Alberto Del Rio Talks Incident That Led To His WWE Firing And Vince's Response, Past Incident, More
Alberto Del Rio recently spoke with Mexican morning news show Primero Noticias of Televisa. You can watch the entire interview in Spanish in the video above, here are some highlights:
* Del Rio confirmed it was WWE's Manager of Social Media Live Events Cody Barbierri that he slapped at the SmackDown taping in Laredo, Texas. He said that he "slapped an employee of WWE, they can take my job but not my pride and dignity."
* There were many witnesses of the incident, including the crew members, one of the referees, and other wrestlers, but the only one he named was Jack Swagger. He noted that he could "not say exactly what happened at this moment," and that he was "a few days from saying what happened, there were many witnesses since it happened at catering."
* Del Rio said that someone else made a comment and Barbierri responded to it by taking a shot at him.
"This person made some comments, I slapped him, I feel embarrassed of my actions," Del Rio said. "After his comment I stood up and I demanded an apology for what he said, but he smiled and said to 'swallow it' and I slapped him."
* There was another incident with Barbierri eight months ago right before he was going out to the ring.
"There was an incident where I believe he was pretending to read something on his computer that supposedly said Del Rio is a such and such," he said. "I told him, 'what did you say?' He responded, 'oh no it's something from Twitter,' and wanted to high five me and I told him, 'don't touch me.' And I went to the ring."
* After Del Rio slapped Barbierri, Vince McMahon called Del Rio in.
"I know where you come from. I understand where your anger comes from, if after someone insults you and smiles then tells you to swallow it I understand you'll react this way but it was not an appropriate reaction," Vince said. "But all is well, go back to work."
* The next day he found out that he was suspended, only for Triple H to call him and inform him that he was let go.
* He immediately was contacted by AAA and promotions in Japan and the United States, which may confirm that TNA contacted him.
* He wasn't planning on re-signing with WWE when his contract was up in February due to the rough schedule.
* He doesn't know if he will take legal action against WWE since he's not familiar with US law, which is why he contacted a lawyer. He may take legal action since his lawyer told him that they can't forbid him from working, since it's unconstitutional.