Former WWE wrestler Alberto Del Rio, real name Jose A. Rodriguez Chucuan, is still claiming that the sexual assault charges against him have been dropped.
If you’re hearing this for the first time, Del Rio was arrested at his home in Bexar County, Texas for allegedly sexually abusing his then-girlfriend in a fit of rage back in May of last year. Del Rio allegedly accused the woman of cheating on him and subjected her to hours of violence. The victim claimed that Del Rio tied her hands with boxing straps, stuck a sock in her mouth, and sexually assaulted her with various objects. He is also said to have threatened his victim by telling her if she cried, he’d drop her son off in the middle of nowhere. The victim was also said to have various injuries on her back from Del Rio repeatedly punching her.
Even though Del Rio has burned so many bridges in his career that no major American wrestling promotion will touch him, a number of wrestlers, mostly from his family, came to his defense. This included a women’s wrestler who has been basically blacklisted in The States.
To complicate matters, the victim supposedly issued an apology last November on Instagram that said, “An apology to the Rodriguez del Rio family for the damages caused by my mistakes.” To me, this apology seemed more than forced. Prior to the apology, the victim said that she lived in fear from Del Rio even after she was out of his home. This is when the rumors of the charges being dropped started, even though no reliable news source could confirm those rumors.
The last we heard from any sort of official channels, Del Rio’s trial had been rescheduled multiple times due to COVID-19. However, at last report, Del Rio was scheduled to go to trial this August 3rd.
More recently, Del Rio has been giving interviews talking about how he’s getting ready for a return to WWE. Considering his erratic and violent behavior while he was employed there, I don’t see him returning. Then again, the then-WWF kept rehiring Jimmy Snuka after he was accused of murder.
Anyway, Del Rio recently gave an interview to wrestling news site Sportskeeda, where he talked about the sexual assault charges against him…
“All that horrible nightmare from last year, it’s about to be over,” said Alberto Del Rio. “Everything in my favor with zero, zero evidence against me, with my ex-fiancée even apologizing publicly, withdrawing charges, and speaking to the authorities and telling them, ‘I’m sorry, I f’d it up. I wanted revenge, I was p*****, I was angry, I hated that man, because that man cheated on me 10 days before our wedding in our house, in our bed, and I just wanted to make him suffer.’”
Then he goes on to call the victim brave for supposedly coming clean.
Ever since Del Rio joined the WWE, he has blamed all his problems on someone else, and it seems that behavior has continued unabated. As I’ve said before, this feels like nothing more than victim intimidation.
To make matters worse, at least one high-profile wrestler wanted to work with Del Rio. Current AEW wrestler Andrade El Idolo, formerly WWE’s Andrade, has said that he wants to have a match with Del Rio to help Del Rio restart his career. The match is set to take place at the end of this month at an independent promotion in Texas, just days before he’s supposedly scheduled to go to trial.
In my opinion, not only does Del Rio deserve to go to jail, but he should also be investigated for victim intimidation. Sadly, I get the feeling that the victim will recant due to the alleged intimidation, and he’ll be free to abuse some other poor victim.
Maybe one day we’ll get the real story on Dark Side of the Ring.
Real Crime with Trench Reynolds 