Saturday, August 16, 2014

The Alberto Del Rio Edition

Welcome back to Inside The Wrestling Ring. Last week we had a very surprising release from the WWE. I find it interesting that he wasn't wished the best in his future endeavors, just flat out released.

A multiple time champion, a Money In The Bank winner, and a Royal Rumble winner, Alberto Del Rio was fired last week for "unprofessional conduct." While nothing has been confirmed yet, a staff member on WWE.com was asked to clean his plate, he turned around and said something along the lines of "I shouldn't have to, that's something for a guy like Del Rio to do," Del Rio didn't take kindly to this. Del Rio confronted the staff member who simply smiled at Del Rio, so Alberto slapped him.

It was a terrible joke that the staff member made. Could it be perceived as a racist joke? Yes, I think it could. But, quite frankly, you can perceive just about anything you want as being racist. Did the staff member, Cody Barbierri, deserve to be slapped? No, I don't think so. I am not saying what he said was right, but Barbierri should have been suspended. We live in a time where Political Correctness is running wild. Barbierri stepped over a line with his comment. Jokingly said or not, there is no reason to make that kind of joke. Not even "just among friends." It was a terribly insensitive of him.

In the same regard though, I don't think that Del Rio should have been fired either. He acted out in defense of his nationality. I believe a suspension would have been better for Del Rio than to be fired. I am sure that his contract with the company was rather large. And with their desperation over the WWE Network and $9.99, some have viewed this as a cost cutting measure as well.

Barbierri is just lucky that Del Rio didn't slap the Cross Arm Breaker on him. He would have definitely been sorry for his not-funny comment then!

I wasn't a fan of Del Rio. I found him to be boring at times. My biggest issue with him is that he got too much too soon. Within his first year in the company he had climbed the top of the ladder. I did enjoy that his move set varied match to match and he would throw out moves that he didn't use every single match. Del Rio was a workhorse for them though. I think it is safe to say his presence will be missed in the company.

After news of the firing was released, former WWE and WCW wrestler Konnan accused the WWE of racism. I know that Barberri's comment was racist, but does that make the entire organization racist? I don't think so. And just to be ironic, Konnan started a hashtag #FreeRey to get Rey Mysterio out of his contract. I guess he didn't have a problem when WCW had an African American wrestler named GI Bro. I mean, clearly, that isn't racist at all. I'm sorry, but to me this seems like Konnan trying to keep his name relevant, when really he hasn't been for a decade. Maybe I am wrong; maybe I am not seeing what Konnan is seeing.
 
Tell me what you think?

Special thanks to my wonderful wife and editor for helping me with my blogs!

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