Alberto El Patron is the current GFW Global Champion, and he’s set to face Impact Wrestling World Heavyweight Champion Bobby Lashley in a Champion vs. Champion match at Slammiversary on Sunday.
Alberto is a former WWE World Champion, but in 2016 he decided to part ways with the company, and earlier this year he signed with Impact Wrestling. Impact offers Alberto El Patron a more relaxed schedule and Alberto recently told ESPN that the main reason he left WWE was due to the schedule.
“That’s actually the main reason I decided to leave WWE, the brutal schedule that you have when you work for a company like WWE. I couldn’t take it anymore. I didn’t want to be on the road for 210-220 days per year,” El Patrón said. “That was one of my first things when I started having conversations with Impact Wrestling. They were asking me for a certain number of dates, and I said, ‘There’s no way I’m gonna do those dates because I also have my dates with Combates America, the MMA company. If I put all of those dates with you guys, I’m gonna end up doing what I was doing with WWE and that’s something that I don’t want. I want to be able to enjoy my ride. Of course I want to continue doing pro wrestling shows, but my time is for my family. So if you guys aren’t comfortable with this, I can give you this number amount of dates, and I promise I will give you my best.’ And of course they said yes. That’s the reason they’re happy with me. I’m happy with them.”
Alberto hasn’t been shy about letting the world know that he’s in the twilight of his career, and he plans to retire from in ring competition sometime over the next few years. The former WWE Champion hasn’t set a date for his last match, but he does have a final opponent in mind.
“I always had fun with my great friend Rey Mysterio Jr.,” he said. “I think it would be fantastic to have my very last match against someone like him because my very first match in WWE was against Rey Mysterio Jr. I know that all the pro wrestling fans, in particular the Mexican fans, would love to see Rey Mysterio against me for my very last match. But it could be any other [wrestler]. There’s a lot of amazing performers out there that I would love to work in my last match, but I think Rey Mysterio could be the perfect one for me.”
UFC Hall of Famer Stephan Bonnar is making the jump to professional wrestling, and on this week’s episode of Still Real Radio we’re talking all about it. Bonnar is teaming up with Phil Baroni to form a tag team called The Real Shooters and they’ll be wrestling their first match in just a few weeks. You can subscribe to Still Real Radio on iTunes, and you can check out the latest episode below.
