Alberto del Rio vs El Hijo de Dos Caras vs Civilian

Alberto Del Rio will soon need a whole section of the Backstage Fights devoted to him. He’s been so out of control that he beat up his own brother and a random stranger in the same night.

Fight: Alberto Del Rio vs El Hijo de Dos Caras vs Civilian

Date: December 31, 2016
Location: Leoben, Austria
Source: Wrestling Observer Newsletter

Background

You’d think a guy engaged to one of the hottest divas ever (Paige) would be happy and carefree, but instead Alberto Del Rio has been on rampage, acting with the violent rage usually reserved for a guy AFTER he’s married for several years.

A pissed off Alberto is dangerous, as he’s a large, powerful man who knows how to hurt people. He was fired from WWE for striking an employee, and got into other altercations both on and off company time, all over the world.  There was the incident in Texas. There was the incident in Mexico. And now here’s the incident in Austria.

A free agent at the time, Alberto had been working select indie dates as he pleased. On this night, he worked for a group called EWA, promoted by his friend Chris Raaber (The Bambikiller) in Leoben, Austria. Raaber was in Florida Championship Wrestling with Alberto several years prior, and had spent a lot of time helping him improve his English for when Alberto was eventually called up to the main roster and pushed as one of the top stars in WWE.

Alberto worked the show as a favor to Raaber, bringing his brother Guillermo along. Guillermo is known as El Hijo de Dos Caras, and the two worked against two local wrestlers on the show. They won, of course, and then Alberto re-appeared in the main event, saving new champion Raaber from getting hit with a belt by the guy he just beat, Joe Doering. After the angle, Alberto got on the mic and told the fans that Raaber was his real friend in a business full of backstabbers. He put down WWE, saying they hold people down, and that he wasn’t a sports entertainer, but a pro wrestler. He then put over the fans for supporting EWA, which had drawn an impressive crowd of 1,000 for the show.

The Incident – Part I

The show ended, and Alberto and Guillermo went to a nightclub in a very rural area. It was getting late, and the brothers were supposed to get a ride to Vienna (some 100 miles away) in the middle of the night. They were to then take an early morning flight. However, Alberto was enjoying himself and didn’t want to leave yet. He asked Raaber if he could stay an extra day, and would use his frequent flyer miles to re-book the flight. Raaber said that was fine, and the party continued. After all, tomorrow would be New Years Eve.

Some more time passed, and at some point a patron at the club had a misunderstanding with Alberto that led to a physical confrontation. It’s not known what the reason was, but nevertheless, they traded punches. The patron was 26 years old, although no other details were released about him or his size or who got the better of things. What is known is that Guillermo saw the commotion, and joined in to help his brother.

Fighting one tough luchador is a bad idea for most civilians. Fighting two of them, who happen to be related, is asking for major trouble.

As expected, the guy took a good beating. Initial reports were that he was badly beaten, though later a witness said he wasn’t hurt that badly beyond a few bruises. The civilian was taken to the hospital after police were called, and released fairly quickly. By national law, charges had to be pressed against the brothers. They were taken to the local police station for questioning.

The Incident – Part II

Alberto was already riled up, and now he was furious. Spending New Years Eve in a police station isn’t exactly how he envisioned this trip ending up, although that’s what happens when you beat people up. It was now around 7am by this point.

Not long after Alberto and his brother Guillermo were brought in to the station, they began arguing. The reason for their arguing isn’t clear, as the two were speaking Spanish and apparently no one there could understand them. Based on body language, it appeared Guillermo was trying to calm Alberto down, and that only made him more agitated. Another story reported that each brother was blaming the other for the fight at the club, which led to blows being thrown.

Before long, it got physical. Hell, why not? He had already beaten up a civilian, so why not his own brother?

Guillermo ended up in the hospital too, although it was said to have looked worse than it really was. He was definitely bleeding quite a bit, and some of the blood ended up splattered on the walls to the point the police had to paint over it. The back of a chair was also broken in the fracas, and it took ten police offers to break it up. They held him down with zip ties, but he broke through them (handcuffs didn’t work either, as they were too small). It was only when they shackled his wrists that he finally calmed down. If you’re wondering where Paige was when all this went down, she wasn’t even in the same country. She was supposed to go, but ended up staying home in Florida.

Guillermo ended up in two different hospitals, then took a train to the Vienna airport before heading home. He missed a booking the next day in Naucalpan, which was probably a good thing because there were reports some of the wrestlers there were going to seek revenge on him for what Alberto did to Rafy the Ninja Turtle last time (yet another fight Alberto was involved in that resulted in someone getting sent to a hospital). While some reports said Alberto knocked Guillermo out, that wasn’t true. In fact, the two brothers reconciled before Guillermo was taken back for outpatient treatment.

The Aftermath

Once cooler heads prevailed, the police eventually started mucking it up with their new celebrity pal, Alberto Del Rio. Raaber’s wife is a police officer, and Raaber is well known around town. The police even asked Alberto to visit the station next time he’s in town to take pictures and sign autographs. Despite the charges that were pressed against him, Alberto will have no problems re-entering the country because of who he is.

Raaber himself was partially thrilled with the publicity, both because it got his promotion’s name in the press, and also it showed how this big, tough pro wrestler beat up a civilian. Only in pro wrestling.

Alberto was at Raw two days later, but not in a social capacity. Paige was there to get her neck evaluated, and he was simply there to pick her up. We’d have loved to have been a fly in the wall in that car ride on the way home, to hear him tell her all about what happened.