Rey Mysterio: The Greatest Of All Time
This is an argument I made on Reddit for Rey Mysterio being the greatest wrestler of all time.
Career History
Rey Mysterio really burst upon the scene in WCW as a huge feature of their Cruiserweight division, a plan for WCW to set itself apart from WWF. And when you think WCW Cruiserweight division, many massive names come to mind. Dean Malenko, Chris Jericho, Jushin Thunder Liger, Juventud, Eddie Guerrero, Psicosis, Oklahoma (just kidding) and Billy Kidman. But none of those people had the impact and popularity in that division that Rey Mysterio did. Mysterio broke out and became incredibly popular at a time in WCW where the big and old ran the place. Rey never won a world championship in WCW as he was held to the ceiling of the CW division. However he did everything in his power to make that division seem as interesting and legitimate as possible. Rey didn’t innovate every move he did, but he took moves that others created and made them even better. Mysterio was eventually unmasked in a throwaway match against the NWO because Bischoff had no respect for Lucha and became the Giant Killer for a while, getting wins over people like Kevin Nash & Bam Bam Bigelow. Despite those seemingly huge wins, Rey was never given the chance to be a main event or even upper midcard talent.
Rey took some time off after WCW was purchased and wrestled in Mexico before getting the call from Vince and the insistence for Rey to put the mask back on. Despite criticism from the Lucha community, Mysterio was officially allowed to wear the mask again because of the way he was forced to lose it. Mysterio made a huge impact in his first night on Smackdown diving off the top of a steel cage onto Lance Storm & Christian after already defeating Chavo Guerrero earlier in the evening. Rey would go on to have a classic with Kurt Angle at Summerslam just a month after his debut.
For the next six years, Rey Mysterio would become the face of the Smackdown brand. In 2002 he had two of the best tag team matches of all time, teaming with Edge. In 2003 Mysterio officially entered the Cruiserweight division and instantly became the face of it, having great feuds and matches with Matt Hardy, Tajiri, Jamie Noble, Chavo Guerrero and more. 2004 rolls around and Rey has a very successful tag team run with Rob Van Dam. 2005 because the Rey vs Eddie saga. Despite the criticism their feud gets, it led to 3 legitimate match of the year candidates for 2005 and you can’t even question the emotion they put into that feud. You give a great performer a bad feud and they do whatever they can to make it good. 2006 rolls around and Mysterio has a historic Royal Rumble performance, lasting over an hour and winning the entire thing from the #2 entry, eliminating both Triple H and Randy Orton to win it. 5’6, 165 lb Rey Mysterio makes his way into Wrestlemania, in an era where ‘look’ was still a pretty big thing, and walked out World Heavyweight Champion. Mysterio went on to have a very good underdog title run before being dethroned by King Booker, after Chavo Guerrero turned on him.
After spending some time on Raw, Mysterio had arguably the best feud of his career against Chris Jericho in 2009. He then began doing an incredible job of putting other talent over. In just late 2009 alone, he made John Morrison and Dolph Ziggler both move up a tier on the roster. Rey would go on to have an incredibly eventful 2010, feuding with Undertaker, CM Punk, winning the World Heavyweight Championship again and feuding with newcomer Alberto Del Rio. Mysterio continued helping others get over, being the catalyst to a huge character change for Cody Rhodes in 2011. Rey would go on to finally get his hands on the WWE Championship in 2011, despite only holding onto it for an hour or so. Unfortunately injuries would plague the rest of Mysterio’s run in WWE. He would have great matches when healthy, but would often miss time due to injury. Since then, Mysterio has gone on to have success in Lucha Underground.
Why Rey Mysterio?
What makes Rey Mysterio above the rest is his ability to play the sympathetic face. Rey could get you into literally any match thanks to his facial expressions, selling, mannerisms, you name it. He made you feel bad for him and he made you want to see him succeed. From a character standpoint, Rey Mysterio was perfect. His character had scratch and claw through most matches because he didn’t have the size and power in a size and power dominated world. The change in his wrestling style when he went from the CW division to the main event was really impressive because he had to wrestle differently. Kane isn’t going to sell offense from a 5’6 man the same way that someone like Jamie Noble would, so it made sense and Mysterio perfected it. He went from being a more offense based wrestler to someone constantly on the defense, fighting to survive. Mysterio sold every limb there is to sell with a crazy amount of passion. If his leg was being worked over, he’d work around it. Same with the arm or the back. And facial expressions are such an important part of wrestling. And a masked wrestler (varies depending on the design) can have trouble conveying their emotions during a match because of their mask. Yet Rey Mysterio managed to have some of the best facial expressions during his time with the company and still managed to draw sympathy trough them.
Many would argue that mic skills were Rey Mysterio’s weakness but I would argue that the way he spoke actually made him more likable because he was so passionate. He was never going to cut a Randy Savage-like promo, but he’ll cut you a promo that’s straight from the heart and it always sounded like it. He doesn’t have a larger than life voice but he knew how to talk perfectly well and did so in a way that made you like him. I would say Bayley is like this to a much smaller extent.
We could talk here all day about Rey Mysterio matches and feuds. I think I’d run over the character limit listing every great Rey Mysterio match. But I can say with certainty that there was not a more consistent and good wrestler in the ring from 2002-2011 than Rey Mysterio. Whether it be against Kurt Angle on PPV or against Mike Knox on Superstars (seriously though, 2/18/10, check it out, it’s awesome), Rey Mysterio was going to deliver. Rey didn’t even need actual time to have a good match. Mysterio vs Kurt Angle at Summerslam 2002 got under 10 minutes and was incredible. Mysterio vs Matt Hardy at Wrestlemania XIX got 5 minutes and was fantastic. And Mysterio vs CM Punk from Wrestlemania XXVI got 6 minutes and still told a full story in it. Hell, just pick a random Smackdown from 2002-2008 (barring the portion he was injured during) and I’m willing to bet the show features a good Mysterio match. He could have chemistry with literally anyone, whether they were triple his size or the same size. His ring psychology was always on point and his matches always had a story to tell.
But beyond just wrestling ability, Rey Mysterio’s connection to the audience was what got him so over. He was so easy to like and he was so much fun to watch that it was hard not to cheer for him. Plus, who doesn’t love badass masks? There’s a reason why Rey Mysterio had over 30 different action figures made over his tenure with the company. His attires were so unique and cool. Everything about Rey Mysterio was cool and for all ages. He managed to appeal to children and adults at the same time and transcended size barriers because of it.
Accolades
And let’s just take a moment to appreciate his accomplishments as well!
– WWE Champion
– World Heavyweight Champion x2
– Intercontinental Champion x2
– WWE Cruiserweight Champion x3
– WWE Tag Team Champion x4 (with Edge, RVD, Guerrero & Batista)
– 2006 Royal Rumble winner
– WCW Cruiserweight Champion x5
– WCW Cruiserweight Tag Team Champion (with Billy Kidman)
– WCW Tag Team Champion x3 (with Konnan, Juventud & Billy Kidman)
– Lucha Underground Trios Champion (with Dragon Azteca Jr & Prince Puma)
– 3 Dave Meltzer rated ***** matches
– WON Best Highflyer of the year 6x
– WON Match of the Year (2002)
– WON Most Outstanding Wrestler (1996)
– WON Rookie of the Year (1992)
– WON Hall of Fame (2010)
MysteriGOAT
Many people can say that they had a good career. Not many people can say that they wrestled 24 years and can still do amazing things in that 24th year. Rey Mysterio is a one of a kind talent that managed to have a massive impact on the wrestling industry despite being criminally undersized for what the average wrestler was during most of his time in WWE. He broke down barriers that have allowed smaller talent to become bigger parts of the show. He could have a great match with anyone, he could draw a crowd reaction doing anything and above all, he is incredibly fun to watch. Rey Mysterio is the Greatest Of All Time.
