from WOW Magazine
by A. Rettinger
Were you brought up in the wrestling world?
I kind of had the regular family life, but my parents used to travel a lot.
When they went on vacation when I was little, I would stay with my uncle,
Rey Misterio Sr. Just from being around him so much, being at the shows where
he wrestled, watching him train, I grew up with that wrestling fantasy. He
trained me, along with other wrestlers, but he had a big influence in my
career. It’s kind of like he brought me there. He didn’t push me. I wanted
to do it.
For him to let you use his
name must have been something.
Yes, that was something very big. I started wrestling with another name.
I did that for about a year and he watching my actions in the ring. He never
told me, “Once you get ready I’m going to give you the name,” No. As a little
kid I always used to tell him, “I want to be Rey Misterio Jr.! I want to
be Rey Misterio Jr.!” He said, “Wait, it will be some day.” So I remember
my first wrestling show, (he said) “We are going to name you this.” But it
wasn’t Rey Misterio Jr. I said, “Ok,” but at the moment I also thought in
my head, “Why? Why didn’t he give me Rey Misterio Jr.?” I wrestled with that
name for a year and all of a sudden before one of my matches he walked into
the ring, right before the bell rang he came up in front of the people, he
announced that from now on this person is no longer going to be who he is,
he now turns to Rey Misterio Jr. He took off the mask that I had on without
letting my face show and he put the Rey Misterio Jr. mask on me. From then
my whole career changed. I started to rise. I guess because of the respect
of that name and because of the hard work I was doing to build that name
up.
How did you develop your
wrestling style?
Rey Misterio Sr. was not much into high flying. He was heavy, muscled. Most
of his wrestling was very fast, but not high flying. I kind of picked up a
little from him and other wrestlers form Mexico City and the high flyers.
There are definitely two that I have to mention that I did get a lot of my
inspired moves from: Dynamite Kid and Tiger Mask. I just thought they were
awesome. They did some incredible stuff in the ring, and I did get very
good ideas from them and modified them into my own style of wrestling. I’d
say 80 percent of my moves, I just create my myself. I like sitting down
before a match, looking at the ring, like a fan would see, like in the bleachers,
and figuring out what would be great to do and what I would be able to do.
I come up with some pretty crazy stuff.
Discuss the meaning of “Rey
Misterio” and the aura of mystery about your uncle.
The name Rey Misterio: “Rey” --kind of being the hometown Tijuana king or
being the king of wrestling at his place, and “Misterio” came from having
the mystery in wrestling. Every Friday that there would be a show in Tijuana
my uncle would wear a different mask with a different outfit--every single
time. He wouldn’t come out with same outfit twice. Other wrestlers would wear
mask and they change their colors, but Rey Misterio Sr. would change his
design on the mask each week. There was one way to identify him, though. “Rey”
would be symbolized by a crown on his mask, and “Misterio” by a question mark.
So he had the crown and the question mark on his mask always, but the rest
of the design of the mask was different. He would change the eyes, he would
change the mouth. He would have his hair out, or he would have his hair covered
up. He had very many masks.
When you put your mask up
in the match against Kevin Nash, there was some chance that you might lose.
Were you mentally prepared to unmask?
I paused for a minute and said, “Ok, I’ve got to be ready for this. I know
I can lose, but I also have confidence in myself to win.” Anything can happen.
It was just a bad night for me. I guess it didn’t hit me until afterwards.
I took off the mask, I accepted the loss whether it was bad or whether I
got cheated. But it hit me right after I took a shower and I was kicking
back in the dressing room. And it struck me--bam, right there, you know.
Wow. Nine years of my career with wearing a mask and my whole life of building
up to wearing that mask. I’d have to say it was part of me. It still is. It’s
not on my anymore, but it still is a part of me. I go back home and I open
up my drawers and I see my costumes and I see the masks with the tights and
everything, and I miss it. I really do. I miss that Rey Misterio Jr. But
that isn’t going to get me down.
Everybody has setbacks in their career and I guess
you have to regroup, but the people still love you no matter what.
I guess, like they say, the mask and outfit don’t make the wrestler. It’s
the person who carries it.
It must have been the most
courageous moment of your life.
It was, deep down inside. I could have said, “Now, I’m not taking it off
because I know how I lost and it wasn’t the right way of losing.” I could
have won that match, you know. I can’t back down in front of millions of people
watching. My commitment was my commitment and the people knew how I lost,
so for them it’s like, “They played him. It shouldn’t have been that way.
He could have gotten a fair win or a fair loss.” So they know what happened,
I know what happened. So I guess that just keeps me going.
You’re part of a new breed
of wrestler.
I’m going to go back to the day, that for me, the smallest wrestler I ever
saw in the United States was Shawn Michaels. For me, he was doing the high
flying maneuvers and he went on to a different level or stage where it made
him a superstar, well deserved. Then X-Pac was another of the wrestlers, as
he started off as 1-2-3 Kid. I remember he was kind of the light division
and he got a big push and I’m glad for him, too. Even though his style and
mine are very different (the same as Shawn Michaels) just the body weight
kind of put me in the position of, “Ok, let’s bring him in and see how he
is.” So, that opened the doors for me. This is like my last chance for getting
to where I wanted to get, to accomplish my goal in wrestling. I started in
Tijuana, then went to Mexico City, was on TV international, went to ECW, went
to Japan. There was no other step that I could go further. My only step was
WCW or WWF. WCW opened up the doors for me, and I walked in and I gave it
all I got. With my high flying, the people were really into it or they kind
of watched it. I don’t know, but they might have said, “Wow, look at this
kid. He can give us what we have never seen.” Obviously, I just went out
there and like I did in Mexico, like I did in Japan, like I did in ECW. I
did my job how I like to do it.
Konnan speaks highly of
you.
I’ve got to give much credit to Konnan because I would have been a local
wrestler in Tijuana for maybe a long time. Konnan was the one who hooked me
up to go to Mexico City, to go to ECW. He hooked me up in Mexico, which is
where I made most of my career, which is where I got my name started and where
my face was seen for the first time on television and I have got to thank
him for that. And I appreciate that because he is always talking about me.
He’s always saying what kind of wrestler I am and how good I am. I don’t like
bragging about that. I don’t have a big head. My feet are just flat on the
earth. I do what I do and if the people like it and they come up to me and
they tell me it’s good, you know, I appreciate those comments. But I’m not
the kind of person who says, “Did you see what I did? What did you think
about it?” I just have to thank Konnan for talking for me.
The diversity of opponents--size-wise,
work-wise--how do you adjust?
The very first time I wrestled in WCW they told me my opponent was going
to be Dean Malenko. The very first match. And I’ll tell you straight out that
I am not a very good mat wrestler. I’ll do my high flying and I can get away
with my mat wrestling ‘cause I know holds that I learned when I was first
becoming a wrestler. This was my big opportunity, so I watched videos of
Dean in Japan and in ECW against Eddy (Guerrero) and against Chris Benoit
and I studied them. It was like being back in school. “You’re going to have
a test and I’ll give you a week to study so you could everything right and
give me 100 percent.” I studied him for so long. I went into the gym where
I first began and had a couple of wrestlers teach me some holds and some
mat wrestling moves. When I got into the ring with Dean, I gave what I had
and I know he gave a lot more because he’s very smart at what he does and
a very good wrestler. I didn’t back down. And I kind of feel proud of myself
for that. I was prepared. That’s something that I never did in school, but
I did it in wrestling.
You have a love of professional
wrestling...
This is a sport that has been around me since I was a little baby. It’s
in my blood. I can feel it. I’ve lived it. God, I’ve been wrestling professionally
for nine years. I can say I’m a young vet in this business, but I’ve still
got a long way to go. And like I mentioned before, my last accomplishment
was being in a big company in the United States. I am now in here. Now I want
to accomplish being on top in this company.