Global Force Wrestling (GFW) announced this morning they are stripping Alberto El Patron of their top title, the Unified World Championship. Impact Wrestling’s parent company says their internal investigation into the situation between El Patron and his fiancee Paige at Orlando International Airport is complete, and while they confirm the police’s findings that Alberto did not do anything worthy of domestic violence charges, his behavior did not meet their personal conduct standards.
Here is the statement from their website:
GFW has concluded its internal consideration of the events surrounding the suspension of Alberto El Patron. While it is apparent that initial reports unfairly characterized El Patron’s involvement in the incident in the Orlando airport, we are nonetheless disappointed with the manor [sic] in which he dealt with this situation; we expect more decorum from all on the GFW roster, especially the World Champion.
We have communicated with El Patron our decision to strip him of his championship title. No decision has been taken as to the date on which he will be reinstated to the roster, the conditions of which are a private matter between the company and El Patron.
The company suspended their champion shortly after news broke that the authorities were investigating the latest incident involving El Patron and Paige, and he has not appeared for GFW since, missing Impact Wrestling’s first house shows in two years earlier this month.
It was rumored he would be reinstated in time for Thursday, Aug. 17’s “Destination X” live episode (where he was set to defend the belt against Low Ki as part of an ongoig angle with Konnan’s LAX stable) and the subsequent weekend of television taping, but this decision leaves that in doubt, as well.
If El Patron is held off this weekend’s shows, which will film episodes set to take Impact all the way up until their October Bound for Glory pay-per-view (PPV), it’s fair to wonder about his future with the company all together.
Rumors indicate that John Morrison may start with GFW as soon as this week, and reports point to Rey Mysterio signing with them as soon as he is able - providing Impact with the necessary star power to walk away from El Patron and possible future public relations headaches.
That is, of course, just speculation on our part, however. We’ll likely know more about Anthem and GFW’s plans later this week.