WWE releases Alberto Del Rio for possibly paintbrushing another employee over awful racist ‘joke’ [UPDATED]

WWE

Sad news to report for anyone salivating for the 300th match between Alberto Del Rio and Dolph Ziggler on TV.

The WWE and the former champion have parted ways. But this isn’t another case of budget cuts. Albert Del Rio got pink slipped after an alleged pink slap.

Here’s the official statement from WWE.com — “”WWE announced the release of Alberto Del Rio due to unprofessional conduct and an altercation with an employee.” That’s WWE’s way of saying “he screwed up and it’s not us being dicks again.”

FWOnline is reporting that Del Rio got Del Handsy with another employee but it wasn’t one of the boys in the back. It might have been one of the boys on the Twitters.

F4Wonline.com backs up the earlier report that the story going around is Alberto Del Rio slapped a WWE.com reporter at this week’s TV tapings. We noted earlier it may have been a social media worker. They noted there are a variety of different stories going around about what led to this incident.

Alberto Del Rio is no stranger to controversy behind the curtain — he got a little mouthy when WWE brought back Batista last year and about the direction of his character. It was well known that he wouldn’t resign once his contract came up. Slapping a dude isn’t the best way to go home early though.

Del Rio won’t be out of a job long. WrestlingInc explains that “Del Rio will have a 90-day non-compete clause, which would apply to AAA and TNA, who both have interest in him. We’ve noted that AAA is expanding into the United States soon.” A former WWE champion as the first AAA champion in the US wouldn’t be a bad PR move.

Best of luck to Del Rio. He was an excellent mat technician but creative, as always, had little idea what to do with him.

UPDATED: Word is slowly leaking online (ewww) about exactly what led to the release of Alberto Del Rio. If these rumors are true, it’s complete bullshit.

Here’s the latest from With Spandex and the Observer —

The story going around is that he slapped a a Social Media manager, at this week’s television, but there are a variety of different stories going around regarding what led to this.

Based on sketchy stories and what wrestlers have been talking about, at catering, somebody asked the person to clean off his plate. The person joked something along the lines of how that’s Del Rio’s job. Del Rio found out and confronted him. As the story goes, he didn’t apologize and then smiled at him, and Del Rio slapped him.

Is that even a joke? It’s not funny, so it’s not a joke, but do people actually still make those kind of remarks? Even in a neanderthal-like atmosphere like the WWE, people are making Mexican busboy jokes? I’m going to assume this guy that Del Rio smacked the shit out of has a long history of making these types of remarks. You don’t just make a joke about a coworker’s ethnicity randomly over a buffet lunch.

All signs are pointing to the WWE being wrong here. Sure, Del Rio has to go for assaulting a coworker, but if this social media manager doesn’t get pink slipped too, the former champ might have a nice little lawsuit on his hands.

NEXT: Conan said goodbye to laid off WWE wrestlers and it was magical

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Chris Illuminati is a 5-time published author and recovering a**hole who writes about running, parenting, and professional wrestling.