Rey Mysterio, Jr.

"Booyaka, booyaka six one nine!"

One of the most famous lucha libre wrestlers in the World to date, Rey Mysterio, Jr.. (Real name Oscar Gutierrez) is the nephew of Rey Misterio Sr. who helped train the young wrestler. Starting his career in Mexican promotion AAA, Mysterio went to ECW in 1992, where his high-flying style attracted the attention of Eric Bischoff - who was scouting for lucha wrestlers in order to give WCW a more unique feel to it. Along with other luchadores and cruiserweights, Mysterio caught the attention of the crowd with the fast paced and risk taking matches, becoming one of the high points of WCW all the way up to its demise.

After WCW collapsed, Mysterio competed for various independent circuits - including wrestling against future world champions Eddie Guerrero and CM Punk in IWA Mid-South - before signing with WWE in 2002, where he has since become one of its biggest stars and a main eventer on the company's Smack Down brand, up until he was drafted to Raw in 2011.

As usual, That Other Wiki has a detailed article on his life and career.


 * Author Appeal: He's friends with the members of POD, who also hail from the San Diego area. They perform the entrance theme he's been using since 2006.
 * Arch Enemy: He's had many enemies over the years, but his arch enemy would probably be either Psychosis or Eddie Guerrero.
 * Badass Latino
 * Bilingual Bonus: About half of what he says in his promos is in Spanish.
 * Breakup Breakout: Rey Mysterio was once a member of a stable known as the Filthy Animals in his old WCW days. Since then, Rey Rey has achieved the most success as a singles competitor in the U.S.
 * Canon Discontinuity: WWE does not acknowledge that Rey Mysterio lost his mask in WCW. Ever. This is more obvious on DVDs, but made patently clear when, during a PPV match featuring Mysterio, the announcers said that ever since he started wrestling, he'd never taken the mask off.
 * Which is odd because WWE has released at least one photo of him backstage with his mask off as part of a tour article. Maybe their rule is simply not to unmask him on TV.
 * This also makes it unlikely that the WWE will get the rights to put an IWA-Mid South match featuring him against Eddie Guerrero and a young CM Punk on the latter's DVD set.
 * Fanon Discontinuity: His first World Heavyweight title run mainly due to that was the period where WWE was milking the late Eddie Guerrero's name for all it was worth. Not to mention they dropped "heavyweight" from the title's name for the duration of Mysterio's reign, as if no one would notice.
 * Course it should be noted that the likes of Christian and Shawn Michaels have competed for and won the "World Heavyweight Title" despite not being heavyweights without complaint. Really the name is a misnomer and it might as well be called the World title.
 * From a Certain Point of View: Rey Misterio Jr. has taken off his mask. Rey Mysterio never has. See the masked luchador entry below for further details.
 * Cool Mask
 * Cool Sword: He collects them.
 * Costume Porn: Rey has an affinity for Comic Book themed attire especially when Wrestlemania rolls around.
 * Creepy Cool Crosses: Justified, as the man is Roman Catholic, but the amount of crucifixes on his outfit is mildly unsettling. (And that's not even getting into his tattoos.)
 * Determinator
 * Estrogen Brigade Bait: Back in WCW when Rey was actually maskless...just damn. This is what led to.....
 * Even the Guys Want Him: If you can name one semi-regular tag partner he's ever had that didn't snuggle, kiss, and hug him at every available chance, I'd love to hear it.
 * Uh....Kane?
 * All of which crosses over into outright Bishenon especially in the most recent Smackdown intro video. There, he looks barely a teenager, the lighting really emphasizes his long eyelashes and eyes, and to top it off, the lighting combined with his mask also gives him bishie sparkles.
 * Face: Rey has spent almost his entire career as a face. Even his stint in the heel stable the Filthy Animals, he came across more as a tweener going along with the heel thing because it's what his friends were doing. Since joining the WWE, Rey has never been anything but a pure face, a shockingly rare feat in the land of Heel Face Revolving Door that is pro wrestling. He's effectively the Ricky Steamboat of his generation.
 * Follow the Leader: Recently, the WWE imported Sin Cara - known in Mexico as 'Mistico'. Skew-inducing aerial moves aside, there's little denying the fact that Rey Mysterio's sustained popularity in the 'E was a major factor in them going back to the well, so to speak.
 * Fragile Speedster
 * Fridge Brilliance: If Rey Mysterio's been hiding that knee brace under his pants for all these years, the 619 (Tiger feint kick, essentially a knee to the face) as a finishing move suddenly makes a lot of sense...
 * Friend to All Children: Probably the most popular wrestler (behind John Cena of course) among young children. In fact, just take a gander at his entrance, where he stops to shake hands with or kiss every single child in the front rows before entering the ring.
 * Bonus points for children in the front seats who wears a Rey Mysterio mask. Rey will come to them and do a luchador-esque forehead bump to them and will give a lucky child the mask over his mask.
 * His popularity is easily greater than John Cena's because he is also loved by smarks who liked him in WCW and ECW and fans of lucha libre. However, WWE has always made sure that the most promoted wrestler is a heavyweight face, and Cena fits that bill.
 * Game-Breaking Injury: Much has been made in and out of the ring concerning the awful state of his knees.
 * Gratuitous Spanish: Oh, brother. Lately, it seems as if Mysterio has turned into the wrestling equivalent of Dora the Explorer. It gets worse whenever he appears in California or the Southwest. ("Kane is a little delusional!"/"Es un vato loco!")
 * Somewhat justified, as a key part of Smack Down's ratings during its broadcast TV run was its excellent numbers in Latino households, thanks chiefly to Rey and the late Eddie Guerrero.
 * Hot Dad
 * I Have the High Ground
 * Institutional Apparel: Rey occasionally competed in a set of orange prison scrubs during his unmasked period in WCW (chiefly when he was a part of the Filthy Animals).
 * Invincible Hero: In the past few years, he has become nearly unstoppable. Losses, clean or otherwise, have become a major rarity for Rey (which doesn't stop the commentators from calling him an "underdog").
 * It hasn't been as bad in 2009 and 2010, with Rey being beaten by the likes of Chris Jericho, The Undertaker, CM Punk, John Morrison, Kane, and Alberto Del Rio, as well as losing one fall to Jack Swagger via submission in a two out of three falls match.
 * He has gotten most of those losses back from Del Rio, Chris Jericho, and CM Punk. In fact, after they (CM Punk and Chris Jericho) beat him once, Mysterio went on and started pinning them clean.
 * Kid Appeal Character
 * Legacy Character
 * Location Theme Naming: The West Coast Pop is obviously named from the West Coast of the US, while the 619 is the area code of San Diego, CA (which is part of the West Coast), Rey's hometown.
 * Loophole Abuse: See Masked Luchador.
 * Masked Luchador: DUH!
 * It's interesting to note that the last couple of years of Rey's WCW career were spent unmasked (as pointed out above, WWE never acknowledges this). In fact, this is in part why he's simply called "Rey Mysterio" in WWE: Rey Jr. and the original Rey Mysterio found a way around the strict rules in Mexico regarding luchadores losing their masks (if they lose it, they can't put it back on) - while Rey Misterio Jr. had been unmasked, Rey Misterio (the original) had not. The original Misterio gave Rey Jr. permission to use "Rey Mysterio" (minus the "Jr."), and Rey's mask was back on - this time, for good.
 * They also changed the "I" to a "Y" for good measure, but that may have been a WWE move as they've done the same with other wrestlers, like Rhyno.
 * The spelling of Rey's surname may be a remnant of his stint in WCW, as they were known for mispronouncing and misspelling the luchadores' names. Most notably, they promoted Ultimo Dragon (actually translates to "Last Dragon") as "The Ultimate Dragon" for about 2 years.
 * The Spanish for Mystery is actually Misterio but it was changed by WWE to Mysterio so people would realise it means "mystery" as opposed to meaning "mister". This caused another problem - that people thought 'Rey' was his first name and didn't know it is the Spanish for king.
 * Meaningful Name: His name is Spanish for "The King of Mystery"; his early WCW ring attire was dotted with question marks.
 * One of the most infamous of such attires was a Phantom-inspired purple bodysuit that had question marks all over it; this attire was most notably worn during his famous match with Eddie Guerrero at WCW Halloween Havoc 1997.
 * No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: In one of the most famous clips of the N Wo running roughshod over the WCW roster, Kevin Nash (7'2") picked up Mysterio (5'3") over his head and threw him head-first into a production truck like a lawn dart. The thud and the accompanying bellyflop to the pavement were sick to look at.
 * The Big Show would top this at the 2003 Backlash PPV. After shrugging off THREE 619 maneuvers in a row and defeating him handily, Rey was taken out on a stretcher board. Big Show, however, came back down, picked up Rey still strapped to the board and swung the board like a baseball bat against the ring post (which would be sick in itself, but the immobile Rey also splatted face-first to the mat).
 * Lets face it. If you are a heel, want to do a Face Heel Turn, or just want to gain credibility as a heel, beat the ever loving hell out of Rey Mysterio. It seems to be in the heel manual these days.
 * Older Than They Look: The mask and Rey's small stature work well to hide the fact that he's much older than his appearance lets on.
 * Still doesnt change the fact that Chris Jericho thought he was a 13 year old boy the first time he saw him, according to Jericho's own biography.
 * Rey's now-13 year old son is about four inches taller than his dad!
 * ...Which would make him (if the above height is correct) six-foot-even at the age of 13?
 * The height of 5'8" isn't correct. Rey is usually billed as 5'6", but in truth is about 5'3". Pictures of him standing next to any Divas will prove this.
 * "It's Leave It to Beaver!"
 * And, in a few photos that show WWE wrestlers in their free time, Rey STILL looks pretty much the same.
 * Omniglot: Maybe not in real life, but he seems to be able to easily converse with everyone else on the roster, up to and including a mute leprechaun and a giant who can barely even speak his own language.
 * Pint-Sized Powerhouse
 * Put on a Bus: Currently out for an knee injury. He had a date set for his return but has been suspended for 60 days for failing a Wellness Test.
 * Shout-Out: His falls count anywhere match against Cody Rhodes had several shout outs to ECW, including a long brawl throughout the arena, "HOLY SHIT!" chants, a failed attempt at a Psycho Guillotine (longtime rival Psychosis' finisher), and finally beating Cody by using Asian mist like Tajiri.
 * Verbal Tic: Yells "WA-AHHHH" while striking.
 * Weaksauce Weakness: Mysterio beating on you? Everything you throw at him failing? Rip off his mask and he'll immediately try to cover his face, leaving himself wide open to be pummeled. Alberto Del Rio uses this tactic liberally..
 * Wrestling Family: WWE refuses to acknowledge this, but Rey Mysterio (Rey Mysterio, Jr.) is in a pretty well known family south of the border. He is a second generation superstar, and might be considered the best in this line. There is also El hijo de Rey Mysterio who wrestles in Mexico. So every time Mysterio starts a feud with a Guerrero which one or both accuse Rey of wanting to be a Guerrero, a Wallbanger ensues.
 * Wrestling Psychology: Mysterio is probably the best at selling without overselling and the best at being a babyface in the industry.
 * Though considering that he's had surgery five times on his knees, how much of it is selling?