10 Times WWE Hurt Itself By Punishing Its Stars

5. Alberto Del Rio Stands Up To A Racist

On 7 August 2014 Alberto Del Rio - aka José Alberto Rodríguez, the former Dos Caras Jr in Mexico - was released from WWE over a backstage incident. It transpired that words had been exchanged with a staff member who worked on WWE.com, who had supposedly made racist comments. This was followed by a slap from Del Rio.

Now, it should be noted that a slap from a large guy like Rodríguez isn't a love tap. Rick Rude was a similar build, and he was known to be able to knock men out with an open-handed slap, as was Paul Orndorff. Nonetheless, there were no reports of decapitation or brain damage, so one can assume the hapless fool was fine afterwards.

It was fairly well known that Del Rio had been considering returning to Mexico when his contract expired. His success there in the early part of his career had already made him a lot of money. With the WWE's heavy schedule, scuttlebutt had it that, given that he was no longer being booked as a contender, he didn't consider the hard work worthwhile any longer.

It's possible that Del Rio was released as part of spending cuts, considering the amount of money that the newborn and struggling WWE Network was costing the company at the time. Perhaps they'd just used the slap as leverage to kick him out of an expensive contract. Whatever the case, it left WWE without a marketable star for their lucrative Hispanic market at a time when they were desperate for one. An odd move - even odder considering they brought him back 14 months later.