I've been watching Alberto Del Rio ever since he came to the WWE. In fact, he came through on a house show loop when he still had the Dos Caras Jr gimmick going for him. It's been said that he is a master backstage politician, and that he has worked his way up enough to deserve the WWE Championship. He succeeded in this goal at Summerslam.

I'm not very impressed with him, and I haven't been for a while.

Now before you misconstrue me into being a "hater", or that I'm "jumping on a bandwagon", I want to say that I think he is a wonderful in ring performer. He has truly shone in matches with Daniel Bryan, Rey Mysterio, and others while he's been in the WWE. He does have a pretty good build, and he doesn't botch very often from what I have seen.

But there are three things that I believe make a wrestler a contender for the main event picture.

1. In Ring skills. Sadly, this one most recently hasn't been utilized to it's full capacity. Cena has been improving in the ring (gasp!) but for a while now until Punk shook up the rut the WWE has been in, he wasn't very three dimensional. Alberto Del Rio has this aspect of the business nailed down pat, but that's only one of three.

2. Mic skills (aka charisma). I haven't seen many Del Rio promos that deviate for the normal track: "My name! Is Alberto Del RIOOO! But you already know that... It is/was my destiny to become WWE Champion, and Rey Mysterio you are a chihuahua." He has good delivery, but it seems to me like most of his heat comes from Ricardo Rodriguez than by anything he has done on the stick.

3. Character development. This is my biggest fault with him. Maybe it's not entirely his fault, either, as (in my opinion) the way he portrays himself seems slightly choppy and he hasn't completely allowed himself to flow with the character. Anyone who ever watched Stone Cold or Roddy Piper or The Rock will understand what I am talking about by becoming the character. It might just be me, but I don't think he has accomplished that just yet.

Now management and creative isn't blameless, either. It seems abrupt to have Del Rio become champion so soon, right after he was beaten by Punk the Raw before Summerslam. It seems like all they are doing is hotshotting him for their Mexico tour in the fall, and I would bet money on the fact that he is the bridge for Cena to get the title back before Wrestlemania.

I have high hopes for him hopefully improving on what he needs to, because it is obvious his work ethic is quite solid. But I just wished they could have had the patience to REALLY build him up for a little bit and make SURE he got mega heat before pulling the trigger on his Championship run.

Thanks for reading, and I hope that you will put some input. Discussion is what this type of blog is all about