Is Alberto Del Rio over as a face?

[TheKingofKings20222]

When WWE first turned Del Rio face, it was stale and boring. A few weeks later he even ran over Santa Clause! His face turn for the first few weeks, was less than stellar. He became a boring bland face. But with his recent feud with Big Show, he has started to grow on me as a legitimate face. One of the main reasons, is because of Ricardo. I believe that without Ricardo, Del Rio could not survive as a face. He has shown more aggression as a face throughout his feud with Big Show, but I still can't get into him while he's pandering to the fans. When he's out there chanting "Si! Si! Si!" I can't help but think he's not fully behind the face turn. With Swagger's arrest it is likely that WWE will find a new opponent for him to fight at Mania, but who do you think could help Del Rio get over even more? IMO, I believe if WWE does switch opponents for Del Rio, there is nobody more perfect to help him become a better face than Mark Henry. Henry is a big guy, who I could see as a legitimate threat to Del Rio's title. I think a feud between them could help make Del Rio into a top face. If WWE doesn't find him a legitimate opponent for Mania, then Del Rio will most likely go down after Mania. What are your thoughts? Is Del Rio over as a face to you? If not, who of what do you think could push him to the next level?

 

[Jack-Hammer]

I think Del Rio is getting a decent response as a babyface. He's gotten a much stronger reaction in places with a large Hispanic population. For instance, for a couple of weeks earlier in the year, WWE was having Raw & SD! in such places and Del Rio was extremely over. Just go back and watch him beating Big Show for the WHC on SD! and watch & listen to the response.

Outside of a Hispanic heavy population, Del Rio still gets a decent pop. It's not even close to the pops that Cena, Rock, Punk, Daniel Bryan, Randy Orton, Sheamus & Ryback get.

The handling of Del Rio's face turn was an absolute mess. Some of the sloppiest storytelling and booking WWE has done in quite some time, in my opinion. One thing that Del Rio does have now that he hasn't had in quite a while is a freshness about him. He does seem to be, at least to me, recharged. He just seems to have more of a spring in his step, something that's been missing since his ill fated WWE Championship runs back in late 2011.

While he gets a decent response, there's a lot of room left for improvement. For instance, if Del Rio can't do much more than shamelessly pander to the fans whenever he gets on the mic, then I don't see him being a top babyface star in the long run, no matter how much Vince might wish otherwise. If WWE stays the course with Swagger in light of his DUI arrest, it's possible that we could see more depth out of Del Rio in a storyline that's generating a good deal of controversy.

 

[The Perfect Max]

I am liking Alberto Del Rio's face turn thus far, and I agree that Ricardo Rodriguez should be credited for some of it. I remember discussing this with a friend; he said Del Rio's face turn would be a success, but I just had to see it to believe it. I imagined Del Rio being one of those guys with probably the most potential, but wouldn't get anywhere because creative and his gimmick didn't allow him to.

Since that Last Man Standing Match for the World Heavyweight Championship on SmackDown, how things have changed. Del Rio is without doubt getting top pops at shows. I remember going to a live show, whilst he was heel, here in the UK. The pop was enormous, definitely third to Cena and Punk, and that is saying something really. So, his popularity has increased massively, and when he puts on great performances, the fans will respect this and begin to take a different perspective when judging him.

Like others have said, without Ricardo it just wouldn't work. Whether a face or a heel, Alberto Del Rio is and always will be a serious guy. Yes, he can have fun with his celebrations and promo's, but is, when it comes down to it, a serious guy. I find Ricardo adds to the atmosphere when Del Rio is performing. He gets fans into it and generally gets involved somehow, even at his expense, but even since Royal Rumble 2012, you knew Ricardo had reached the fans in a special way.

I look forward to the future for Alberto Del Rio and Ricardo Rodriguez.

 

[berlinbrawler]

He is getting a decent pop from the crowd, but if it's the kind of reaction a World Champion should elicit is debatable.

Bottom line, I'm still not buying him as a babyface. He's trying to be a hybrid of JBL and Eddie Guerrero. That just don't mix. The look, the music, the manservant, the mannerisms - everything about this guy screams HEEL. I'm just not feeling it.

I've been wrong plenty of times before, so maybe this is one of those times, but babyface Berto is just not working for me.

 

[asiatic7]

I liked him better when he was heel, but the face turn is ok. I cringe when he touches a mic. He tries to hard I belive sometimes, like when he tries to get the crowd to chant "si", and glad-handing little children. I think he would be more over if he were a face who was cocky in his ways, sort of like The Rock in 99', but I like him anyway, but I don't expect him to be super-over with everybody any time soon...

 

[THTRobtaylor]

He is over, but it is clear that Chris Jericho is far more over than he at this point, so that is a problem. They will probably just put Y2J back to his traditional heel mode but they would miss out on the Ziggler feud if they do.

ADR is doing fine considering how dastardly a heel and that his turn came at the unusual time of year. Most guys who are gonna be major faces turn at Mania or shortly afterwards especially after winning a World Title, it's far more impactful.

Is he the top guy yet? No? Can he be? I'm doubtful but he is making good enough progress that if they keep Swagger in the ME of Mania that ADR should go over strong on him. Sadly the best plan is have Jericho beat Swagger for his shot and win for Zig to cash in to make it a 3 way if they are gonna remove Swagger.

 

[chibet]

I think he is absolutely over as a face, ever since that promo where he gave ricardo the keys to his car, it just seemed to work. ricardo himself is excellent for the transition due to the variety of ways he can be used wether it be heel or face. ADR is a great tweener type of face , love the winks and hope he uses it more, it cracks me up everytime. THT, if you haven't heard Y2J won't even be around Wrestlemania time. Lucky if we even get another week or so out of him.

 

[Headman]

I don't see this reaction people are talking about. On tv I hear dead silence. It may be better live, but your world champion should get at least some kind of reaction. And really there's no reason for people to cheer him. The guy can't talk and he's got a heel's gimmick. It would be like cheering for the Million Dollar Man or JBL. Hell, when JBL wants to get a face reaction he goes back to his APA persona. Del Rio's turn was abrupt and confusing. One day he apologizes to Ricardo and now he's a good guy? Oh, but then he runs Santa over and draws the ire of John Cena, but then one week later he's back to being the good guy. There's just so many things wrong with this face turn. I guess being big in Mexico is enough of a reason to confuse and bore the rest of the world.

 

[The Brain]

I don’t think Del Rio is as over as WWE wants him to be. I think the problem is his very sudden and lackluster face turn. ADR turned face at the TLC ppv completely out of nowhere. The fans were not anticipating it and didn’t know how to react to it. It was not a clear face turn. Rescuing Rodriguez could have been a fine idea for a turn but it would have helped if there was at least a bit of a hint of a turn for a couple weeks. If not that Rodriguez should have been put in a more sympathetic situation for ADR to save him. Standing up to 3MB is not exactly inspiring.

Running over Santa Claus a couple weeks later didn’t do him any favors either. They actually could have used that as part of his face turn by making him very regretful and apologetic. Don’t take this to be as lame as it sounds but he could have learned from that and realized he was living his life wrong and needed to share his wealth. Instead ADR is all of a sudden a new man without any explanation.

I think ADR is doing ok and will eventually become more popular. All it takes is a little thing to make a guy more popular. As soon as the fans realize they are supposed to join in on Ricardo’s long Albertoooooooooooooooo Del Rioooooooooooooo introduction his popularity will increase a little more.

 

[Pedigree1]

You know something i wasnt a fan of Del Rio face turn at all but then all of a sudden he has grown on me. His face turn was rather strange some really sloppy storytelling but it is what it is.

He really gets a decent pop when he comes out and thats a great sign at least to me. He even gets a loud pop from non hispanic crowds. The crowd really has really gotten behind him also which again a great sign.

But damnit i miss the cars that is the only thing i dont like

 

[The Butcher]

I'm not worried about who else in the crowd is cheering for ADR, I'm enjoying him as a face myself. I've said before that I thought the turn was herky jerky and awkward, but that in spite of that it's worked. It gave me a reason to reinvest in the character, and the feud with Big Show got things off to a good start. He's not the best thing going right now, but I've enjoyed his character change and storyline.

It's been my experience amongst the IWC that Del Rio is just polarizing from a fandom standpoint. Most reasonable people will give him credit as a wrestler, but after that it's either love him or hate him as a character. No matter what his allegiance, he's either going to get too little credit or too much credit from his detractors/fans when the truth is closer to the middle. Take the pops, for instance- he's not getting crickets or blowing the roof off, but crowds are responding.

 

[The Eighties]

Ricardo is more over, Del Rio's reaction has been minimal as either heel or face for a long while now. His promos sucking up are doing him no favours either. I do think his wrestling has suited the change to being a face, he's got good fire in his comeback.

 

[Winds-Of-Change]

Its to early to criticize.

He's only just won the World title, sure his face turn sucked balls to the extreme. Who the fuck runs over Santa during the start of a face turn?
Cant believe I just wrote that.. stupid storyline..

But yea anyway, Del Rio as a face is just getting started and I feel its to early to start asking if he's over give him time. Few months, same with Miz.
He's getting there slowly.

 

[Phenomic Enigma]

I prefer him as a heel rather than a face chase I am not enjoying his promos right now and the only think people like him is because Ricardo is over with the fans more and Ricardo is quite funny as a face but Alberto in my opinion is more of a heel but over time who knows, I didn't think Sheamus would get over as a face but he managed and is quite good at it so overtime i think he might get more over with the fans

 

[Mr. HD]

I like Del Rio's face turn. He's changed for the better because his heel run wasn't doing him any favors down the run. It may have worked initially, but he was just declining and this face turn changed things around for him. He's smiling more, he gives scarfs to kids, doesn't use the car anymore, he actually has a backbone ,which is rare to find in a face these days, and more importantly, he finally became the World Heavyweight Champion.

Aside from The Rock, Daniel Bryan, Orton and Jericho, he's one of the faces I like to cheer for.

 

[Happy Gilmore]

Definitely. The fans chanting 'Si' definitely helps his case with me that he is slowly getting over. I however don't know how much of that is him getting the pop or Ricardo getting it for him.

 

[The 1-2-3 Killam]

I love Alberto del Rio as a face, which is saying a lot since in 2011 I would have pretty much said he was ruining Monday Night Raw by having anything to do with CM Punk. I think maybe they should keep him more on Smackdown though, as they do have a statistically larger Hispanic demographic. That's really been changing in recent years though, with Rey Mysterio being on Raw just as much as Smackdown, and Sin Cara...not being very interesting. The Latina community really hasn't had a hometown hero to get behind in a long time. Even Mysterio was from San Diego.

Anyways, point is, I like del Rio. I think his work with Big Show drew him some great reactions, and now going into WrestleMania I only think it'll get better. Swagger could have gotten him over big, but we're still waiting to see if that's even going to happen.

 

[Raptor93]

He is over as face, perhaps not as much as he should be but the crowd digs him, wether it be for ricardo, he's new move set or what ever. His heel run definitely needed to end, he was painful to listen too now I can at least tolerate him as well as anyone I means Asides from Dbry, punk, rock, kane there isn't any wrestler who talks particularly well ( I would include cena but hes character is awful making hes promos equally terrible) So overall Yes hes over

 

[Headman]

with Rey Mysterio being on Raw just as much as Smackdown, and Sin Cara...not being very interesting. The Latina community really hasn't had a hometown hero to get behind in a long time. Even Mysterio was from San Diego.

I had no idea hispanic women were such a big part of the WWE's following. ;P


But back to the original point. I keep hearing "He's getting a decent pop". I still don't see it. And besides, he's the world champion. Granted that doesn't mean much these days, but you'd at least think they'd reserve such an honor for somebody who gets a reaction, good or bad. A decent pop is fine for Santino (Who gets bigger pops than Del Rio.) but right now he's just taking up air time. And it's not going to help matters that he's entering a feud with a heel that 50% of the audience is probably going to side with from a philosophical standpoint. Out of all the people who should be having a meaningful match at Wrestlemania... Randy Orton comes to mind. We're going to be treated to a pointless Alberto Del Rio routing of a guy who's probably in hot water at the moment. And if by chance Dolph Ziggler cashes in on Del Rio and takes the title, Ziggler won't be met with boos.