Back in August, WWE unexpectedly released multiple-time former champion and “winner of the largest Royal Rumble in history” Alberto Del Rio due to “unprofessional conduct and an altercation with an employee.” As it turns out, that altercation was started when said WWE employee made a racist joke about Del Rio, saying he should have to clean the dishes in catering because he’s Mexican. Del Rio slapped him, and a few days later was out of a job. ADR popped up as El Patrón Alberto in lucha libre promotion AAA, and basically every person of color involved with his WWE run was left hating wrestling.
The man Del Rio slapped was social media manager Cody Barbierri, who got knocked the f*ck out and threatened to sue WWE when Del Rio was initially suspended instead of fired. It was a terrible situation, and now it at least has some karmic balance. From PWInsider:
WWE placed a job posting online today seeking a Manager, Social Media for the company. This was the job title that Cody Barbierri, the employee who had issues with Alberto Del Rio that led to Del Rio’s WWE release, had held.
In checking with WWE sources this evening, we are told that Barbierri left WWE earlier this month. The circumstances of his exit are not known. He had been with the company since September 2012. He is now working as an independent social media consultant.
I hope the circumstances were, “made a joke about Hunico bussing tables and got kicked in the face so hard his teeth fell out.”
As a reminder, this wasn’t the only time Barbieri made off-color jokes. The PWI news bit includes an excerpt from an interview Del Rio conducted with Televisa’s Premera Noticias discussing the kind of work environment Barbierri fostered with his hilarious jokes:
The interviewer asks if he’s had any incidents with this employee before and Alberto says yes. He said that “a while back” there was a time the WWE employee was pretending to read something on his laptop and said, “It says on here Alberto is a ‘tal por cual’ “ (Mexican slang for a slut) and that he tried to play it off like it was a joke and shake Alberto’s hand. Alberto refused and told the employee to get away from him. He said this incident occurred 7 or 8 months prior to the slap. So when this incident occurred recently, Alberto demanded an apology, but that the WWE employee walked right up to Alberto’s face, smirked at him and said nothing. That’s when Alberto smacked him. Again, he said he is embarrassed by his reaction, but he doesn’t regret it. He said that yes, it cost him his job, but he thinks WWE is the one who loses the most in this situation.
Sounds like a cool guy. I hope his next job is independently social media consulting a garbage can.
