wrestling / Columns

I Was Wrong: Rey Mysterio As World Champion

October 28, 2014 | Posted by Justin Watry

Doing this for over six years now, there are many perks that come with writing columns about wrestling. Obviously, the monetary gain depending on the website. The chance to interact with other fans. The opportunity to interview/quote wrestlers. The platform to voice an opinion. The ego boost received through emails/tweets from readers. All that good stuff. A part of that comes with the inevitable – gloating about being “right” when the history books are written.

From the man who predicted the sinking of the Titanic (what is his name?) to the man who predicted Sheamus vs. Daniel Bryan at WWE WrestleMania 28 would last under a minute (hi!), there is always that motivation. Mine have been numerous throughout the years: WWE stock plummeting, everything about TNA Impact Wrestling’s current mess, Zack Ryder being a flash in the pan (if even that), John Morrison leaving WWE, Mark Henry being World Champion in 2011, Hulk Hogan returning to WWE, CM Punk NOT coming back anytime soon, Sting working with WWE in 2014, weekly television ratings patterns, Daniel Bryan getting his payoff, etc. The list goes on and on. However, there are two sides to a coin…

I have also been VERY wrong over the years. Very wrong. Thus, this concept was born. Instead of raving constantly about ‘calling it’ every week, why not flip the script? Humble myself a little? Sure. Sounds like fun. This week…

I Was Wrong: Rey Mysterio As WWE World Champion

Early WWE Years – It was very clear from summer 2002 and onward that WWE had big plans for Rey Mysterio. Right from his debut on Smackdown in July 2002, he was treated as a ‘star’ and out there with Kurt Angle, Edge, Guerreros, and others. Feuded with Matt Hardy over the Cruiserweight Championship at his first WrestleMania event in 2003 and having many solid bouts throughout the year. Even wrestling/teaming with Tajiri, Chavo Guerrero, and other cruiserweights felt like a major event because it involved Rey Mysterio. Always a weekly fixture on television and fit in perfectly regardless of the opponent through the end of 2004. However, once 2005 began, things started to get ramped up a bit…

“All The Way” – I remember it to this day. Sometime in early/mid-2005, there was an online report (yeah, those lovely things) stating WWE was going “all the way” with Rey Mysterio. He was clearly popular. He received good to great crowd reactions every night. He was consistent inside the squared circle. His merchandise was selling well. The masked man was a fairly fresh face in WWE and with John Cena and Batista moving up the card, he was the next logical choice for a top fan favorite. He was now in there (teaming or wrestling) with Eddie Guerrero, Big Show, JBL, Batista, Kane, Shawn Michaels, etc. A clear step up from his prior years. Again, I can still remember it to this day thinking about Rey possibly as a main eventer in 2005 and beyond with a VERY hesitant excitement ‘Wow, here we go!’

Eddie Guerrero – To that point, his entire 2005 campaign revolved around working with Eddie Guerrero. Obviously a well respected veteran, fresh off a main event run in 2004 and run as WWE Champion. Teaming or wrestling, Mysterio was treated as an equal to Eddie, if not MORE than an equal. During their near year long feud, Rey Rey would nearly each and every time defeat Eddie Guerrero. On television or on pay-per-view. Smackdown was held together by those two guys, and it was a nice bonus just to know this was leading to even bigger and better things for Mr. 619 in the future.

Note: Real quickly: I do NOT believe Rey Mysterio became World Champion just because of Eddie’s death. As I stated, there were reports in 2005 WWE was going ‘all the way’ with him, and it was pretty evident. However, I DO believe Rey Mysterio benefited and got that tiny extra boost following Eddie’s death.

Royal Rumble 2006 – In January 2006, winning he Royal Rumble all but guaranteed you would win the WWE or World Title at WrestleMania. WWE beat us over the head with the stat. Happened in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2005. The hot streak was sure to continue. Win the Rumble, win the title at WM. Realistically, each year provides only a few legitimate potential winners. Forget all the senseless ‘fantasy booking’ every January. Come Rumble time, only a select few have a real shot. In early 2006, either Randy Orton would win to challenge Kurt Angle for the World Title (big rumor at the time) or Triple H would win to challenge John Cena for the WWE Title, as that was the money match, and HHH repeatedly told viewers that the King of Kings would go back on his throne at WrestleMania 22…or Rey Mysterio would win, as he dedicated the match to the late great Eddie Guerrero. Extremely serious words there. To the surprise of nobody, it came down to those three men – Rey, HHH, and Mr. RKO…

Even When He Won… – Even when Rey Mysterio pulled out the miraculous Royal Rumble victory, there was still plenty of skepticism and with good reason. The Royal Rumble match did not even go on last that night! Rumors persisted that Randy Orton vs. Kurt Angle for the World Title at WM22 was the plan. Plus, I admit – I still had doubts on WWE truly going “all the way” with Mysterio, as was reported nearly a year earlier. My suspicion was confirmed when it was announced that at the No Way Out pay-per-view in February 2006, Mysterio was putting up his WM title shot against none other than Randy Orton. Yep, all the goading and mocking of Eddie from Orton had worked. Mysterio was suckered into the high stakes match, and well, he lost. Orton beat Mysterio and was headed to Mania for a World Tile shot versus Kurt Angle. Sorry Mysterio…

When Did I Realize I Would Be Wrong? – On Smackdown after No Way Out, Teddy Long threw us all a curve ball. Randy Orton would indeed get his shot against Angle at WM22. However, that bout was NOW going to be a triple threat match with Rey Mysterio added! Then it hit me. WWE truly was going to put the World Title on Rey Mysterio. It was finally going to happen. There was no other reason why he would be added. No reason whatsoever. Either planned all along or by an audible, Mr. 619 was getting the ball and running with it straight to Mania. He HAD to win now; he had to. Sure enough, in front of a rabid Chicago live audience on the biggest show of the year, Mysterio bested Angle and Orton to win his first World Heavyweight Championship. Note the word ‘heavyweight’ there. The impossible had happened. I always believed Mysterio was talented inside the ring. I knew he would be a fan favorite in WWE. I knew he was a valuable asset to the company. It did not surprise me one bit that he was an upper mid-card wrestler with many high profile matches. However, when he became World Champion, I had been proven wrong. He did it.

Aftermath – Well, what can you say really? He got beat up a lot. He lost non-title matches a lot. After a few months as World Champion on the Blue Brand, he lost to Booker T (newly dubbed King Booker) at Great American Bash and got nowhere near the World Title for another four years. He won his second World Championship from Jack Swagger at the Fatal Four Way PPV event in 2010…but quickly lost it to Kane. Another disappointing title reign. In summer 2011, when CM Punk walked out of the company (ha!) with the WWE Title, Mysterio got to the top of the mountain one more time. To crown a ‘new’ WWE Champion, he defeated The Miz in the finals of a tournament on RAW…before dropping the gold to John Cena a few hours later on the same show. I do not think he ever got a rematch or was even mentioned in the title picture afterwards. Again, not pretty. Truthfully, it is tough to actually judge Mysterio his WWE/World Title victories. Was it his undoing? Was it just bad circumstances? Was it WWE only going so far with him? Was it that his under dog status did not work if he won all the time? Regardless of how his title reigns will be remembered in hindsight, he absolutely proved me wrong and can proudly say during his future WWE Hall of Fame induction speech that he was a former WWE World Champion.

Voice your opinion in the comment section: Be honest – did YOU think Rey Mysterio would ever become WWE World Champion?

Self-Promoting Finale

Thanks to everybody who joined me for my third ever live tweeting session a few weeks ago during WWE RAW! Not my cup of tea admittedly, but I said if I reached 600 Twitter followers I would live tweet again, so I did. When will I live tweet again you ask? Well, I will get back to you when I reach 650 Twitter followers. Only 40 away!

Follow me on Twitter @JustinWatry

Go check out my Jay’s Ways column over at the NoDQ website…

…and finally…

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article topics :

Rey Mysterio, WWE, Justin Watry