Del Rio - Over before its begun?

After debuting in the WWE and taking centre stage like a duck to water, we all had high hopes for Alberto Del Rio. A decent fued with Rey Mysterio helped put him on the map before he was pushed to the moon by winning the Royal Rumble. However since that day he seems to have been in free fall. ''Main Eventing'' Wrestlemania in the first match on the card and losing the match, before losing his next title match to Christian at Extreme Rules. Now he's on Raw fueding with the Big Show.

What's happened? I have three questions...

1) Did the WWE push Del Rio too quickly and have realised he isnt main event material?
2) Was it a case of bad timing due to Edge getting his send off and the token gesture to Christian?
3) Do you view this years Rumble as a waste? Giving Del Rio the win was a huge risk in my opinion and it has proved to have backfired.

This is the same reason i would NEVER let a younger guy go over Taker to end the streak. Too much of a risk, and if their career failed to go to the next level then the streak would be tarnished forever.

Anyway, what do you think? Has Del Rio ran before he could walk? Will he ever be a World Champion? And did the WWE make an epic faux pas at the Rumble?

well in answer to your 3 questions imy opinion is this

1) Probably, i think he was meant to get a title win but Vince or the team got cold feet, thought that Del rio just wasnt main event or a big enough Draw or they knew about Edges injury and wanted him to go out on a big win at mania.

2) Quite possibly as you said but also may have gotten cold feet again about Del rio not being main event enough, plus the draft was/had happened.

3) Dont see it as a waste as it highlighted a potential star and future world champion, also who would have won the rumble otherwise? definately not Santino

1.. Personally I don't think they pushed him too soon, he gets major heat, has a fantastic presence on the mic but I do think his ring work is a little limited.

2.. A huge yes. You never know what the result would have been at wrestlemania if Edge hadn't needed to retire or how long they planned for the Edge/DR feud to last afterwards.

3.. Another huge yes for me. They could have had him win against a "name" and the Santino ending was quite possibly one of the worst endings to a Rumble I've seen.

The Draft this year also destroyed everything he had worked towards the year before. If he'd have stayed on Smackdown he'd be the #1 heal and would be competing for the WHC against the likes of Orton / Christian.

Being bought on to Raw is usually a good thing for most superstars...

Not this time.

1) Did the WWE push Del Rio too quickly and have realised he isnt main event material?

I don't think so, but I do think they are now biding their time and waiting till Summerslam to let him take the belt from Cena. If they don't pull the trigger then it will feel like a wasted chance.

2) Was it a case of bad timing due to Edge getting his send off and the token gesture to Christian?

He was probably always on his way to RAW because he is a good talker. I think it is almost a vote of confidence that they moved him over, and that he will be given the title there at some stage (probably!).

3) Do you view this years Rumble as a waste? Giving Del Rio the win was a huge risk in my opinion and it has proved to have backfired.

I always think it is a waste when the winner doesn't convert at WM. I mean, what is the point in building the Rumble and the shot at a champ if it becomes rare for the Rumble winner to beat the champ at WM? If they didn't think he was ready at WM they should have given the Rumble win to someone else... Who is a good question...

1) Did the WWE push Del Rio too quickly and have realised he isnt main event material?

I don't think so to be honest, I think they still have major plans for him. Big Show is hardly the lowest he could start feuding with, it's not like he's messing around with Cole and JR. I think WWE are just biding their time with him, they don't want to give him the title too soon like they did with Swagger. I don't think they are not pushing him, I hope he goes over Big Show in this feud which will give him some nice momentum.

2) Was it a case of bad timing due to Edge getting his send off and the token gesture to Christian?

I think he might have won the title at Extreme Rules, as it was reported that the draft was a proper last minute thing because of Edge's retirement so he might not even have gone to Raw if Edge hadn't retired.

3) Do you view this years Rumble as a waste? Giving Del Rio the win was a huge risk in my opinion and it has proved to have backfired.

I don't think it has backfired at all, he hasn't lost a huge amount of momentum and the Rumble win is something he can always fall back on to say he won his first ever Rumble bladiblabla.


I think you're overreacting to what seems to me is just him not being in the title picture for a month or two, all main eventers have it, I don't think it's him completely failing.

I think Del Rio has been a victim of unfortunate circumstances, prior to the rumble he had been pushed hard but proved himself up to the challange in every department.

I was a little shocked to see him curtain jerking at Wrestlemania but between HHH v Taker and the Rock/Cena show guest starring the Miz I didn't expect to see him in the main event.

I don't belive WWE knew about Edge's injury but it has become standard for a 'Mania for the top stars (pariticuarly babyfaces) to stand tall at the end of the night.

I belive the origional plan was for Del Rio to go over at Extreme Rules but obviously plans were changed due to Edge's injury and it gave Christian a well merited but previously unlikely title reign.

Obviously Edge's injury also nessecitated the rushing through of the draft. Rumours were that Cena/Del Rio was tentitivly pencilled for Summerslam and I would guess that following Extreme Rules, Del Rio would have held the WHC going into the draft and would probably be dethroned at the post draft PPV by Orton who would take the title back to Smackdown as champion and Del Rio would face Cena as a top heel coming off the back of a championship reign.

Obviously the draft being brought forward left no time for this and while Orton has still ended up as the top face on Smackdown as champion, Del Rio has been left floundering waiting for Cena who was/is still in the process of dealing with the Miz and R-Truth who has surprisingly caught on as a heel.

As far as I am aware the planned main event for Summerslam still hasn't changed so it is possible that Del Rio is just killing time before he is launced into his main event programme with Cena, as was intended

1.) I don't think he was pushed too soon. His character is great & was getting massively over

2.) Edge's retirement led to a major rethink. Whilst I'm suprised he didn't go over at Mania I think he could of beaten Edge at Extreme Rules

3.) Whilst it does feel like a waste when a new guy wins the Rumble & doesn't convert I'm sure his time will come. If he beats The Big Show in his next fued clean by submission (can't remember many doing this?) it will seem like a Big Deal & he will then look a genuine threat to Cena

I think Del Rio's problems started at the Rumble, he is in great shape and can go a distance yet they had him enter as one of the last, if they had him enter between 10-15 he would have gained grudging respect from the fans and also came across as a guy who can get the job done, i also think the whole Royal Rumble story had to be about Cena winning and for Del Rio to eliminate him at the end

the-gaffer wrote:I think Del Rio's problems started at the Rumble, he is in great shape and can go a distance yet they had him enter as one of the last, if they had him enter between 10-15 he would have gained grudging respect from the fans and also came across as a guy who can get the job done, i also think the whole Royal Rumble story had to be about Cena winning and for Del Rio to eliminate him at the end

agree 100% RR winners need to show grit, resilience and tenacity. Coming in for the last 5 minutes and winning it while you're still as fresh as a daisy is not going to win you that respect no matter the fact that on paper you still won the RR.

However I think there are a couple of things:

1. I think Edge was allowed to retain his world championship at Mania because Vince probably suspected that it would be his last and would retire soon. The fact that Edge announced his shock retirement so soon after Mania with the dust hardly settled indicates Vince and Edge knew he was on borrowed time.
2. I think Christian was given a token win, probably in no small part by Edge's influence
3. Orton's move to SD in the draft was deliberately set up to make him the No.1 face on the show and so it was inevitable that sooner rather than later he would become world champ again and make it all about him.

In conclusion I think this is why I'm becoming bored with wrestling again - the booking is unfair to many very talented wrestlers who could deserve to be world champ but aren't because of one reason or another mainly to do with merchandise or drawing power. The fan favourites will always find themselves in the main event and enjoying success and as long as they can push merch then they will do well. Take Daniel Bryan as another example - one of the greatest indie wrestlers of the modern era, worthy ROH champ, extremely talented wrestler yet how have the WWE used him? Gave him a nerdy gimmick so that the Miz and Cole could berate and belittle him for not being a 'superstar'. The sad thing is they haven't even let him build on this 'anti-superstar' gimmick that could be successful. Why? Because he's not got the same mic skills as some and is small compared to the usual WWE world champs. It's not a fair system.

talkingpoint wrote:
In conclusion I think this is why I'm becoming bored with wrestling again - the booking is unfair to many very talented wrestlers who could deserve to be world champ but aren't because of one reason or another mainly to do with merchandise or drawing power. The fan favourites will always find themselves in the main event and enjoying success and as long as they can push merch then they will do well. Take Daniel Bryan as another example - one of the greatest indie wrestlers of the modern era, worthy ROH champ, extremely talented wrestler yet how have the WWE used him? Gave him a nerdy gimmick so that the Miz and Cole could berate and belittle him for not being a 'superstar'. The sad thing is they haven't even let him build on this 'anti-superstar' gimmick that could be successful. Why? Because he's not got the same mic skills as some and is small compared to the usual WWE world champs. It's not a fair system.

I don't think that's neccesarily a modern thing though, if you think about top wrestlers in the past, I am sure there are a lot guys who were pushed to the side because of the Hogans and the Ultimate Warriors, just because they pushed merch better, and were better on the mic. If we're going to base things on purely wrestling skills, then really we should have seen Lance Storm or some other guy in that vein dominate 90s wrestling rather than The Rock, Steve Austin, Undertaker, Mick Foley, Triple H- All of those guys have been criticised as poor wrestlers in the past.