There is no doubt Alberto Del Rio is truly one of the fastest rising stars in the WWE. After winning the 2011 Royal Rumble match Alberto’s heads to Wrestlemania 27 for a shot at the World Heavyweight title. But what is known about Del Rio before he entered a WWE ring, Karl Hanaghan takes us back in Alberto’s career and looks at his rise to stardom.

In Mexico wrestling is huge and considered a part of their culture. If you have watch WWE recently, then no doubt you have heard about this new comer. Representing Mexico, he is known as Alberto Del Rio. Pro Wrestling Illustrated has rated him #45 out of the 500 top single wrestlers in 2006, and Wrestling Observer Newsletter have awarded him the Best Gimmick in 2010. His career may be short in WWE at the moment, but his career in general is not. This guy has done it all... amateur wrestling, pro wrestling and even MMA.

Alberto Rodríguez (Alberto Del Rio) was born in San Luis Potosí, Mexico on May 25th, 1977. He is the son of José Luis Rodríguez Arellano (Dos Caras) and nephew to Aaron Rodríguez Arellano (Mil Mascaras), and a cousin to Sicodelico, Jr. and Hijo de Sicodelico. Growing up with family members who wrestle, he decided to become a wrestler. He first started off in the world of amateur wrestling, where he was trained by Leonel Kolesni and Juan Fernández in Greco-Roman wrestling. He managed to get onto the Mexico national team, and has had success by winning the Central American and Caribbean Games three times. He also won a medal in the Pan American Games. He was on his way to competing in the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. But due to a lack of funding and support, no team was sent to the Olympics.

After the Olympics, he decided to take the leap into the world of professional wrestling. His father trained him and he made his professional wrestling debut on May 9th, 2000 in Asistencia Asesoria y Administracion. Alberto went under the ring name Dos Caras, Jr. and wore a luchadore mask. His ring name translated means ‘Two Faces’. He ran in to save his father from a beating by Espectro, Jr, Pirata Morgan and El Taxano. He did not however compete in his first professional wrestling match until September 29th, 2000. It was a eight man tag team match that had him teamed up with Sangre Chicana, El Alebrije and La Parka, Jr. They took on the three men who beat down his father, as well as a fourth member named El Cobarde. The team was known as Los Consagrados. He wrestled till 2002 in the company.

During his debut into professional wrestling, he also wanted to try MMA. He was trained by Marco Ruas. His ring name and luchadore mask were brought into the world of MMA. His debut fight was in Yokohama, Japan at Deep: 2nd Impact on 18th August, 2001. He faced Kengo Watanabe and won within forty seconds by breaking Kengo’s arm with a belly to belly suplex. From 2001 to 2010, Alberto has fought in 14 fights with a record of 9 wins and 5 losses. 2 he won by knockout and 7 he won by submission. His losses were by 2 knockouts, 1 submission, 1 decision and 1 DQ. The final fight was in Madrid, Spain at Cage of Combat 4: Spanish Bombs on February 27th, 2010. He faced Yamamoto Hanshi. The match ended in the second round after 2:47 where Roberto got knocked out by punches. The opponents he has beaten are Kengo Watanabe, Tatsuaki Nakano, Brad Kohler, George King, Joao Tua, Hato Kiyoshi, Ignacio Laguna, Toshiyuki Moriya and Arthur Bart. The five opponents who have beaten him are Kengo Watanabe, Hiroyuki Ito, Mirko Filipovic, Kazuhiro Nakamura and Yamamoto Hanshi.

In 2005 Alberto joined Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL). He wrestled there for four years before signing up to the WWE. Shortly after joining he was entered in a tournament to try and win the CMLL World Heavyweight Championship. However he was eliminated in the semi finals by Dr. Wagner, Jr. In 2006 he was entered in the annual tournament again, and this time he won the title. Alberto never had to defend the title much in his title reign. During the 533 days he won it, he only defended it four times. It would then be another 9 months before he had to defend it against Ultimo Gurerrero. In 2008 it came out that Roberto wrestled a dark match in WWE, and may have been offered a contract. When Roberto finally lost the title to Ultimo Gurerrero, it was speculated that he was joining WWE, and may appear in the 2009 Royal Rumble. However it was not the case as he stayed for another year in CMLL. Roberto stated that he has a four year contract with CMLL, and was happy with what they offered over WWE. In his final year with CMLL, after the news broke out about his WWE dark match, he became a Rudo (bad guy). This is the first time he has ever been a bad guy in his career. His wrestling family have only been Tecnico (good guy), which makes him the first bad guy in his family.

Once his contract had expired; he took a three year contract with WWE. The reason he took it this time was because they fixed up the things he didn’t like in the last offer. Roberto reckoned he would go straight to the main roster, rather than go to their developmental territory FCW. But it was not the case as they put him in FCW for a year. He went through a few ring names during his time there. Dos, Dorado, El Dorado, Alberto Banderas and Dos Caras. When he wrestled as Dos Caras for one night, he did not have his mask on. He became a heel after losing to Christian.

On June 25th, 2010 he made his debut on television as a member of Smackdown. They had a promotional video where he is known as Alberto Del Rio. Alberto no longer wore the luchadore mask. Alberto’s gimmick is that of a rich arrogant Mexican aristocrat. He drives down to the ring in a Rolls Royce, and has a personal ring announcer named Ricardo Rodriguez. His debut match was on August 20th, 2010 against Rey Mystero on Smackdown in the main event. Alberto won with a cross armbar. During his time on Smackdown, he was scripted to injure three wrestlers with the move, Rey Mysterio (who he was feuding with), Matt Hardy (who left WWE), and Christian (who had torn his pectoral muscle). Rey Mysterio finally returned on 8th of October, 2010 to defeat Alberto, which was his first loss in WWE. On November 26th, 2010 he defeated Big Show to qualify for the King of the Ring Tournament. On Raw for the tournament, he defeated Daniel Bryan in the first round by making him tap. John Morrison would eliminate Alberto in the semi final when Rey Mysterio caused a distraction. Alberto Del Rio became a pro in the next season of NXT for his rookie Connor O’Brian. Connor was eliminated second on the show. At the Royal Rumble in 2011, he won the rumble by eliminating Santino Marella. With the choice of which championship to go for at WrestleMania 27, he decided his opponent will be Edge for the World Heavyweight Championship.

Alberto Del Rio has had a very quick push in WWE, but his career as a whole is far from quick. Wherever you love this guy or hate him, he has made an impact winning the rumble, and going to headline WrestleMania 27 while only being on WWE television for less than a year. Will his star continue to shine on WWE? Tune in to find out.