great and like mentioned he just has natural confidence and charisma, when you look at him he just looks and carries himself like a star. He's the Mexican Million Dollar Man and I think he has a lot of things going for him, especially Ricardo Rodriguez which helps his character greatly. Lastly he's legit, I know that doesn't always matter but it helps. I know Alberto could kick my ass and sometimes little things like that can go a long way.

Sure, a lot of what he does I've seen before but right now (assuming Johnny Ace is gone) he is probably the #2 heel right now behind Daniel Bryan. Del Rio will only go up and he's pretty high on the heel totem pole as it is.

 

[Coco]

I'm not going to hate him. I'm going to change the channel. Let's see how he likes that.

 

[Pera]

I'd rather Robbie E.

 

[Big Nick Dudley]

He's not bad, just boring.

 

[SD619]

Though his second reign was rather meh, he was really impressive in the weeks leading to Hell in a Cell.

 

[justinsayne]

[youtube]yg2u_De8j5o[/youtube]

 

[Mayonnaise Warrior]

I like his armbar.

 

[FitFinlay4Life]

I think he is an excellent villan but (here comes the controversy) I think Ricardo Rodríguez is actually his Achilles heel. ADR was most over when Roberto stuck to his job description and ring announced (with the odd bit of interference thrown in), it's no coincidence that his stock has dropped since RR has become the heel equivalent of Santino. Yes, the Punk and Cena burials didn't help his case but how do you take him seriously (especially given his tough style within the ropes) when Rodríguez is getting on like a spoiled child in the background?

I firmly believe that the biggest step Alberto could take to reestablishing his original potential is to absolutely obliterate his cheerleader.

 

[Mr. Artistic guy]

Del Rio is weird in that he is a guy that WWE put so much stock into and worked so hard on the presentation of, but ultimately doesn't have the essential things to make him as good as they want him to be.

He has a great look, good music, the personal ring announcer touch which works well, the cars, the golden pyro, the scarf, the suits, he's even very good in the ring. When he was feuding with Cena ans Punk last year they presented him as a man that could legitimately get the better of them in the ring and could potentially win in a clean match, if he wasn't so busy being dirty. He pulled it off in the ring. They don't work as hard on the presentation of anybody else you'll see.

But contrary to what has been said, the one thing which he in fact LACKS, is that natural charisma. Whilst other great heels make you listen, they force you to take note of what they say and can genuinely rile up and audience with their words, Del Rio doesn't have that. He doesn't communicate his words with passion, he just talks them. You can almost see the script in your mind when he's talking. Unfortunately, your ability to communicate your character convincingly to people is what sells matches, unless you happen to be like Punk and Bryan when people watch regardless purely for in-ring work.

Del Rio is good save for on thing. Unfortunately for him and the WWE, it's the most important thing there is. Being entertaining.

But I feel the same way more or less for Ziggler. Rhodes, on the other hand, I feel has had a hard time recently. they've barely given him a bone to chew on despite proving that he delivers when they do.

 

[Dowdsy McDowds]

Dat armbreaker