Former WWE Champion and current IMPACT Wrestling star Alberto El Patron (a.k.a. Alberto Del Rio) recently did an interview with The Miami Herald to talk about his run with IMPACT as well as his past experiences with WWE. El Patron made his IMPACT Wrestling debut back in March of 2017 after being released from WWE in September of the previous year. El Patron explained how much more creative freedom he has with IMPACT as opposed to his previous employer:
“They let you be yourself and just do it on the fly, it feels better. People appreciate that even more, it’s natural. When I went back to Impact Wrestling for Bound for Glory, I was just telling the truth and speaking from the heart and making people open their eyes to the situation.
“And it’s going to continue, as long as I’m at Impact, I have the freedom to say what I think. … I keep hearing people say ‘Every time you’re on the mic in Impact, it’s amazing. What happened? Why wasn’t it like that in the other company?’ Well, the reason was I never had that freedom.”
The former GFW Global Champion also offered his thoughts on former IMPACT Wrestling frontman Jeff Jarrett and the current management within the promotion:
“I was having a lot of fun with Jeff Jarrett, he’s a personal friend. He was the one giving me the opportunity to have my Dad and my Brother in that storyline with LAX. I was always grateful for that and wanted to say ‘thank you’ to Jeff for giving me the opportunity to have them in the ring with me, but it was also a fantastic storyline.
“It was not something they just did to please me. … I know Jeff is no longer with the company, but we have another group of people with the same idea, with the same goal, which is to take Impact Wrestling to the place where it belongs.”
During his early professional wrestling days in the 2000s El Patron used to wear a mask, a normalcy in the Mexican professional wrestling world. El Patron was then asked about the possibility of competing with a mask once again as the 40-year-old begins to wind down in his career:
“That would be amazing! That would be fantastic, but it’s a little bit difficult when it’s done in Mexico. Once you lose it, you lose it. They don’t want to see you wearing it, they would feel like you’re disrespecting the lucha libre tradition, but I never lost the mask, it was a personal decision.
“I never lost the mask in the ring. I decided to remove that mask and give light to Alberto Del Rio. … Maybe for my last match, maybe for the day when I say ‘adios’ to the pro wrestling business.”
H/T Wrestling Inc. for the transcriptions
