Ricardo Rodriguez on his WWE Royal Rumble experience
Spots in the WWE Royal Rumble are hard to come by, which is why Ricardo Rodriguez was so excited to take part in one.
Ricardo Rodriguez was the latest guest on the It's My House Podcast to talk about his WWE career. When asked how his Royal Rumble appearance came about, Rodriguez revealed it started as a joke to the late-great Pat Patterson.
"Man, it was a special experience and there's certain things in life that whether they're good or bad, like there's certain things that nobody can ever take away from you that experience, and for me it was this," Ricardo Rodriguez said. "The whole concept came about as sort of a joke, where I just, I do this all the time where I'm like the worst they can say is no. I asked Pat Patterson, I say hey wouldn't it be funny if I came out in the Royal Rumble instead of Alberto because Alberto was hurt and he just laughed it off."
Ricardo Rodriguez wasn't told until the day of the show that he was in the Royal Rumble
Ricardo Rodriguez said he pitched the idea to Dean Malenko a few weeks later, who also laughed about it, and then Michael Hayes told him the day of the Royal Rumble he was actually in the match.
"Then a couple weeks later, we were in Dallas, we were stuck at the airport because of a thunderstorm," Ricardo Rodriguez continued. "And I was sitting next to Dean Malenko, and I just said it again randomly. And he laughed about it too. And then the day of the Royal Rumble in St. Louis, I'm by the ring and Michael Hayes approaches me and he says hey have you seen your car.
And I thought he was talking about my rental car. I thought he had damaged it and then he's like no your intro, your car for your entrance, and what he shows me the car and then he's like, 'Nobody told you? You're in the Rumble.' Like, okay! And that's kind of what happened. It was a big surprise for me so I had no expectations."
Are you surprised at how Ricardo Rodriguez's Royal Rumble appearance came together? Do you think WWE management should have communicated with him better? Let us know your thoughts by sounding off in the comments section below.