Making The Jump: 5 Names Who Found Success In Both Wrestling & MMA

DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA – JULY 08: Alberto Del Rio is introduced during the WWE Smackdown Live Tour at Westridge Park Tennis Stadium on July 08, 2011 in Durban, South Africa. (Photo by Steve Haag/Gallo Images/Getty Images)

Alberto Del Rio

MMA Record: 9-5

Whether fans love him or hate him, Alberto Del Rio is a name that immediately garners attraction from fans in the professional wrestling industry. The former Impact and WWE champion also reached a level of success in mixed martial arts. That success comes in the form of having a winning record because he never obtained any titles for major promotions in which he competed. From 2001 to 2010 he competed in MMA, but did so as a masked competitor, Dos Caras. In many ways that name which translates to “Two Faces” would ring true for much of his professional career.

Del Rio competed throughout Mexico and Japan. The highlight reel moment of Del Rio’s career came at his loss when he was knocked out via head kick KO at the feet of MMA legend, Mirko Cro Cop. That loss came in a Pride ring in less than one minute. It wouldn’t be the end of Del Rio’s fighting career. Four years later he put together the longest win streak of his career when he won six straight fights; five of which came via submission.

Del Rio’s experience in MMA translated into professional wrestling. For example, he was one of the first individuals to bring back the use of the cross-arm breaker in recent move sets. He’s shown that he can transition between moves that are based in real fighting to those that are more common in the professional wrestling ring.

He was recently linked to the growing Mexican MMA promotion, Combate Americas. In 2016 he was appointed the president of the organization where he had the main duty of promoting upcoming events to the target audience throughout Mexico.  He would step down from that position in 2017 as he put more time into his wrestling career.