In an interview with Fighting Spirit Magazine that will be released this week, former WWE Superstar Alberto del Rio opened up on his departure from the company. Del Rio said that there were constant racist jokes in the WWE while he was there and he never liked them, but never said anything because usually the jokes were made by important people and said that the jokes were made about Latin Americans and African-Americans and said if a “nobody” such as Cody Barbierri made a joke, then he would say something, but if someone important made a racist joke, then he wouldn’t say anything to them.
When questioned about the incident with Barbierri, Del Rio said that at first, he was told that he was going to be suspended, but when officials realized that there was a lawsuit against them from when The Big Show allegedly slapped a backstage worker doing a vignette, they were afraid that Barbierri would sue and that then Del Rio was told, “we need to let you go until things cool down” and was given the impression that he would be back in a few months, to which he told them that if he wasn’t hired back by the time he hung up the phone that he wasn’t coming back and noted that he had already made up his mind about leaving the company when his contract expired. Del Rio refused to name the person who made the phone call to him, but said it was someone in a higher-up position who always made racial jokes and that as a result, because that person done it, others thought it was okay to do also.
Del Rio stated that the former Sin Cara is currently making $5,000 per match in Mexico and is doing two to three matches per week and that the new hot talents in the WWE are making $500 per match and claimed one WWE Superstar, who has a brother in the company, told him that he worked a Superstars match, a long RAW match, a promo on RAW and then a dark match at the end of the show and got just $500 for it and mentioned wrestlers getting paid $2,000 for a four-show tour of Mexico, noting that the young WWE talents are not unhappy about things, but are not completely happy either and have no other choice.
Del Rio said that WWE only wants you to do their style in the ring and they keep you in a box, of which you can’t think outside and doesn’t blame WWE for that because it works for them, but now he’s going to mix American, European, Japanese and Mexican styles in his overall wrestling. Del Rio noted that his father, Dos Caras, will have a big retirement event in 2015, which will feature appearances from himself, his brother, Mil Mascaras and Japanese stars and noted that Rey Mysterio is hopeful of attending the event.