Rey Mysterio Reflects On His Early Career, Pioneering Lucha Libre In America

In a recent appearance on WWE’s “After The Bell with Corey Graves” podcast, recently inducted WWE Hall of Famer Rey Mysterio reflected on his early years in wrestling and how he felt like he dominated the Lucha style with his rival Psicosis, due to their perfect size differences. He said,

“So, I was so young when I was given the opportunity, and I was probably in my prime of enjoying matches and really understanding the Lucha style. Because every phase I’ve had throughout my career has been a learning experience. But I felt like I’ve heard that Lucha style dominated. And I had such a great rival to be able to present it, you know, Psicosis. Where the size was just so perfect. Everything that I did looked just so freaking crazy and so unbelievable. Whether I springboarding off the top and doing the rana, and my head just going [whoosh] almost hitting the mat but not hitting it. And that I believe had to do with the size differences.”

In conversation with Corey Graves and Kevin Patrick, Mysterio also expressed his sense of pride for being given the first opportunity to showcase Lucha Libre wrestling in WCW, being able to pioneer a unique style of wrestling and acknowledged Konnan’s vision for opening up doors for them and helping Lucha Libre grow through WCW. He added,

“But overall, you don’t think about opening up the doors or opening up this fountain of wrestling where now it’s gonna be able to be seen around the world through a very large spectrum at the time, WCW. But now, after so many years of putting in the work and after seeing the game change in front of my own eyes, I do feel this sense of pride like, ‘Wow, I can’t believe that I was given that first opportunity and it worked…’ that people believed, that people enjoyed.”

“But again, Konnan could have been very selfish to go into WCW on his own and not think about any of us. You know, Psicosis, Super Calo, Rey Mysterio, El Dandy, Villanos, La Parke, Hector Garza. None of us would have had an opportunity, but he saw this vision to see Lucha Libre grow, and it grew through WCW.”

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