Alberto Del Rio who is also known by the name of Alberto El Patron was one of the biggest projects of Vince McMahon when he signed for WWE in 2009. He made his main roster debut in 2010 with a huge impact. In 2011, Alberto Del Rio won a 40 man Royal Rumble match and he has also been a four times WWE World Champion.
WWE Hall of Famer Jeff Jarrett has worked with Alberto Del Rio for a number of times. The former four times WCW World Heavyweight Champion Jeff Jarrett recently revealed his friendship with Del Rio and explained his experience on working with him. Speaking on his latest My World with Jeff Jarrett Podcast, he said;
Throwback Stories: Former World Champion Recalls Working Alongside Alberto Del Rio
“We hit it off on day one. I remember correctly, one of the stories I remember is that, uh, you know, he was a megastar for Vince and Hot there for a while. And for us to get him, it was a big get. And, look, I thought it was him. And lastly is what we were gonna build toward. I thought two big, just they both could go.
“And I thought it was gonna be, uh, just a really a marquee match. But, um, ed nor home, and he didn’t mean any harm outta this, but he sh he, he snapped a photo of Patron in the Ring in Orlando, the tapings before this, and kind of gave away our surprise. But it wasn’t that big a deal, like, oh my God. But anyway, everybody was excited to get Alberto on.
“Um, hard worker. I tell you what, as far as a working relationship is like, I don’t wanna say employee or, but that’s kind of where I’m going with it. He always wants, and he would tell you, I wanna overdeliver. What do you want me to do? He worked his ass off and came with the best can-do attitude, helping others, not selfish. How do we get involved?
Alberto Del Rio Is A Former Four Times WWE World Champion
“I mean, he was, he was all in and he got over immediately in the impact zone with that crowd and got over the people and saying, when, you know, across the board leading up to slam anniversary, he worked his ass off, is what I’ll say. Man, I’m glad to hear you say that because I do feel like you just gave some, uh, as they say, flowers to two guys who often don’t really get ’em. First of all, Josh Matthews had been on quite a tear on social media at the time, proclaiming that he was the best wrestling announcer of all time. And of course he knew saying that is going to get him heat.
“And boy did it work. There were a lot of people back then, and I think still to this day who hate Josh Matthews because of that. Guess what, it was a character folks. He wanted you to hate him. That translates into the ring as well. Not many people assume that you know, he does bad business and he’s not a good guy and he’s selfish and he’s-unreliable and there’s all this negativity surrounding his name. And I have to admit, I don’t know, I’ve never worked with him.
“I may have met him once, but just in passing. But to hear, oh man, he was great, a hard worker and, and not selfish and blah, blah blah. That’s great to hear. We don’t hear that sort of thing about him enough maybe. Yeah, and look, I’m not gonna shy away. Look, we look and with my own story, we go through some dark periods where we do dumb shit, bad shit, horrible, we, whatever it may be. And I know that he’s had some dark times, I think he would admit that some dark places.
“I have no idea where he is today, right? I mean, but I know my one-on-one relationship and it was a working professional relationship. I couldn’t have asked for anything anymore in 2017. Because when he showed up, he looked, and he’s second generation, uh, at least second generation, right? We bonded over generational being in the business knowing that, hey man, uh, and I’ve told him, look, we’re you’re, you’re the top guy, the tip-top guy, but with that comes all the responsibility. You gotta make yourself look good and everybody around you good. And he had no idea putting that on his shoulders and rolling with it.”
In spite of being massively successful in WWE, Alberto Del Rio had to face a lot of criticism too and it is highly unlikely that we would ever see him in the WWE ring again. Majority of WWE fans still believe that he did not deserve the success he received in WWE and he will always be considered one of the worst WWE Champions ever.
H/T to Wrestling Headlines for the transcription