10 Controversial WWE Releases
3. Alberto Del Rio, 2014
On 7 August 2014, WWE.com released a somewhat vague statement, reading “WWE announced the release of Alberto Del Rio due to unprofessional conduct and an altercation with an employee.”
No mention of the alleged racist remark that had been made about Del Rio prior to that altercation, then…
As noted in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Del Rio had indeed slapped Cody Barbierri—WWE’s Manager of Social Media Live Events—after “someone made a remark to Barbierri about not cleaning off his plate, and as a joke, he said that was Del Rio’s job.” Del Rio reportedly wasn’t around to hear the initial comment, but once word got back to him, he confronted Barbierri and let him know exactly how he felt.
On the one hand, it’s easy to feel sympathy for Del Rio, given the way WWE only told half of the story. In fairness though, walking up to a colleague and slapping him around the face is no way to deal with a workplace dispute.
As controversial as the incident might’ve been, the firing was perhaps a reasonable one.