Rey Mysterio Recalls Being Told To Wear His Mask For WWE Debut

It is hard to imagine Rey Mysterio wrestling without his iconic match, but prior to signing with WWE in 2002, that was the case.

Mysterio was unmasked during his time with WCW, a move that was criticized at the time. In Lucha Libre, you don’t put the mask back on when you lose it, but WWE chose to bring him in with the mask.

Speaking with Ryan Satin on Out of Character, Mysterio spoke about the conversations he had with WWE officials at the time. In short, he said he trusted WWE to market his masks better than WCW ever did. Here is the quote, courtesy of Fightful:

“Prior to coming to WWE, I was in OVW training, which was a week prior to my debut and the office wanted to see the gear I wanted to use. When I showed it to them, I had no mask. They were like, ‘Where is the mask?’ ‘Well, I lost the mask.’ In Lucha Libre, if you lose the mask, you never put it back on. They were like, ‘No, Vince wants you to come back with the mask.’ ‘I’m glad you told me now because it would have sucked if you told me the day of.’ I had an outfit made with the mask and that was history. The mask was a very important piece of my career in WWE.

“If WCW didn’t market the mask the correct way, I knew Vince would. In Mexico, when I went for the first time with WWE, they didn’t want me to wrestle with the mask on because I had lost it. I had been wrestling with it since I signed with WWE, but they didn’t care. At the end of the night, they were like, ‘it’s cool.'”

Rey Mysterio is currently a SmackDown Tag Team Champion alongside his son Dominik. Mysterio is also reportedly set to wrestle Roman Reigns for the Universal Championship in the near future.

Mysterio’s WWE debut came on the July 25, 2002, episode of SmackDown. On the show he defeated Chavo Guerrero.

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• mask
• WCW
• rey mysterio
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