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Alberto Del Rio’s Return at WWE Hell in a Cell Showed the Importance of Surprise

By Dean Siemon

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The surprise return of Alberto Del Rio reminds WWE fans how important it is to keep the element of surprise for the television product. While speculation and predictions will always be found online, maybe the creative team can book more of their story like they did with Del Rio’s return.

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The element of surprise in any form of entertainment has become a lot tougher to provide in the age of spoiler reports and other online news sources. For example, it didn’t take long to learn of the recent death in The Walking Dead (thank you, Forbes).

When it comes to the world of professional wrestling, specifically World Wrestling Entertainment, it can be quite the tricky task to accomplish. However, when they do pull it off, it feels magical and we celebrate how pleasant it was to see something unexpected.

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In the days leading up to Sunday’s Hell in a Cell, there were several different reports speculating who was going to be the one to accept John Cena’s U.S. Open Challenge – especially considering that he might take time off for a reality show taping and drop the United States Championship.

The speculated opponent ranged from the recently debuted Tyler Breeze to a returning Daniel Bryan. There was even a chance that we were going to see someone called up from NXT, i.e. Samoa Joe. All of those would have been solid choices with some surprise, but what actually happened truly shocked the wrestling world.

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    • No one thought about Zeb Colter riding down the entrance ramp, but at that point, the thought was that he was introducing Jack Swagger – this would have been a bit of a swerve since no one has really seen much of him. Personally, the “Real American” storyline these two had was great and it was a shame it fell through like it did.

    But in what might have been one of the most shocking returns in recent memory, Colter introduced Alberto Del Rio. The likelihood of anyone predicting this was about as likely as Pope Francis of the Catholic Church deciding to drop an “F-bomb.”

    Yet there he was at the Staples Center with what seems to be a new run in the WWE – months after the fallout of a controversial termination and his current reign as the AAA Mega Champion in Mexico. The one part of the online speculation that did come true was Cena dropping the U.S. Championship. Heck, in the world of baseball, a .500 average is really good to have.

    The future of Del Rio will be somewhat entertaining to watch. Regardless of what happens from this point moving forward, it feels like this is how WWE needs to handle their creative directions. Sure, many of us writers will continue to speculate and report on the rumors based on insider sources that may or may not come true, which may or may not spoil upcoming storylines and title changes.

    There will always be spoilers for any form of entertainment. If you Google Game of Thrones, you’ll see people who are possibly spoiling the return of someone who seemed to have been killed off. (Note: I don’t know what the true spoiler rule is, so I’ll let you find out for yourself. Either way, I don’t want to be blamed for ruining your upcoming Netflix or Hulu marathon.)

    The WWE Universe is no different. There will always be reports of superstars spotted at airports or in the city where the WWE is for a television or pay-per-view event. But maybe that’s part of the fun, speculating who we could see so that we’re excited about watching the next episode of Raw or SmackDown.

    However, there has to be some element of surprise left to shock fans. No one wants a show that is continuously predictable and stale. Otherwise, the product will continuously have to rely on bringing back veterans who haven’t wrestled full-time in 20 years to gain a big ratings boost.

    But you already know that.

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