How WWE Superstar Alberto Del Rio's character was influenced by the 'King of Cocaine' - Pablo Escobar (Exclusive)

Alberto Del Rio's legendary gimmick was influenced by Pablo Escobar's character.
Alberto Del Rio's legendary gimmick was influenced by Pablo Escobar's character.

Many WWE Superstars derive inspiration for their characters from film or television. According to Ricardo Rodriguez, Alberto Del Rio watched footage of Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar to perfect and hone his character.

Rodriguez was Del Rio's ring announcer for many years, and they remain close friends to this very day. In an exclusive interview with Sportskeeda Wrestling, Ricardo mentioned how Bray Wyatt was influenced by Slipknot and the father of the atom bomb, Robert Oppenheimer, during his earliest days.

When it comes to Del Rio, he went in a different direction to perfect his character.

"I remember Alberto used to watch Scarface non-stop on his portable DVD player or anything with Pablo Escobar," Rodriguez said. "He would watch stuff like that just to kind of get ideas and stuff. So yeah, a lot of us would get concepts or ideas of how to use certain things by watching other characters." (3:06-3:29)

Rodriguez continued:

"Because I'm a very big advocate that very rarely are you ever going to take something and make it exactly the same. Because subconsciously, you add your little taste to it. Your little flavor. And I feel like that's what happened with myself and Bray. With Alberto, when we took these characters, these personas we have seen and we kind of made it into our own little thing." (3:30-3:57)

Do catch the entire interview below.

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Catch Alberto Del Rio, Ricardo Rodriguez, and other WWE Superstars in action!

There's a huge event happening at Clipper Magazine Stadium in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, featuring your favorite superstars. WWE Hall of Famer Rob Van Dam will be in attendance, and so will Santino, Fandango, and others!

The hottest independent acts will also showcase their talent. So if you're in town, you've gotta go down.

Do you miss the duo of Alberto Del Rio and Ricardo Rodriguez? Let us know in the comments.


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