WWE Superstar Rey Mysterio recently spoke with BT Sports’ Ariel Helwani for an in-depth conversation about all things pro-wrestling. During the discussion, Mysterio talked about his 20 years with the company and more. Here are the highlights:
Looking back on his WWE debut 20 years ago:
“I remember everything leading into that day, which actually got me excited. First, you have to remember that WWE never had Superstars with my size, my stature. If I can recall, the only one before me was probably Spike Dudley. He was just small. But leading into me signing a contract with them, I heard that Vince wasn’t going to be about signing little guys. So once that was signed, I was like, ‘Yes, I’m in. Now I just gotta make my appearance.’ Then about a month leading into July 25th, you would see the trailers, like he’s coming and flashing a bunch of stuff. It was cool, man. I was so excited. Then the next week, they showed a little bit more, then a little bit more, until eventually he’s here, Rey Mysterio. It was the ultimate feeling. It was a big achievement for me because I thought it was going to be impossible to be part of that roster.”
Vince McMahon wanted him to come in WWE wearing the mask again:
“I left WCW and then I got signed by WWE, and at the time, I’m wrestling without a mask. I’ve done a couple of dates in Mexico and I felt comfortable wrestling without it. I go into OVW in Kentucky and I started training before I went into WWE before my first match. During that week of training, a week before I debuted, they said, ‘Vince wants to see what outfit you’re going to wear.’ So I showed them a getup of what I was wearing at the time, baggy pants and I was wearing that Scott Steiner metal, like Excalibur vest. They were like, ‘Where’s the mask?’ I said, ‘I’m not not wearing a mask right now’. They said, ‘Vince wants you to bring the mask back.’ I was like, ‘Oh, you guys should have told me.’ So I had a couple of days to put an outfit together, which is the red one. It was special after that man, because it had been almost two years wrestling without the mask. So bringing that back, and then bringing it back and getting it promoted the right way, you know, it just felt good. I felt like I was on a run again from the beginning. It just felt like Rey Mysterio had a new beginning from this point on and people forgot about me wrestling without the mask. They accepted me like that, which is very cool.”
A&E documentary celebrating him being in the wrestling business for over 30 years:
“We’re putting together a documentary for A&E right now. I’ve been pulling up a lot of pictures and footage from back in the day. I was going across an album that I have with all my stuff from early wrestling years. For some reason, I kept my pay stub from my first match ever and I put the date on it. It was April 31 1989.”
How he’s feeling after this many years in the ring:
“I’m surprised sometimes at how good I feel overall with all the beatings that I’ve taken and the amount of surgeries that I’ve had. I’ve had a little bit over 12 surgeries on my left knee. Between scopes, stretched MCL and PCL, a little over 12 surgeries. I’ve had one surgery for a torn bicep. My experience with this one, after I had the surgery, was bad. They had to go back in there and cut me open two more times, so three. So when I tore this one, I was like, I’m not getting it done. I don’t want to go through the same issue. The doctor for some reason said, ‘Well, I mean, if you have a great range of motion, there’s no reason why you should get the surgery if you feel good.’ I never had it done and this arm feels much better than this one that was repaired.”
Retiring:
“It’s funny because they don’t prep you up now like they do for NFL players. For wrestling, I’ve always heard from others that they just go until they can’t anymore. There’s really no start and end date. You just run through it until you can’t or until you step away to do something else. For me, now that I’m getting closer to my fifties and I see my son wrestling, I tell myself that I wanna go three more years and I don’t wanna go past fifty. But then I remind myself, what if I feel good. Can you still go another year? As of right now, my date has always been to not go over fifty.”
You can watch the complete interview below:
