The more details that emerge surrounding Alberto Del Rio’s WWE release, the more strange this story gets. New details have garnered ADR some sympathy and are putting the WWE in some real hot water.
[adinserter block=”1″]The wrestling was stunned last week when Alberto Del Rio was released by the WWE. Guys at Alberto’s level aren’t often released without good reason by the WWE, especially at a time when the company is razor thin on heels. Now that the dust has started to settle, accolades are quickly turning to criticism and anger towards the WWE.
Here is what we knew at the time. Alberto was reportedly released after a physical altercation with a non-wrestler employee. Alberto reportedly got physical with someone who worked on the social media end of the company. Rumors were swirling but none of the earlier reports had ample detail or confirmation to be taken as facts.
A few days later details were reported by several sources which gave credence to some of the earlier reports and painted a better picture on others. It was at this point fans and media took a step back and wondered why this was playing out as it was.
According to some reports, a social media manager was asked to clean off his plate in catering, which says a lot to me about how this employee conducts himself at work. The employee remarked that it was “Del Rio’s job”, an obvious racial slur aimed at Del Rio’s Latino ethnicity. The “joke” got back to Del Rio who confronted this employee and demanded an apology. Allegedly the employee didn’t apologize and was slapped by Del Rio. ADR was released shortly thereafter.
While nobody can condone Del Rio physically assaulting anyone, it is hard not to empathize with him. I can certainly understand why the WWE needed to take action but if these circumstances are true, dismissal seems like an overreaction although to be fair their hands may have been tied legally. Even stranger is that this employee is allegedly still with the company. Where I come from, a racist joke is grounds for suspension or termination, especially when it is directed towards one of the guys keeping the lights on. What is even stranger is that the WWE Twitter account took shots at Del Rio after this happened, retweeted by Triple H. Considering the actions of the social media manager, those actions are just downright strange.
I mentioned in an earlier blog post that I think Del Rio’s contractual status had something to do with action. Del Rio’s contract was coming due and he reportedly was planning on leaving the company. The WWE were well aware of this and have had an axe to grind with him over it. I wonder what would have happened if Del Rio was planning to stay?
[adinserter block=”2″]F4WOnline.com reported that Del Rio has immediate interest from Triple A and of all places TNA Wrestling. Del Rio could be a last minute Hail Mary attempt by TNA to create buzz and interest in hopes that Spike either changes their minds to renew or another network takes a shot. Otherwise it makes absolutely no sense to me why they would pursue someone at high dollar knowing that their future is in serious jeopardy.
Regardless, this is turning out to be a much bigger story. The WWE is slowly starting to get media attention for the story. Unfortunately for them the media attention is for the racist joke and apparent tolerance and not for SummerSlam or RAW. Keep an eye on this one. If the wrong group decides to make a cause out of this, it could get ugly quickly for the WWE.
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