WWE News: Original Plans for Alberto Del Rio's First WWE Title Reign Revealed

Alberto Del Rio has had two runs with the WWE Championship since August, and by all measures, both title reigns were huge flops. 

The first one lasted barely more than a month, the second one didn’t last much longer and both were marred by horrendous booking that made Del Rio look like nothing more than a coward. 

While ADR’s second reign was a disappointment, his first one was probably even worse because of the WWE’s decision to hotshot the WWE Championship back onto John Cena without even giving Del Rio a successful pay-per-view title defense. And now we know why that decision was made. 

From the Wrestling Observer Newsletter (via SEScoops.com): 

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Back when Alberto Del Rio won the WWE Championship at SummerSlam (after cashing in his Money in the Bank briefcase), the longterm plan was for him to eventually drop the belt back to Punk at Survivor Series – which he did. Del Rio dropping the WWE title to John Cena at Night of Champions and then recapturing it a month later at Hell in a Cell was somewhat of an “on the fly” decision in hopes of spiking ratings – which it didn’t.

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So, the WWE kinda, sorta had long-term plans in place here, which is certainly a rarity in today’s world. 

Of course, the creative team blew up those plans by putting the title back on Cena the second they had a little freakout when ratings started to drop. That sets a scary precedent that, admittedly, has me somewhat nervous. 

What happens if, for example, the Raw ratings continue to drop in the second hour with CM Punk as champion, like they did this week? Does that mean the creative team is going to take the belt off Punk and put it on Cena as he heads toward Wrestlemania 28 and his match with The Rock? 

WWE officials have to realize that putting the WWE title on Cena is not the solution to every ratings problem it has. Writing better storylines and producing more stars are, though. 

Perhaps the WWE brass will make an effort to improve those two areas before putting the title back on Cena every time the ratings drop even the slightest bit.