The Rise and Fall of Mexico's Greatest Export

Alberto Del Rio was one of the most fastest rising superstars ever in WWE, but it also led to a deep fall. On August 7, 2014 WWE.com had reported that Mexico's greatest export was released from the WWE due to an altercation with an employee. The 37 year old professional wrestler definitely had a WWE career worth bragging. Alberto Del Rio had an immediate rise in the WWE, but sadly led to a deep fall.

Alberto Rodríguez, more widely known as Alberto Del Rio, has professional wrestling in his blood. He is the son of the famous luchador Dos Caras, and the nephew of arguably the greatest luchador ever Mil Mascaras. Rodríguez grew up in San Luis Potosí, Mexico and decided to become an amateur wrestler. Alberto traveled around the world winning medals and became great at what he did. Rodríguez was even scheduled to compete in the 2000 Summer Olympics, but due to lack of funding, Mexico was unable to send a wrestling team to Sydney, Australia.

After not being able to wrestle at the olympics, Rodríguez decided to follow his father's footsteps and become a professional wrestler. After training with his father, Alberto Rodríguez made his lucha libre debut in 2000 at the age of 23. Rodríguez spent 10 years in Lucha Libre and became a very successful luchador. Shortly after his lucha libre debut, Alberto also wanted to experience the MMA business. Rodríguez spent most of his MMA career in Japan, including a run in Pride Fighting Championships where he had two fights and lost both. Rodríguez then ended his MMA career with a record of 9-5 in 2010.

In 2008 Rodríguez had wrestled a dark match for WWE, and they had offered him a contract. When the story broke out, Alberto was world champion of Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre. In December 2008, Rodríguez lost the title and was rumored to be a surprise entrant in the 2009 Royal Rumble, which of course never happened. Rodríguez stayed with CMLL until mid-2010 where he had confirmed that he signed a contract with WWE.

In Alberto's contract it stated that he would not have to go through developmental in Florida Championship Wrestling, which was false. Alberto then wrestled in FCW as a masked luchador under the name of Dos. Later on in FCW, Rodríguez adopted a new character named Alberto Banderas. For the first time in Alberto's career, he wrestled without a mask. This created controversy in Mexico because he revealed his true identity. Albert Rodríguez later said he didn't enjoy his time in FCW, but learned a lot.

Vignettes began airing for Rodgríguez in June 2010, he portrayed a rich, cocky Mexican aristocrat. In August Rodríguez debuted as Alberto Del Rio. In his debut match, Del Rio defeated Rey Mysterio starting a rivalry between the two. As the year progressed Alberto Del Rio became a top star on Friday Night SmackDown. Four months after debuting Alberto already had a match for the World Heavyweight Championship at TLC.

In January 2011 the Royal Rumble match would not be the usual 30 participants, but 40 instead. Del Rio came in at number 38 and won the Royal Rumble just five months after debuting. Del Rio then lost at WrestleMania 27 to Edge for the World Heavyweight Championship. Although Alberto had lost the match, his main event status was undoubtedly furthering.

After WrestleMania Alberto Del Rio was moved to Monday Night RAW, where the top WWE stars were. Shortly after this Alberto Del Rio won the Money in The Bank Ladder match that guarantees him a chance for the WWE Championship. A month after at SummerSlam, Del Rio cashed in his contract against CM Punk and became the WWE Champion.

Alberto Del Rio became one of the quickest superstars to capture the WWE Championship. It seems like a great thing, but as later years showed, it was not. Del Rio lost the title to John Cena at Night of Champions but regained it 2 weeks later at Hell in a Cell. Then, at TLC he lost the WWE Championship permanently and never gained it back. Alberto has gone down as one of the worst WWE Champions ever due to a lack of good storyline, and his character just wan't built up enough to be a main event superstar.

Nobody knows what WWE had planned for Alberto Del Rio after TLC but an injury kept him out of the ring until after WrestleMania. Alberto returned the night after WrestleMania 28 and started a feud with then World Heavyweight Champion Sheamus. This rivalry went way to long as in the middle of it Alberto suffered another injury that left him out of the ring for a month.

After his feud with Sheamus was done Alberto Del Rio, for the first time since SummerSlam, was not in the world title picture. WWE decided to see Alberto would do as a babyface. Then in January Alberto Del Rio would capture the World Heavyweight Championship. This would mark Del Rio's first run as champion while a babyface. At WrestleMania 29 Alberto Del Rio successfully defended his title against Jack Swagger. The feud went down as very boring and downgraded the World Heavyweight Championship as a whole. Alberto as a face wasn't working, and Jack Swagger was pushed to the title way to fast. The night after WrestleMania Alberto lost the title to Dolph Ziggler only to regain it back at Payback. At Payback, a double turn took place turning Alberto Del Rio back to a heel once again.

As a heel, it still didn't help Alberto's title run as it was very stale and made people less interested in the World Heavyweight Championship. Alberto worked with the likes of Christian, Dolph Ziggler, and Rob Van Dam until finally losing the tile to John Cena in October.

Alberto Del Rio had his rematch but lost, after this is when Alberto lacked direction. He would spend the months after this jobbing and becoming a mid-carder. WWE tried to revive his main event status with a feud between him and Batista, but it ultimately flopped. Alberto was part of the flop that was Batista's return to WWE, fans were not interested in their match at Elimination Chamber at all, and the match itself proved why. Soon after this Alberto was rumored to be yelling backstage about wanting to quit, many thought he would shortly after but he never did.

At WrestleMania 30, Alberto Del Rio was just another name in the Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal. After this Alberto would continue to job to the likes of Daniel Bryan, Sheamus, and Dean Ambrose. In the summer of 2014 WWE suffered a horrible TV deal causing Vince McMahon to lose $842 million. Because of this, WWE was forced to release 10% of their employees. In August 2014 Alberto Del Rio was fired due to a physical altercation with another employee. This employee was later revealed to be a social media worker for the WWE.

Alberto Del Rio's rise included, winning the Royal Rumble, and winning the WWE Championship in his first year in WWE. Alberto's fall included two bad championship reigns, and jobbing to his opponents in his final days. Alberto Del Rio was rumored to also not resign his new contract as he was not happy with the WWE. Alberto Del Rio has been the biggest release since budget cuts have started to take place. Now, it seems as if anybody on the roster can be released. Alberto Rodríguez had success in MMA, Lucha Libre, and the WWE. This proves that a push to fast can kill a career. It has not just happened to Alberto Del Rio, but also The Miz, Sheamus, and Jack Swagger. Alberto Del Rio had a fast rise, but an unescapable fall.