WWE's Reality Era: Where Does Alberto Del Rio Fit in the Grand Scheme of Things?

As most of you probably know, this past Sunday Alberto Del Rio cashed in his briefcase on CM Punk. After a grueling match and surprise beat down, he won the WWE Championship. Now it seems Del Rio is beginning a feud with John Cena, probably leading to a match at Night of Champions. Since these two haven't really feuded before, it could probably go on for a while.

Del Rio's title reign comes in the middle of a whirlwind of change in pro wrestling, as WWE has completely changed its booking strategy to be more revolved around "worked shoot" angles, where superstars are being more true to themselves. It started with Punk completely tearing WWE apart verbally, which was followed by WWE putting Triple H, Stephanie McMahon, John Laurinaitis and Kevin Nash in positions of power.

And now even guys like Cena and The Miz are changing their approach to something a little more realistic and believable. It feels like all these characters are really just hyper-exaggeration of the real-life personalities of these people.

Del Rio is a sharp departure from that idea. He prances around with a big scarf, drives out in fancy cars, has his own personal ring announcer and claims to be one of the richest and most influential men in Mexico. He's a traditional wrestling heel character, although he plays the role extremely well.

So it seems strange that the champion of the Reality Era is a superstar who isn't going to cut promos on how he thinks the business is failing or about backstage politics or about how people are being held down. Del Rio exists in his own little world and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

So the question is, what does WWE do with Del Rio over the next year or so? For the present, it looks like Del Rio will be busy with Cena while Punk handles most of the shoot stuff in his dealings with Triple H and Nash.

But it's only a matter of time before these two angles cross over, and we see WWE's backstage politicians get involved in the WWE championship picture. So where does Del Rio fit in the long term?

One possible role for Del Rio could be becoming the corporate champion. This would involve Triple H essentially turning heel and deciding the company needs someone who will always stand up for the WWE. So he uses his resources to keep Del Rio champ and screw Cena and Punk out of chances, possibly leading up to Del Rio vs. Punk at WrestleMania.

Another possibility is Cena beats Del Rio for the title, and we go back to where we were before.

Del Rio is the WWE Champion at the most critical period in years in the WWE. If creative doesn't have his route well-planned out, it could kill a lot of WWE's recent momentum. While Del Rio is one of the most talented and charismatic superstars in WWE, only time will tell if he's the right man to be on top over the next few months.