WWE: Do Fans Really Care About Alberto Del Rio?

From the moment that Alberto Del Rio debuted in the WWE in the summer of 2010, there was a buzz about him. 

It was clear with the vignettes promoting his debut that the company had big plans for him, but those short videos really did him no justice. 

When Del Rio finally showed up on SmackDown after several weeks, he was much better than what those vignettes made him out to be. 

His WWE debut saw him go at it with Rey Mysterio, and just like that, a star was born. 

The way Del Rio looked, the way he carried himself, the way he talked—all these things screamed future main-event star and World champion.

That’s exactly what happened, too. 

In just more than one year in the WWE, ADR managed to win the Royal Rumble, the Money in the Bank match and WWE Championship, which is something that no one has ever done in such a short span. 

But as time went on, the talk surrounding Del Rio wasn’t about how good he was, even though—at least in my view—he’s a great talent in the ring and a pretty good overall performer. 

Rather, all the chatter seemed to be about how tired the fans were getting of the Mexican aristocrat. 

He seemed to have “John Cena disease,” in which a superstar is pushed so hard and shoved down our throats so much that it’s almost a given that we begin to grow sick of him. 

That didn’t really even change much when Del Rio was injured in late 2011 and returned shortly after WrestleMania 28 after a rather lengthy hiatus. 

The general reaction was still more like “Oh, him again?” rather than “Yes! Del Rio’s back!” 

Indeed, it wasn’t even two years after he made his WWE debut, and Del Rio was already suffering from something that seems to plague a lot of wrestlers today: Staleness. 

Yes, Del Rio is a living and breathing personification of stale. He ranks right up there with guys like Cena in terms of staleness. 

And truth be told, I don’t blame the fans for thinking that. Generally speaking, he does the same thing over and over again. 

It’s “Oh, I’m Alberto Del Rio. I’m rich, I own a bunch of fancy cars, and I think I’m better than you.” 

The man is extremely talented, sure. But every gimmick has a shelf life, and Del Rio has certainly exceed his. 

In fact, I’d argue that he’s staler now than he’s ever been. His current never-ending feud with Sheamus has been a miserable failure, and he’s been struggling in the character-development department pretty much since he dropped the WWE title to CM Punk at Survivor Series last November. 

I don’t think it’s out of line to say that Del Rio might be one of those stars who’s become a victim of being pushed too hard too soon. 

He made a giant splash immediately upon his debut and over the course of the next year afterward, but he’s spent his entire WWE career at or near the top of the company and has changed very little in the process. 

As a result, the average wrestling fan couldn’t care less about Del Rio. 

His heat is nowhere near the level it was once at, and it seems that a majority of the heat that he does get is “go away” heat rather than “I hate you” heat. 

I think that Del Rio is very talented in the ring and that he certainly serves a purpose in the WWE because of the company’s need to have top Hispanic stars in order to appeal to that market. 

But beyond that, ADR isn’t doing what he did upon his WWE debut. He isn’t making the fans care about him. 

I’m honestly not sure who to blame here: The creative team for failing to make Del Rio matter more, or Del Rio himself for failing to do the same. 

Either way, though, I—like many other wrestling fans—have grown completely indifferent toward ADR. 

I don’t like him. I don’t hate him. I just don’t care. 

Drake Oz is a WWE Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter and ask him any wrestling-related questions on Formspring.