Alberto Del Rio

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Alberto Del Rio (real name Alberto Rodríguez, born May 25, 1977) is a Mexican professional wrestler, currently signed to WWE, performing on its Raw brand and is a two-time WWE Champion. Prior to working with WWE, he was well known as Dos Caras, Jr., which he wrestled as in Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) and fought under as a mixed martial artist.


Alberto Del Rio provides examples of the following tropes:
  • Affably Evil: Often wears a smile some would consider charming...but don't be fooled. (See Faux Affably Evil.)
  • Alpha Bitch: "I'm handsome! I'm powerful! I'm RICH! I'M EVERYTHING!!" The ego, the attitude, the fancy cars, the white scarf, he has an aura of being a male example (and is listed as such on the Alpha Bitch page.)
  • Arch Enemy: Rey Mysterio, Jr..
  • Badass Latino
  • Badass Nickname: He started off with "The Essence of Excellence" and added "The Mexican Aristocrat" later.
  • Because Dessssssstiny Says So: After weeks of telling everyone that it was his destiny to win the 2011 Royal Rumble, he won it.
    • And now, add "WWE Champion" to his fulfilled prophecies.
  • Bad Boss: He doesn't do much to protect his extremely hammy ring announcer, Ricardo Rodriguez. Rodriguez seems to have two jobs - to announce Del Rio's entrance to the ring (in Spanish, of course), and to act as Del Rio's unwilling meat shield. A lot of Del Rio's confrontations with other wrestlers end with Alberto rolling out of the ring and leaving Ricardo behind to take the other guy's Finishing Move.
  • Bilingual Bonus / Getting Crap Past the Radar: Del Rio has made a habit of cussing quite a lot in Spanish when he's angry or excited.
    • That wink he does also has more negative connotations in Mexico and many Mediterranean countries than it does in the States.
    • Ricardo Rodriguez also has a different over-the-top introduction for Alberto Del Rio each time out, usually complete with a diss about how Alberto is greater or richer than the fans or the city they're in. Many fans probably have no clue what exactly he is saying, yet this still gets heel heat.
      • This is because the (English-speaking) fans have been programmed to boo people who speak in foreign languages.
        • And this is because, during the 2000s, WWE beat the Foreign Wrestling Heel trope to death, revived it, then beat it to death a second time.
  • The Bully/Kick the Dog: He seems to be obsessed with people (even people not feuding with him) and doing whatever he can to break their arms.
  • Bullying a Dragon: Maybe Alberto thought The Big Show, being the Gentle Giant he usually is, wouldn't mind Alberto bitch-slapping him and running him down with a car. This turned out not to be the case.
  • Catch Phrase:
  • Card-Carrying Villain: He once said he wants to beat Rey Mysterio, Jr. so he [Alberto] can see children crying in the audience.
  • Combat Pragmatist: He definitely holds to the philosophy of "it's not cheating if you don't get caught."
  • Conspicuous Consumption
  • Cool Car: His entrance involves him driving a Bentley different high-class car every time.
    • And never, EVER mess with his cars! Just ask Big Show...
  • Dangerously Genre Savvy / Fridge Brilliance: Won the 2011 Raw MITB match by yanking off Rey Mysterio, Jr.'s mask when the both of them were fighting at the top of the ladder, which naturally caused Mysterio to cover his face instead of going for the briefcase. Fridge Brilliance comes in when you realize that ADR himself fought as a Masked Luchador in Mexico and might have been the only one in the match to think to do that.
  • Epic Fail: At Money in the Bank 2011, he attempted to pull a Your Princess Is in Another Castle on CM Punk by cashing in his MITB Briefcase after Punk had just won a grueling match with John Cena. Punk casually kicked Alberto in the head and knocked him out before fleeing the building.
    • Though, it was in part due to Punk being Dangerously Genre Savvy, having done what Del Rio had attempted to do twice in the past. Also, Vince McMahon was shouting to cut the music and obviously calling for Del Rio to come out right where Punk could see it, so really this was on Vince.
      • Although some credit has to be given to Punk, who was the first person to think of this escape method regardless of whether Vince telegraphed it or not.
    • But then it happened again on the 7/25 RAW, when he tried to cash in on Rey Mysterio. Alberto was so busy calling for the bell instead of getting into the ring (a match can only 'officially' start when both competitors are inside the ring and the bell has been rung) that he didn't see Mysterio go airborne. After getting hit with a suicide dive, Alberto pulls a Screw This, I'm Outta Here and retreats with his briefcase.
  • Mr. Fanservice: Good Lord, yes. 6'5", built like a Greek god, filthy rich, and devastatingly handsome. What's not to love about that??
  • Expy: He's basically a Mexican JBL. Christian lampshaded this by calling him "Juan Bradshaw Layfield" at least one time.
    • His entrance definitely is JBL all the way, but his actual gimmick errs much closer to that of Ted DiBiase, almost to the point that you could call him a Composite Character of the two. And more recently, he seems to have adopted some of the in-ring behavior patterns from the early heel runs of Eddie Guerrero - although one could argue he had those all along, what with his ethnicity, obvious love for nice rides, arrogant streak, and tendency to cheat as much as he can get away with.
  • Faux Affably Evil: He'll be happy and smiling, even while beating you up, but his façade will occasionally crack and his face will contort with rage.
  • Flanderization: After he won the Royal Rumble, he proclaimed that it was his destiny to win the World Title, to go along with his Rich Idiot With No Day Job gimmick, with him being naturally better than anyone due to being descended from Mexican royalty. However, as time went on he started losing just about every other part of his gimmick outside of having Ricardo Rodriguez as a personal ring announcer and coming out it expensive cars every week.
  • Finishing Move: Rolling Armbar.
  • Foe Yay: He seems to be a heel with a "unique" obsession for his targets, specifically Rey.
    • Rey Mysterio. Alberto seems to have an obsession for Rey Mysterio (and breaking his arm). Then, he is famously quoted saying, "I don't want to fight my little friend Rey Mysterio. Instead I'm going to give him a kiss... right on the cheek."
      • After Summerslam, Del Rio says he is happy he gets to defend first against Mysterio because we all love Mysterio. Del Rio says he loves Mysterio. Del Rio says he loves Rey again but adds that he loves beating Mysterio. Del Rio says he began his WWE career beating Mysterio. When he wakes up in the morning, he feels like beating Rey Mysterio.
  • Jerkass
  • Kick Them While They Are Down: After he wins, he has a tendency to continue to assault his opponents, then put them in his armbar over and over again.
    • Used against him by CM Punk, after a rather grueling battle against The Big Show, Punk lays an Anaconda Vice on the beaten down Del Rio until he agrees to a championship match at Survivor Series. Naturally Del Rio labelled him a complete coward afterwards.
  • Large Ham: He has his own personal ring announcer, need I say more?
  • Lightning Bruiser: He's a 6′5″ 240-pounder who has a bevy of aerial moves and can pull off an enzuigiri as well as a multitude of suplexes.
  • Light Is Not Good
  • Masked Luchador: Used to be one as "Dos Caras Jr".
    • Mythology Gag / Viewers Are Geniuses: Matt Striker said that Alberto has two faces: the smiling, virtue-spewing gentleman and that vicious arrogant wrestler; his Lucha name, Dos Caras. translates as Two Faces.
  • Not-So-Harmless Villain: He's a Dirty Coward and a narcissist of the highest order, but dangerously vicious and cunning in a lot of his matches.
  • Old Shame: His career in Mixed Martial Arts (under the 'Dos Caras' name) before joining the WWE, while not terrible, (He was a respectable 9-5 in MMA competition) is primarily remembered for the match in which Mirko "Cro Cop" Filopovic knocked him out in 46 seconds with a head kick.
    • Mythology Gag: CM Punk would stop Del Rio's first Money in the Bank cash in with a Roundhouse Kick to the head.
      • Later, Del Rio got his revenge by kicking Punk in the head with an enzuigiri and stealing the WWE Title.
  • Playing Against Type: Back when he was wrestling in Mexico as "Dos Caras, jr." He mainly wrestled as a face.
  • Popularity Power: Naturally, he gets face-like pops if WWE goes south of the border - no matter if he actually is a face or not (In WWE, he never has been)
  • Rich Bastard
  • Royal Blood: He's apparently descended from King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, yes, the ones in the 15th century.
    • He's Dos Caras' son, and Mil Mascaras' nephew. In lucha libre bloodlines, he is Mexican royalty.
  • Rule of Three: Attempt to cash in his Money In The Bank twice and succeded on the third.
  • Scarf of Asskicking
  • Shout-Out: Attempted to pull the late Eddie Guerrero's old fake-a-chair-shot trick...but the Genre Savvy CM Punk threw the chair back at him
    • Actually had a similar technique work for him in a recent match against Sheamus. He tried to hit Sheamus with a chair while the ref's back was turned, but when Sheamus yanked it out of his hands, Del Rio hit the deck just in time for the ref to turn around and catch Sheamus with the chair. Sheamus got DQ'd (and, as a result, Del Rio gets a title shot).
  • Small Name, Big Ego: The dude's a self-righteous braggart.
  • Smug Snake: He practically lives off smug arrogance.
  • Spotlight-Stealing Squad: He began making regular appearances on Raw while still being a top star on Smackdown.
  • Tall, Dark and Handsome
  • Tall, Dark and Snarky
  • Underwear of Power
  • Very Punchable Man: Del Rio himself often qualifies, but Ricardo Rodriguez in particular gets it pretty bad. Every time he attempts to interupt a match in Del Rio's favor usually leads to a very nasty beatdown from his opponent. Even more passive Faces such as Rey Mysterio have been driven to a merciless rage over his interfering.
  • Villainous Breakdown: After losing his title to John Cena at Night Of Champions, he went berserk in the locker room afterwards.
  • Villain with Good Publicity
  • Wicked Cultured: He's a finely dressed sophisticate who enjoys wine.
    • And a good fiesta.
    • Throws one heckuva retirement party, too! Although Edge wasn't too impressed.
  • Wrestling Family: Is the son of Dos Caras, and nephew of Mil Mascaras.
  • Wrestling Psychology: Look at his face whenever he's in a match or segment; the story he tells with his eyes alone is superb.
    • Additionally, he sets up his submission finisher throughout the match, using several signature moves that target the arms of his opponent.
  • Write Who You Know: The real guy based the Alberto Del Rio character on a composite of people he hates.