Alberto Del Rio’s “Royal Rumble” Opponent Revealed

The latest injury to John Cena will keep him out well past Wrestlemania. In the short-term, Cena’s injury has caused WWE to alter their plans for the “Royal Rumble” PPV and who is challenging Alberto Del Rio for the United States Championship.

Before his injury, Cena was scheduled to challenge Del Rio for the US Title in a few weeks at the “Royal Rumble” and he very well may have won back that championship.

On the USA Network debut of Smackdown tonight, Kalisto got a win over Del Rio in singles competition. Now that John Cena is on the shelf, WWE is using that win to catapult Kalisto into the US title hunt. Over the next few weeks, the feud between Del Rio and Kalisto will get more attention and capitalize on the recent run of Kalisto.

In November, we made the point that Kalisto should have defeated Alberto Del Rio in the WWE Championship tournament to set up this title feud, but WWE took the long and complicated way to get to the same feud.

Regardless, WWE is giving Kalisto a solid run as a singles star and now is the time for him to capitalize on his opportunities. He’s unlikely to win the US title, but this is a step in the right direction for him on WWE TV.