Alberto Del Rio: Lie, Cheat, & Stealing a victory?

[CM Steel]

Did anybody catch Smackdown this past friday? Where in the Rob Van Dam vs Alberto Del Rio match RVD was giving ADR the business in the corner of the ring with those extreme blows. And ADR was yelling at the ref "no more" in spanish and to stop the match because RVD was too much for him. But as soon as the ref pulled Rob Van Dam back off of Alberto, Del Rio sucker kicked RVD in the head and went for the victory. After the match Alberto Del Rio had the nerve to celebrate outside the ring wildly with "the big gold" belt like he just won the lottery.

So Alberto Del Rio "lied" to the ref about quitting the match. Pretty much "cheated" to get the win, and "stole" the victory from Rob Van Dam who has now been defeated in a one-on-one match for the first time since his return to the WWE. A play out of the playbook of the late great Eddie Guerrero! But Alberto Del Rio did it in a dirty way in a sence.

But how did you call it?

 

[Jack G]

It's a shame this was done to RVD; the whole spot was to boost the heat on ADR...any jobber could have filled the spot RVD was in, all with the intention of making ADR look devious.

I think Eddie was so much more creative with it; and somehow by doing so became a heel we loved! The comparison is small, I don't think ADR is at any level near Eddie.

On a positive I think it just draws out the character of ADR until the next feud for the PPV. These things need to happen every so often because a major storyline can't be told each week (unfortunately). Although, from that I'd expect RVD to retalliate...but I fear he wont and was just a jobber for the night.

 

[Fire Marshall Bill]

Did anybody catch Smackdown this past friday? Where in the Rob Van Dam vs Alberto Del Rio match RVD was giving ADR the business in the corner of the ring with those extreme blows. And ADR was yelling at the ref "no more" in spanish and to stop the match because RVD was too much for him. But as soon as the ref pulled Rob Van Dam back off of Alberto, Del Rio sucker kicked RVD in the head and went for the victory. After the match Alberto Del Rio had the nerve to celebrate outside the ring wildly with "the big gold" belt like he just won the lottery.

So Alberto Del Rio "lied" to the ref about quitting the match. Pretty much "cheated" to get the win, and "stole" the victory from Rob Van Dam who has now been defeated in a one-on-one match for the first time since his return to the WWE. A play out of the playbook of the late great Eddie Guerrero! But Alberto Del Rio did it in a dirty way in a sence.

But how did you call it?

ADR will never be Eddie Guerrero. I'm not even one of those huge Eddie Guerrero supporters. I just know how bad ADR has been doing at getting over. I will admit he's actually doing better recently, and almost think he shouldn't get Ricardo Rodriguez back because it'll take the spotlight off ADR. But his character does not make sense to lie, cheat and steal. It makes more sense to buy, manipulate and pay off.

It's a shame this was done to RVD; the whole spot was to boost the heat on ADR...any jobber could have filled the spot RVD was in, all with the intention of making ADR look devious.

I think Eddie was so much more creative with it; and somehow by doing so became a heel we loved! The comparison is small, I don't think ADR is at any level near Eddie.

On a positive I think it just draws out the character of ADR until the next feud for the PPV. These things need to happen every so often because a major storyline can't be told each week (unfortunately). Although, from that I'd expect RVD to retalliate...but I fear he wont and was just a jobber for the night.

They did it with RVD because it gets ADR more over as a heel and it gets RVD his first loss while being protected. No one in the WWE Universe who has a brain takes that loss seriously.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

I wouldn't say that it was any sort of rip off of Eddie Guerrero or anything. For me, it just came across like a time honored heel tactic. I read a report about this the other day that stated the reason this match went down the way it did was because they suspected that Del Rio had an injury to his rib or more than one rib. The ending of the match wasn't done to make RVD look bad or to bury him in any way, just that the match was kept short so that Del Rio could undergo further evaluation and to be sure that he didn't have a serious injury or if he was just sore. At least, that's what I read.

 

[Mustang Sally]

But his character does not make sense to lie, cheat and steal. It makes more sense to buy, manipulate and pay off.

That's an interesting thought, and if the company wants ADR to get himself over, he might have better luck doing it by devious means rather than the way he's done it as a heel in the past: using his technical excellence to outwrestle the other guy by legal means and save the "bad guy" stuff for after the match. It could be a guy who uses classic wrestling moves isn't going to be hated enough by the fans, so he turns to stuff like what happened with RVD.

I remember a match from years ago, in which the good guy was being pinned, and at the count of 2, he tapped the guy on top on the shoulder, making him think the referee had called for the pin, ending the match. Instead, the contest continued. For the life of me, I can't remember who was wrestling, but I do recall Gorilla Monsoon saying it was a marvelous piece of gamesmanship the guy used to avoid getting pinned. At the time, all I could think of was that it was a dirty tactic.....even dirtier than blatant eye-gouging or groin-kicking.

Apparently, all's fair in the squared circle and if ADR used this questionable tactic to turn the match in his favor, I say it's all to the good.

 

[Kodo Sawaki]

I always said that he has one of the most easyly over gimmick in history of wretling. Buy the referee, manipulate, pay. It worked many times in the past with "rich guy" gimmick and yt WWE and Del Rio dont use that in their favor...

And no, he isnt Eddie and never gona be Eddie. Eddie was unique, he had some "It" factor, charisma. I just dont see that in Del Rio as much as they push him. Irony is that he is techiclly great worker but he might never be someone like Eddie as much as they push him. And as Bill, I also am not that huge supporter on Eddie Guerrero...

 

[MCMG]

I don't think they were intentionally trying to draw comparisons to Eddie. He was just cheating to a victory because that is what heels generally do and they wanted to protect RVD

Del Rio will never be at the same level as Eddie. Del Rio can't get over with the crowd; whereas, Eddie was great at it. Both talented in the ring but Eddie has far more charisma.

 

[It's...Baylariat!]

I'm with Jack-Hammer here, Swags. Once again you read too much into simple wrestling techniques. Maybe in his own little way, Del Rio was doing a tribute to Eddie, but to me and others, it's a timeless heel tactic that's been used since the invention of the turnbuckle.

Del Rio's trying to be a heel and what a better way to draw some heel heat than to get one over on RVD, the savior of the IWC?