During his time in WWE this year, Alberto Del Rio was treading water creatively and odds are you cant even remember anyone he feuded with this year. He was fed to Batista to keep The Animal busy before WrestleMania, and the highlight of his year was competing in the Money in the Bank ladder match for the vacant WWE World Heavyweight Championship. On August 7th, Del Rio was fired from WWE for unprofessional conduct, and it eventually came out that he slapped the WWE social media manager for making an unprovoked racist remark. Ten days later, Del Rio returned to Mexicos AAA promotion under the name El Patrón but due to non-compete clauses in his contract he couldnt wrestle in Mexico for ninety days, and in America for one year. At Triplemania, and in interviews since, Alberto Del Rio has accused WWE of having a deeply ingrained racist atmosphere, which has been echoed by Ricardo Rodriguez and Konnan. Del Rio said in one interview that the man who made the call letting him know he was fired has a history of racism, and in other interviews has specifically stated it was Triple H who made the call. Since he left, Del Rio has challenged the non-compete clause that WWE implement in their contracts. He recently reached a settlement with WWE meaning the clause has been dropped, in exchange for Del Rio no longer making any disparaging comments about WWE in the media.
