One MIND-BLOWING Secret From Every WWE Royal Rumble

2009 - A Future WWE Champion Was Meant To Debut

In the late 2000s, Alberto Del Rio was the subject of pro wrestling’s equivalent to a summer-long football transfer saga.

On June 30, 2008, Del Rio made a cameo appearance as a security guard on Raw. According to Mexican outlet Ovaciones, Del Rio (working for CMLL as Dos Caras, Jr.) worked a WWE dark match later that year, after which he was offered a contract. While there is no such record on Cagematch supporting this story, there must have been something in it, given that he ended up working there. Had he signed with WWE, or not?

This was claimed and refuted throughout the next several months. The deal was thought to have been agreed when, on December 22, Caras dropped the CMLL World Heavyweight title to Ultimo Guerrero - just in time for the Royal Rumble. In the Observer, Meltzer wrote, without being adamant about it, that he’d heard talk of this being Caras’ start date.

It wasn’t; Caras announced that he’d signed a new four-year deal with CMLL, who had offered him more money than WWE. In less than half a year (!), he signed with WWE, and was posted to its sole feeder system at the time, Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW).

All of this bother for a man that would ultimately reveal himself to be one of the most bland WWE champions ever. Has anybody won so much, while leaving so little of an impression, as Alberto Del Rio?

His Wikipedia Championship and Accomplishment’s section looks legendary on paper. Del Rio was a two-time WWE Champion, two-time World Heavyweight champion, and won both the Royal Rumble and Money In The Bank matches.

And yet he was never over, his matches peaked at “decent”, and he was responsible for zero moments that anybody remembers or cares for.