Ricardo Rodriquez – One Step Down
Apparently, it's breaking news when a pro wrestling manager gets suspended for 30 days. I'm actually going to back this one up though and say that this particular case is a pretty big deal.
Without Ricardo, the current World Heavyweight Champion loses the only positive attribute he has going for him. If that sounds harsh, it likely is. And this is coming from a guy who has supported ADR for a long time now.
In the past, I blamed Creative for Del Rio's shortcomings. These days, I believe it's a bigger issue at hand.
I'm afraid culture barriers are damn near impossible to cross in pro wrestling today. Wrestling fans simply can't relate, or maybe they just don't want to. But it plagues so many talented athletes and there doesn't seem to be an easy solution.
Del Rio has suffered from fans' inability to understand his words, literally.
The Uso's are going nowhere fast in one of the weakest divisions of all of wrestling.
Wade Barrett, even.
Cesaro couldn't get over to save his life, and it was clear WWE tried. Tried hard. They're still trying. Unfortunately, they are strapping him to Colter now, who might as well be included in this category too. It's not necessarily a culture barrier, but is certainly a language barrier. Few get what he's selling, and even fewer care.
Pro wrestling isn't an American sport in general, but WWE is definitely an American "business". Cheesy, gimmicky gimmicks that are based on cultural (or political) conflict simply doesn't work anymore like it once it did.
Foreign gimmicks simply aren't relatable to the mainstream. It's for that reason I'm afraid WWE needs to begin shifting away, as much as possible, from pointing out the fact their non-American wrestlers are just that…non-American.
It's not a guaranteed solution — I'm not sure there really is one — but it will help.
