Ricardo Rodriguez was a founding member of The Ascension in FCW, but the former ring announcer of Alberto Del Rio did not remain with the group for long.
During a recent episode of the “Developmentally Speaking” podcast, Rodriguez recalled learning that he was no longer part of the group. He said,
“I get pulled into the office by Dusty. He goes ‘Oh, Ricardo baby, I’ve got to talk to you.’ So I go into the office … and he straight up just goes ‘You’re out of The Ascension.’ I was like ‘What? Huh? What?’ ‘Yeah. You’re out of The Ascension, baby. It contradicts what you’re doing on TV.’ And I’m just like, ‘What the f**k? What?’ So I got kicked out of The Ascension, the group I created, right? And at the time, I didn’t get it.
“I was upset, ’cause I was like ‘Dude, you kicked me out of the thing I made.’ But to his credit, I guess he had bigger plans for them, and then it was contradicting what I was doing on TV, on ‘Raw’ and ‘SmackDown.’
“It turned out very well for them because the stuff they did in FCW and NXT was awesome. As time went on, obviously they broke up and stuff, but when it became Viktor and Konnor, that was awesome what they did in ‘NXT.’ The whole presentation.”
Rodriguez would compete a handful of times on WWE’s main roster, either under the ‘Ricardo Rodriguez’ name or as El Local.
