José Alberto Rodríguez Chucuan[20] (born 25 May 1977)[1][2] is a Mexican-American professional wrestler, professional wrestling promoter, sports commentator, and mixed martial artist, currently signed to the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) as a commentator. He also makes appearances for Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide (AAA) as a wrestler, where he is the current AAA Mega Champion in his second reign. In professional wrestling, he is best known for his time in WWE under the ring name Alberto Del Rio, and Impact Wrestling under the ring name Alberto El Patrón.
Before working for WWE, Rodríguez used the name Dos Caras Jr. as both a mixed martial artist and luchador in mostly Mexico and Japan, achieving success in Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) by winning the CMLL World Heavyweight Championship once. Rodríguez signed with WWE in 2009 and made his debut on their main roster the following year as Alberto Del Rio. In WWE, he became the first Mexico-born world champion in WWE history after he won the WWE Championship and the World Heavyweight Championship twice each. He also won the 2011 Royal Rumble and the 2011 Money in the Bank ladder match, making him the only professional wrestler to win both in the same calendar year.
Rodríguez departed WWE in 2014 and wrestled as Alberto El Patrón in other promotions such as Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide (AAA), Ring of Honor (ROH), Lucha Underground, Japanese and Puerto Rican promotions, and various United States independent promotions. In AAA, he won the AAA Mega Championship once. He returned to WWE in 2015, winning the United States Championship twice, before departing again in 2016. He subsequently signed with Impact Wrestling and won the Impact World Championship title at Slammiversary XV.
Born in San Luis Potosí into one of the most well known Mexican wrestling families, his father is noted luchador Dos Caras, while his uncles are Mil Máscaras and Sicodelico. His cousins, Sicodelico Jr. and Hijo de Sicodelico, are also wrestlers.[2] His younger brother Guillermo signed a WWE contract in August 2012 and was assigned to the promotion's developmental territory NXT under the ring name Memo Montenegro,[21] but was released in July 2013.[22]
Rodríguez graduated from Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí where he earned a degree in architecture.[2][3][17]
Growing up in a family of wrestlers Rodríguez decided to take up Greco-Roman wrestling, training under Leonel Kolesni and Juan Fernández.[1][2][17] He earned a place on the Mexico national team in Greco-Roman wrestling and while competing on the national team obtained several accomplishments.[23] In 1997, he placed third at the World Junior Championships, in the Czech Republic.[23] He also won the Central American and Caribbean Games in his weight division three times and won a medal at the Pan American Games. Rodríguez was on track to compete at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, but due to a lack of funding and support, Mexico did not send a wrestling team that year.[3]
After not competing at the 2000 Olympic games, Rodríguez turned to the family business, and trained with his father to become a professional wrestler. He made his debut appearance on 9 May 2000 as Dos Caras Jr. when he ran in during an AAA (now known as Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide) show to save his father from a beat down from El Texano and Pirata Morgan.[24] Over the next couple of years, Caras worked both in Mexico and Japan to gain experience in the ring. In Mexico he worked exclusively for AAA making appearances at shows such as the 2002 Verano de Escándalo, where he teamed with El Gronda and El Hijo del Solitario to defeat the trio of Pirata Morgan, Sangre Chicana and El Brazo.[25]
Rodríguez's first foray into puroresu was in 2001 for the Battlarts promotion, where he defeated Kazunari Murakami at the YUKI-BOM-BA-YE event.[26] Rodríguez returned to Japan the following year wrestling for Pro Wrestling Zero1 (Zero1) and All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW).[27][28][29] After wrestling for Zero1 primarily throughout 2002 and 2003, Rodríguez joined Hustle, debuting on their inaugural Hustle 1 event. He would continue to wrestle for Hustle under the ring names Dos Caras Jr. and Hustle Kamen Gold until October 2004.[30]
In 2005, Caras was signed to a contract with Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL).[31] In his first test in the company, Caras competed in the 2005 La Copa Junior, but the storyline of the tournament saw him defeated in the semi-final by Dr. Wagner Jr.[2][32] Caras's advancement to the semi-final of the cup, mere months after signing with the company was an indicator that the bookers were interested in elevating him up the rankings, this was further supported when he received matches for both the CMLL World Heavyweight Championship and the CMLL World Light Heavyweight Championship inside a three-week period.[2][33] The following year on 31 March 2006 Caras was entered again into the La Copa Junior tournament and earned a return victory over Dr. Wagner Jr. who knocked him out of the tournament the previous year.[2] He also won against Heavy Metal and Apolo Dantés to gain a place in the final, defeating Héctor Garza to win the prize.[34] While working in Japan, Caras had taken to teaming with another second-generation wrestler, Lizmark Jr., and when both found themselves in CMLL they were teamed up once again with the team's famous fathers being the selling point. Over the next year Caras found himself without much direction, he worked storylines with Último Guerrero and Kenzo Suzuki but nothing long term came of it. Caras received two opportunities to challenge Universo 2000 for the CMLL World Heavyweight title but came up short until his third attempt on 8 July 2007 when he became the CMLL World Heavyweight Champion.[33] While in wrestling promotions outside of Mexico the Heavyweight title would indicate that he was the top man in the federation, Mexican wrestling promotions tend to put more emphasis on the lower weight divisions over the heavyweights.[35]
After the contract dealings with WWE surfaced he began showing signs of becoming a rudo (villain). He turned his attention away from the matches and instead try to win the approval of the fans, often costing his team the match because he was distracted. Caras himself explained this behavior by stating that he "hurt his shoulder, but bravely stayed in the arena".[36] After hinting at a change for weeks Caras finally cemented his villainous persona on 11 April 2009, the second member of the Rodríguez family to be a heel (after his uncle, El Sicodélico Sr).[37] Caras's run with the CMLL World Heavyweight Championship remained largely uneventful with only four title defenses in the 533 days that he held the championship, before losing it and departing for WWE.[2][33]
He made brief appearance for WWE as a security guard on June 30, 2008 episode of Monday Night Raw. [38]By the fall of 2008, a story broke that Rodríguez had wrestled a dark match for World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and that they had offered him a contract.[2][39] Over the following months conflicting reports of whether he had signed or not arose, but he remained CMLL World Heavyweight Champion. When he lost the title to Último Guerrero it was believed that he had indeed signed with WWE,[33] with him being rumored to be a surprise participant in the 2009 Royal Rumble. However, he remained with CMLL and stated that he signed a four-year deal and chose CMLL because they offered him a better deal than WWE.[2][40]
On 17 June 2009, Rodríguez confirmed that he had signed a three-year contract with WWE, stating that he would not have to go to Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW), WWE's developmental territory, but directly to the main roster.[2] Furthermore, he would retain the rights to his name, mask and image, but allow the WWE to use it for promotional purposes while he is under contract with them. He agreed to the contract since it addressed the main reasons why he turned down the WWE's offer in January 2009.[41] Despite his claims, he had a match with Kris Logan at FCW under the name Dos.[42] He later also went on to wrestle under the ring names Dorado and El Dorado.[1] During a segment on the Abraham Washington show at the 6 August taping, Rodríguez revealed a new, unmasked wrestling character named Alberto Banderas.[7] When he revealed his face, he was criticized by some Mexicans for revealing, to which he responded that only a few people know why he lost the mask in that way.[31] During WWE's WrestleMania Revenge tour of Europe in April 2010, he made numerous appearances in untelevised matches for the Raw brand. One night he wrestled as Dos Caras, but he did not wear his mask. He was presented as a villain in a losing effort against Christian.[11][43] The following month Caras put his mask back on for WWE's tour of Mexico and worked as a hometown hero, prior to returning unmasked during untelevised matches for subsequent Raw and SmackDown shows.[44][45] Later, Rodríguez said that he hated his time in FCW, but that he learned a lot.[31]
On 25 June 2010, episode of SmackDown, Rodríguez appeared on a taped promotional video as the unmasked Alberto Del Rio.[8] Thereafter, a vignette aired every week on SmackDown promoting his character as an arrogant rich Mexican aristocrat, espousing his own virtues of honesty, integrity and mental faculties. After two months, Del Rio wrestled his first match at a house show in Brisbane, Australia and a week later, he made his television debut on the 20 August episode of SmackDown by defeating Rey Mysterio in the main event by submission with the cross armbreaker.[1][46] As part of his act, Del Rio made his entrances in an expensive car, while he was introduced by his personal ring announcer, Ricardo Rodriguez.[46] The following week, Del Rio continued the storyline with Mysterio by attacking him after his match with Kane, giving him a storyline injury by refusing to relinquish his armbar.[47] Two weeks later, he defeated Matt Hardy via submission in Hardy's last appearance with the company[48] causing Hardy's friend Christian to challenge Del Rio to a match at Night of Champions.[49] Despite declining the match, on the 24 September episode of SmackDown Del Rio attacked Christian and injured him the same way he did Mysterio the previous month.[50] This was done to write Christian off television, as he had suffered a torn pectoral muscle.[51] Mysterio returned on the 8 October episode of SmackDown, and handed Del Rio his first defeat in the main event match.[52] In October, Del Rio defeated Chris Masters to represent the SmackDown brand at Bragging Rights, but during the pay-per-view event, he attacked teammate Rey Mysterio, before being eliminated from the match by Team Raw's CM Punk.[53][54] At Survivor Series, in the traditional five-on-five elimination match, Del Rio captained a team against Rey Mysterio's team. Despite Del Rio's team losing, he was removed from the match after Big Show knocked him out with a WMD.[55] On the 26 November episode of SmackDown, Del Rio defeated Big Show via countout to qualify for the 2010 King of the Ring tournament.[56] In the tournament the next week on Raw, he made United States Champion Daniel Bryan submit in the first round, but was defeated by John Morrison in the semifinal after being distracted by Mysterio who was inside his car.[57] At TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs, Del Rio competed in a fatal four-way Tables, Ladders and Chairs match for the World Heavyweight Championship, which was won by Edge and also included Kane and Rey Mysterio.[58] On 7 January 2011 episode of SmackDown, Del Rio defeated Mysterio in a two-out-of-three-falls match, with help from Ricardo Rodriguez by holding Mysterio out of the ring to end his long feud with Mysterio.[59]
On the fourth season of NXT, starting in December 2010, Del Rio mentored rookie Conor O'Brian,[60] who became the second contestant to be eliminated from the competition on 18 January.[61] The following week the rookies competed in a fatal-four-way match, of which the winner could change their pro. Brodus Clay won the match and chose Del Rio as his new pro.[62] After the conclusion of NXT, Del Rio hired Clay as his bodyguard.[63]
On 30 January 2011, Del Rio defeated 39 other participants, last eliminating Santino Marella, to win the 2011 Royal Rumble and earn the right to compete for either the World Heavyweight Championship or the WWE Championship at WrestleMania XXVII.[64] The next night on Raw, Del Rio chose to compete for Edge's World Heavyweight Championship.[65] At Elimination Chamber, Del Rio attacked Edge, after he had successfully defended his title and solidified his spot as Del Rio's opponent at WrestleMania. However, Edge managed to come out the exchange victorious, after Christian returned from his injury and attacked Del Rio.[66] On 18 March episode of SmackDown, Del Rio and Christian finally had their first one–on–one match in a steel cage, in which Christian won.[67] At WrestleMania XXVII, Del Rio was unsuccessful in his World Heavyweight Championship match against Edge.[68] On 8 April episode of SmackDown, Del Rio defeated Christian to earn a rematch against Edge at Extreme Rules.[69] However, when Edge unexpectedly retired from professional wrestling on 11 April episode of Raw, Del Rio was instead booked to face Christian in a ladder match for the vacant World Heavyweight Championship, after Christian won a battle royal.[70]
On 25 April episode of Raw, Del Rio was drafted to the Raw brand.[71] Ricardo Rodriguez moved to Raw with him, while Brodus Clay remained on SmackDown. On 1 May at Extreme Rules, Del Rio lost to Christian in a ladder match for the vacant World Heavyweight Championship.[72] On 23 May episode of Raw, Del Rio slapped Big Show after he had gotten into a confrontation with Ricardo Rodriguez. After competing in a match, Big Show was run over by Del Rio's car, driven by Rodriguez, leaving him sidelined with a storyline knee injury.[73] Big Show made his return three weeks later, chasing Del Rio out of the ring and beating Rodriguez down.[74] On 19 June at Capitol Punishment, Del Rio defeated Big Show via referee stoppage, when he was unable to continue the match due to a pre-match assault by Mark Henry.[75] On 27 June episode of Raw, Del Rio defeated Big Show in a steel cage match, again after interference from Henry.[76]
On 17 July at Money in the Bank, Del Rio defeated Alex Riley, Evan Bourne, Jack Swagger, Kofi Kingston, The Miz, R-Truth and Rey Mysterio in the Raw Money in the Bank ladder match for a future WWE Championship match whenever and wherever over the next year, while also becoming the first wrestler in history to win a Royal Rumble and a Money in the Bank match in the same year. Following the orders of Vince McMahon, Del Rio attempted to cash in his contract later that same night on CM Punk, who had just defeated John Cena for the WWE Championship, but was attacked and laid out by Punk before he could do so.[77] Del Rio eventually cashed in his contract on 14 August at SummerSlam, challenging CM Punk after the main event, where he had defeated John Cena to become the undisputed WWE Champion. Between the two matches, Punk was attacked by Kevin Nash, which led to Del Rio scoring a quick pinfall victory to win the WWE Championship for the first time.[78] In winning the title, Del Rio became the first ever Mexican-born WWE Champion.[79] Del Rio made his first televised title defense the next night on Raw, defeating Rey Mysterio to retain his title.[80] On 18 September at Night of Champions, Del Rio lost the championship to John Cena, but gained it back on 2 October at Hell in a Cell by defeating Cena and Punk in a Hell in a Cell match.[81] On 23 October at