Alberto Del Rio complains about 'subhuman treatment' over flight dispute with German promotion wXw

Since leaving WWE, Alberto Del Rio (aka Alberto El Patrón) has developed a reputation for being unreliable and difficult to deal with on the independent wrestling circuit. Most notably, Alberto no-showed Lone Star Championship Wrestling's Bustin for Autism charity event in July and wouldn't respond to their numerous attempts to contact him. More recently, Alberto publicly disputed Lucha Underground's Co-Executive Producer Christopher DeJoseph's claim that he was confirmed for the second season of LU.

Now, Alberto has backed out, at short notice, of two European bookings this weekend over a disagreement about the type of flight he had been given.

Alberto was scheduled to appear with his brother El Hijo de Dos Caras on Friday Oct. 16th for Swiss Wrestling Entertainment (SWE) and the next day for Westside Xtreme Wrestling (wXw) in Mannheim, Germany. According to wXw, they had booked an Economy Plus flight for Alberto (and had screenshots to prove it), but Alberto's manager emailed them last Saturday that he required a Business Class flight instead, which they weren't agreeable to, as the upgrade would have cost them an extra $7,000. wXw noted that these dates had been scheduled since December 2014, when Alberto had cancelled a prior appearance at short notice, and that they would no longer work with Alberto or his manager in future.

Alberto has responded to these allegations on social media by issuing a personal statement where he claimed that flying coach was subhuman treatment that he shouldn't have to accept:

"As you know, I hardly reply to comments against me in Social Media but this time my fans are affected.

WxwGermany tried to hire me under a third party under totally different agreements than I usually do. Obviously, I did not approve and we agreed on the normal terms. Terms that are always the same. Why do they want to be treated differently? Over a year of doing [the] Independent circuit and all the promoters have agreed to [the] same terms (fees, hotel & transport, and business class).

I am deeply thankful to them.

WxwGermany take the physical challenge and please tell me/fans what promoter has flown me coach and not Business. Inquiring minds want to know.

Why is it after they have sold tickets and just a couple [of] days away from [the] event they want to cling to old agreements? How is my manager to blame? Threats of screenshots and emails. Nowadays this is easy to falsify. Let's be professional.

Speaking of professionalism; they also did NOT supply us with a tangible itinerary or concrete information. Where was I going to stay, where and when was I to travel and match info??? More importantly where is my Working Visa papers? Were they ever prepared?

I love this sport but let's not be fooled. Flying in a small seat for 16 hours is not comfortable. I will not be bullied by promoters into working conditions I did not agree. Not all promoters are the same. I speak against those that treat us wrestlers like subhumans. I will never bow my head to this type of treatment, but you already knew that.

Thank you to my true fans in Switzerland and Germany.

Dignity and Respect

Alberto"

It's hard to know who is at fault here, but it should be noted that wXw is the largest wrestling company in Germany and has a reputation as being professionally ran, going out of their way to treat foreign talent well, whilst Alberto's track record hasn't been quite so spotless.

I'll just say that the timing of this blow-up is certainly interesting coming hot on the heels of rumours that WWE is interested in an Alberto Del Rio return and his European dates coincided with WWE's tour of Mexico this weekend. Obviously, that could be entirely coincidental, but such fallings out with indy promoters could motivate him to take a WWE offer when he is legally free to do so, if one is on the table.