This week was probably a top five favorite Raw opening segments of all time.
On top of that, I feel like Alberto Del Rio is an excellent ambassador of Mexican culture, as far as the WWE is concerned.
Aside from the segment on smackdown a few weeks ago where he had Ricardo Rodriguez sing or whatever and they sang the mexican hat dance, which was weird, he has been a pretty overt Mexican personality without being minimizing in the least. I feel like this segment was a pretty good example of this… how often do you see a, for the most part, legitimate mariachi band and dancer on television that is not being made fun of on screen. Not to mention, on a regular basis, a guy getting to talk for basically as long as he wants, in a language that a solid majority of the viewership in NO WAY WHATSOEVER understands! Amazing!
Granted, Lawler said a couple ignorant things but that could just be written off as being in character and just not liking Del Rio or anything he does (although I’m sure the most Jerry Lawler knows about Mexican culture is the Taco Bell menu). I felt like it was an uniquely un-marginalized “cultural celebration” on Monday night, which is rare for most TV shows, let alone wrestling programs.
I got the feeling the band was a little under-rehearsed which is unfortunate because I’ll bet it could have been even better but that’s probably just the musician nerd in me, maybe no one else thought that way.
