10 Wrestlers That Bombed Twice

6. Alberto Del Rio/Alberto El Patron

Ultimate Warrior WWF 1996 WCW 1998
WWE/IMPACT

Regardless of how much he split opinion during his initial WWE run, Vince McMahon's organisation clearly thought highly of the former Dos Caras Jr. upon signing him in 2009. Debuting on SmackDown in August 2010 - after a spell in FCW - Del Rio was pushed hard, winning the Royal Rumble just five months after making his WWE in-ring debut.

A WrestleMania XXVII match with World Heavyweight Champion Edge would follow, a Money in the Bank briefcase win would happen in July, and Del Rio would cash-in on CM Punk to become the WWE Champion at SummerSlam 2011. Despite tangling with all of the company's top stars and amassing four World Champion reigns, Alberto would be fired for "unprofessional conduct" in August 2014.

By October 2015, Del Rio made a well-received return to WWE at the Hell in a Cell PPV, answering John Cena's Open Challenge and becoming the new United States Champion. That run quickly fell flat, though, with the star oddly paired with Zeb Colter as his mouthpiece, before then becoming a part of the awful League of Nations stable. With his stock at an all-time low with the company, ADR was granted his release just 11 months after re-signing with WWE.

Alberto would bomb again just over a year later, although this time for very different reasons. Having unified the IMPACT World Championship and the Global Force Wrestling Championship as Alberto El Patron, the star would be stripped of his gold and suspended by IMPACT Wrestling in July 2017 due to a domestic abuse incident involving then-partner Paige.

Once back from that suspension in November '17, it didn't take long for IMPACT to outright fire El Patron, with him released the following April after no-showing a cross-promotional show that also featured Lucha Underground.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks/Saints, Jamie Hayter, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.