Rey Mysterio has been one of the best workers in the US for over 10 years now. He has adapt his style to fit around his decaying body but still remains one of the most entertaining men on the show. After suffering another injury in early February of this year, Rey’s return to the WWE is imminent.

Rey first began his career at the age of 14 in Tijuana, Mexico. He would go on to wrestle for AAA, ECW and WCW. When WCW went under, Rey went to work for CMLL briefly and did some work on the indies. There didn’t seem to be much interest from the WWE but after persistent calls to sign Rey from guys like Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit and Chris Jericho, Rey Mysterio signed with the WWE in June of 2002.

Almost everyone’s initial thought was Rey was never going to get any sort of a real push and would end up a lower card jobber. Little did anyone know that 4 years from now, Rey would be a World Champion and one of the bigger stars in the entire company.

Hype videos began to play, graphics of Rey’s masks flashed on the screen signifying that Rey was to go back under the mask. At that point in time Rey had been unmasked for over 3 years after losing it back in WCW during a tag match against The Outsiders. Rey debuted against Chavo Guerrero in a fun match on the July 25th edition of Smackdown.

Rey’s unique offence endeared him to the fans. Performing such moves as the 619, (which at the time in the WWE was a mind blowing move) the spring board hurricanrana and many more. Rey’s grace in the air and overall ability to wrestle made him an instant fan favourite and a promoters dream. Not only could they sell his t-shirts and other crap, but they had the rights to sell his mask which are to this day one of the best selling items in wrestling amongst kids.

Rey would quickly make a name for himself as a daredevil by jumping off the cage onto the Un-Americans during a match between Edge and Chris Jericho.

Rey defeated Kurt Angle in what was a huge upset at the time. If wasn’t long before a height joke was used on Rey as Kurt Angle, in shock of his lost to Rey remarked “I just got beat by a freaking 12 year old!”. Their short feud came to a head at Summerslam when Kurt Angle defeated Rey in a hotly contested match. Many claim this match was one of the best openers for any PPV, and it is a rightly deserved claim.

Rey formed a team with Edge and together they went after the newly created WWE Tag Team Championships. After getting past Tajiri & Brock Lesnar and then Ron Simmons & D-Von, Edge and Mysterio were set to face the dysfunctional Chris Benoit and Kurt Angle in the finals at No Mercy.

In the 2002 Wrestling Observer Match of the Year - Kurt Angle & Chris Benoit became the first WWE Tag Team Champions. This was one hell of a match; I advise anyone who hasn’t seen it to go out of your way to watch it. This two way tag team feud turned into a 3 way tag feud when Los Guerrero was added to the mix. It was around this time that Smackdown featured at least one **** + match a week between either Rey, Edge, Angle, Benoit, Eddie or Chavo. Together they were dubbed “The Smackdown 6″.

Edge and Rey managed to win the tag titles in early November in a 2 out of 3 falls match against Benoit & Angle. The new champs wouldn’t hold the belts for long as they lost them less than two weeks later in an excellent tag team 3-way at the Survivor Series to Los Guerreros. The duo of Edge and Rey Mysterio never teamed up again.

Rey lingered in the midcard of Smackdown for a while, it wasn’t till March of 2003, 9 months since signing with the WWE that Rey Mysterio finally went for the Cruiserweight Championship. After earning his chance at a shot at the title, Rey went on to face the Champion Matt Hardy at Wrestlemania 19. Rey came up short (no pun intended) against Hardy, but Rey avenged his lost 3 months later by winning the Cruiserweight Title in his home town of San Diego in the main event of Smackdown.

Rey eventually lost the title to the newly turned Tajiri on an episode of Smackdown. The two would feud over the title for the next few months. Jamie Noble became involved in their feud when Tajiri spat black mist (black mist is supposedly more dangerous than any other variation of mist) into the eyes of Noble’s girlfriend Nidia - thus rendering her blind. After Noble failed on multiple times to defeat Tajiri, Rey took on the man from the rising sun in the first match of 2004 and defeated him, and in the process regaining his Cruiserweight Title.

Noble began to take of advance of his girlfriends’ disability by injecting her into the matches. Rey didn’t approve of this and tried to tell Nidia what Jamie was doing. This led to a match at the Royal Rumble between the two cruiserweights. Rey won within something like 4 minutes after Nidia tripped Noble. This was the end of the Rey Mysterio involvement in their feud as Rey was moving on to face another newly turned superstar in Chavo Guerrero.

With his father by his side, Chavo won the Cruiserweight Title from Rey at the No Way Out PPV (the same show Chavo’s uncle Eddie won the WWE Title from Brock Lesnar). Mysterio would attempt to regain the belt at Wrestlemania 20 in the Cruiserweight Open but failed due to interference from Chavo Classic. Rey would bounce from teaming with RVD to facing Eddie Guerrero for the WWE title before winning the Cruiserweight Title yet again, this time from the man who cost him the belt at Wrestlemania 20 - Chavo Classic.

The curse of newly heel turned wrestlers struck again for Rey Mysterio, this time it was Spike Dudley who would defeat Rey for the Cruiserweight Championship. Rey virtually did very little till winning the Tag Team Titles for a second time with Rob Van Dam in December of 2004.

This title win would be a catalyst to one of my favourite feuds of all time…

Steve McLaren
steve@wwepreview.com