Rey Mysterio On Konnan’s Impact On His Career, Bringing Lucha Libre to WCW

Rey Mysterio was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame by Konnan, and he recently discussed Konnan’s enormous impact on his career and helping bring lucha libre to the US. Mysterio spoke with Corey Graves and Kevin Patrick on WWE After the Bell and talked about Konnan giving him opportunities and bringing both him and other luchadors to WCW. You can see some highlights below:

On Konnan’s impact on his career: “So with Konnan, you know, it’s funny. We met when I was 12 years old roughly. And he walked into this gym in Tijuana where I was training, where my uncle was lead class and was taking students under his wing. Konnan showed up with another of his, freaking just jacked straight out of the Navy. And it looked like he was — you could have said he was a bodybuilder, he was so big. Bug we bonded right away, it was crazy.

“And he takes off, first to Mexico, becomes a huge megastar. And the first thing he does is, when they get ready to kick off this huge promotion he calls me and Psicosis to come over and continue with our wrestling careers. Back then, if you didn’t know anyone that can connect you to a major promotion or that can connect you with promoters to get work, you weren’t gonna go anywhere. I would have been a good or great wrestling kid from San Diego that wrestled in Tijuana every weekend. And I could have become a local superstar, possibly. But my life changed after Konnan opened doors. Not only in Mexico, but in ECW and then WCW. So I owe a lot of my success to Konnan. I’ve always said that thank God for this career, this beautiful, enormous career that I’ve had. But next to God, I thank Konnan for opening up these doors to me.”

On helping to bring lucha libre to the US through WCW: “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 head 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 diferences.

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 spectum 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.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit WWE’s After the Bell with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.