I’m guessing this past weekend was pretty stressful for Tommy Dreamer. His promotion, House of Hardcore, had their first internet pay-per-view on Saturday, and several wrestlers had to cancel due to injuries (get well soon, EC3!). Additionally, the show took place at the fabled ECW Arena in Philadelphia – a tough crowd to please, to be certain. Fortunately, there were two aces in the hole that surprised everyone in attendance… Alberto Del Rio and Ricardo Rodriguez.
Let’s set the scene: Brian Myers (formerly known as WWE’s Curt Hawkins) has just lost his match with Christian York and is complaining to the crowd. Here’s what went down. The video is a bit shaky, I apologize in advance.
The ECW Arena probably hasn’t heard a “F*CK MCMAHON” chant that loud since 1999. As he pointed out in his speech, Del Rio’s American wrestling future was kind of uncertain. When he was fired from WWE back in August, he was given the standard 90-day no-compete clause that we’ve come to expect with any WWE release. However, this didn’t stop him from showing up at TripleMania, the flagship pay-per-view of Mexican lucha libre mainstay AAA, on August 17th. WWE and AAA actually reached a deal in September, allowing Del Rio to compete on AAA programming as “El Patrón Alberto.” It’s quite likely we’ll see him next year on Lucha Underground, and additionally, he made his debut for Keiji Mutoh’s Wrestle-1 promotion a few weeks ago when he defeated Masakatsu Funaki in a short match.
Fortunately, it looks like El Patrón has at least one American promotion he can call home now. With a reception like that, I doubt that was just a one-off appearance. And how great is it to see Alberto and Ricardo back in their “Lucha Pals Forever” mode again? Man, I missed that.
