Alberto Del Rio debuted in WWE amid much fanfare in 2010, immediately targeting Rey Mysterio and defeating him in a heated, critically acclaimed feud. 2011 would be an even better year for The Mexican Aristocrat, as he won the Royal Rumble, Raw's Money in the Bank briefcase, and two WWE Championships. Unfortunately, things began to take a tumble for Del Rio from there - despite picking up a pair of World Heavyweight Titles, staleness and a poorly-received babyface run led to fan indifference toward the star. Del Rio left WWE in 2014, but returned last month with a huge win over John Cena. Unfortunately, since then, fans have seen more of the 2014 Del Rio and less of the 2011 Del Rio. His matches are nothing special, his character is odd and ill-defined, and his promos - despite being kept short, as manager Zeb Colter does most of the talking for him - are bad. The result is that, less than a month after his surprise return, fans already don't care about Del Rio. The former WWE Champion reportedly showed a lot of fire and talent during his time away from the company, but major changes have to be made if he's going to exhibit it in his new role. Until then, he stands out as one of WWE's least over major players.
Scott Fried is a Slammy Award-winning* writer living and working in New York City. He has been following/writing about professional wrestling for many years and is a graduate of Lance Storm's Storm Wrestling Academy. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/scottfried.
*Best Crowd of the Year, 2013
