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Alberto Del Rio made his triumphant return last week at Hell in a Cell when he answered John Cena's US title open challenge and went on to capture the Championship.While the WWE fans were glad to see Del Rio, who had been terminated from the WWE little over a year ago for allegedly assaulting a social media manager who had aimed a racist joke at him, they were more than slightly puzzled at the guy whom WWE picked to be in Del Rio's corner - Zeb Colter.Colter had been part of anti-immigrant story lines as part of the Real Americans and his first feud during that time was ironically with Del Rio. How can a person who has an almost xenophobic persona on screen be managing a Mexican import into the US like Del Rio?It seems to be seen whether the Mex-America angle will work. Well, here are three reasons why it just might -
#1 Colter\'s pedigree
WWE fans might be quick to write off Colter’s managerial abilities, seeing him flounder with Jack Swagger and Cesaro in recent times. How ever, the former Dutch Mantel has been instrumental in shaping the careers of many wrestlers in the nineties, not least, the likes of Sting and the Ultimate Warrier.
Mantel is widely renowned for having a solid wrestling brain and was the man who gave Steve Williams the name Steve Austin. He also worked with the Undertaker and Kane during their early days in various territories.
Colter’s experience is priceless, being one of the few people left with WWE having experience in the Indies, WCW, SMW, WWC, IWA and TNA.
Under him as head writer, IWA’s ratings bolstered and he has also been credited for helping initiate the TNA’s Knockout division – which eventually paved the way for an increase in the popularity of womens’ wrestling in the States.
With this pedigree, it seems a smart decision to book a returning Del Rio with Colter.
#2 The romanticism of the \'Odd couple\'
WWE has always been hot on ‘odd couple’ story lines. Whether it be Booker T and Goldust in the last decade, Kane and Daniel Bryan this decade or even the Rock and Mick Foley in the nineties, there have been a lot of weird pairings in WWE that have made no sense, but have worked – nevertheless.
Colter and Del Rio could be another of those teams – their USP being the best proponents of hypocrisy – Colter ranting against Anti-Americans while accepting the Mexican Del Rio. Or even better, they could have a stable of Mexican and American wrestlers opposing wrestlers from other nationalities like Neville and even Finn Balor, in the future.
While Colter and Del Rio do not have the comedic timing that any of the ‘odd couple’ teams had, they might just complete one another. Del Rio isn’t the best on the mic and even his promos when he was the cocky Mexican aristocrat, wasn’t awe inspiring.
In his second innings with WWE, Del Rio seems to have gathered a more serious and intense persona. Colter serving as his mouthpiece would help to retain that intensity around Del Rio as he progresses from a cocky villain to an aloof and dominating heel.
Colter is very good in gaining a reaction from the crowd and while I wouldn’t expect Del Rio to be the second coming of Jack Swagger as the dumb and mute muscle of the Real Americans, he would no longer have the burden of striking a chord with the WWE fans all on his own – Colter will do that for him and he has a proven track record for ticking people off.
It just might work out in the end for Del Rio.
#3 Laying the roots for an eventual Del Rio face turn
While it was great to see WWE bring back Del Rio, it was confusing as to why they would reintroduce him as a heel.
Del Rio might have failed to click as a babyface during his initial run with the WWE, but times have changed. Ever since news came in to the open that he had been fired from WWE for standing up to an allegedly racist social media manager, the respect that the Internet Wrestling Community (IWC) had for Del Rio multiplied.
Here was a guy willing to take a stand against the establishment and was not scared of the consequences – a la CM Punk, if you will. Hence, it would have been a great strategy to bring him back as a babyface against John Cena and let him capture the title in a face vs face match. Let’s face it – the crowd is hot for anyone whom Cena faces anyways.
But WWE might just have a long term plan and the climax would see an eventual face turn for Del Rio. And what better way to initiate that turn than by turning on his obnoxious and ironically – racist – manager in Colter. It is something that might just work if booked properly and would resemble Del Rio’s real life incidents.
Del Rio might start showing signs of disagreements with Colter’s antics and might have a feud with some new guy that Colter manages. Or Colter might just dump Del Rio for a more pure blood American in the near future.
Either way, this would allow WWE to make people wait for the face turn of a guy whose real life character is admired by the masses and would eventually result in a greater crowd reaction.
Colter could probably take his anti-immigrant stance up a notch during the next couple of months so that the fans would really hate him and that would make Del Rio all the more over when he eventually turns face.
Bottomline is that Del Rio has never been a successful babyface - if booked right, now might be the time, against the perfect bully in Colter.
