Former WWE champion Alberto Del Rio has been arrested in Texas. He is accused of a brutal and “hours-long” sexual assault.
As a champion, he was at the top of the WWE wrestling league – but if these accusations prove true, his next phase of life will be a long stay in prison.
José A. Rodríguez Chucuan, better known as Alberto Del Rio, has been arrested on a serious rape and assault charge. He is accused of having brutally assaulted a woman for hours. According to US media reports, the charge is also based on photos of the alleged crime.
The 42-year-old – formerly engaged to former WWE colleague Paige – is threatened with between two and 20 years in prison in the US state of Texas, according to current law.
Allegedly hours of assault
As the local branch of NBC from San Antonio reports, citing court records, Del Rio was taken into custody over the weekend. The alleged victim accuses him of several assaults, the last and apparently most serious one on Sunday, May 3.
The woman, who apparently was Del Rio’s partner, reported that he accused her of embezzlement and initially slapped her a total of ten times when she denied it.
Del Rio is said to have then put a dress on her and asked her to dance for her. On her refusal, Del Rio had first threatened her to take her son and “abandon him somewhere in the middle of the street”.
Then Del Rio is said to have bound and gagged the woman and to have committed a sexual assault “with several objects” that lasted “for hours”. He is also said to have slapped her on the back and left “visible injuries”. According to the report, Del Rio also strangled the woman, after which she did not remember much, according to her own account.
The bail for Del Rio was set at 50,000 dollars, there are contradictory reports as to whether he is now at liberty or still in custody.
Alberto Del Rio four times champion at WWE
Born on 25 May 1977, Del Rio, son of Mexican wrestling legend Dos Caras, signed with WWE in 2008. There he celebrated his breakthrough in the role of a wealthy Mexican aristocrat, who drove to the ring in expensive cars and was announced in Spanish to his own ring spokesman named Ricardo Rodriguez.
The charismatic Del Rio had a successful career, was twice WWE and twice World Champion of the league, won the Royal Rumble in 2011, played 28 and 29 title matches against Edge and Jack Swagger (Jake Hager) in WrestleMania and other major feuds against stars like John Cena, CM Punk, Dolph Ziggler, Randy Orton and The Big Show.
In 2014 Del Rio was dismissed after a behind-the-scenes incident (a scuffle with a colleague who is said to have racially insulted him), after an interim comeback he left the league for good in 2016 and most recently returned to Mexico.
In the meantime engaged to Paige
After his WWE exit, Del Rio was in the headlines several times because of his turbulent relationship with his ex-colleague Paige, who resigned early. Accusations of domestic violence were raised, but never came to trial: An incident at Orlando airport in 2017, which called the police into action and led Del Rio to suspend his then employer Impact Wrestling, ended with Paige taking the blame.
Del Rio was also active as “Alberto El Patron” with Lucha Underground and tried himself several times as MMA fighter. The last time he lost a fight against UFC legend Tito Ortiz was in 2019 in the League Combate Americas.