Alberto Del Rio: Why His World Title Reign Will Be Short-Lived

Sometimes, you just need to sit back with your popcorn and cola and watch the fireworks. 

How in a short span of the holidays did we see Alberto Del Rio go from being a heel to the face to running over Santa Claus to villain to hero in protecting his ring announcer to Ricardo Rodriguez to beating Big Show and winning the World title?

Obviously, the holidays were very good to Del Rio and the fruits of his labor have placed him atop the mountain of SmackDown for now. Until the Royal Rumble, that is. I'm going to take a sip of cola and explain all this, but it seems that the Mexican Aristocrat has gotten over again in the WWE and will be a crowd favorite when he has to defend his World title at the upcoming pay-per-view. 

Don't tell Del Rio, but his title reign will be almost as short as Kerry Von Erich's NWA title reign in the mid-1980s.

Del Rio is the perfect transition champion for Dolph Ziggler to cash in his Money in the Bank contract and claim gold. In the year of "AJ and Ziggy," there is no way we could possibly see Ziggler getting over on Big Show. Del Rio is a more "believable" opponent for Ziggler, and he would also put an end to Big Show's reign and the elimination of Sheamus from the title picture for a while.

If the WWE is going to show us something positive on its road to WrestleMania besides The Rock and CM Punk, then it must do a few things to improve what is taking place—mainly the infusion of Ziggler as the World champion.

Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how you see it, Del Rio becomes the sacrificial lamb in all this. It makes sense and leads to feuds between ADR and Ziggler and Ziggler and Cena with the World title on the line. Better business through exchange.

If the WWE truly wants Ziggler as its World champion (which needs to happen soon or not happen at all), then it needs to happen now in the coming weeks. The Royal Rumble will be the perfect place to accomplish all of that. The Rock and Punk are the headline, the Battle Royal sets the tone for WrestleMania and Ziggler begins a new reign. 

I'm almost sad to see Del Rio used this way, mainly because I am partial to the idea of seeing him as a face and good one with some tweaking of his character (Rosa Mendes at his side, please). But when you look at the big picture of the year ahead, Del Rio being champion right now is the best thing for what Triple H called "business."

The WWE is finally taking care of business.