Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 23:24, 17 October 2006

Rey Mysterio redirects here. For his uncle, the original Rey Misterio, see Rey Misterio, Sr.

Oscar Gutierrez Rubio
Born	December 19, 1974 San Diego, California
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)	Rey Mysterio Colibri Rey Mysterio, Jr. Rey Misterio
Billed height	5 ft 6 in (168 cm)
Billed weight	165 lb (75 kg)
Trained by	Rey Misterio
Debut	April 30, 1989

Óscar Gutiérrez Rubio, (born December 11, 1974) better known by his ring names Rey Mysterio, Jr. and Rey Mysterio is a Mexican-American professional wrestler currently performing on the Smackdown! brand of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE).

Mysterio is known for his aerial wrestling techniques, which kick-started the "cruiserweight" revolution in the United States of America in the late '90's. He has won the WCW/WWE Cruiserweight championship eight times - more than anyone else in history.

Career

Mexico

Gutierrez is a luchador as is his uncle and trainer, Rey Misterio, Sr. He debuted as a wrestler in April 1989 at the age of 14 in Tijuana, Mexico. He was too young to wrestle in the United States, as athletic commissions would not give him a license. Technically, he was also underage in Mexico, but enforcement was generally low. In Mexico, using the stage name Colibrí (hummingbird in Spanish), he began a feud with another luchador, Psicosis (who was also trained by Rey Misterio, Sr.). This feud lasted several years even after Gutierrez's career moved to the U.S.

When Gutierrez turned 18, his uncle revealed the relationship between the two and allowed him to use the ring name "Rey Misterio, Jr." Gutierrez later changed the spelling to "Rey Mysterio, Jr." and eventually dropped the "Junior". In Asistencia Asesoría y Administración (AAA) he feuded with Juventud Guerrera which included a tag match with Gutierrez & Misterio, Sr. versus Juventud and his father.

Extreme Championship Wrestling

In 1995, he defeated Psicosis during their debut match on Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW). This match was their first real impact in American professional wrestling, outside of the World Championship Wrestling (WCW)-promoted When Worlds Collide pay-per-view (PPV). Their feud stopped for a while after a Mexican Death Match in November 1995 at the ECW Arena in Philadelphia. Mysterio would later appear at both One Night Stand reunion shows.

World Championship Wrestling

Mysterio went on to gain fame in World Championship Wrestling in 1996, where he was the flagship of the new "Cruiserweight Revolution" in the United States. His last name was changed to 'Mysterio' to be further marketed as a 'Mystery man.' Mysterio had many famous matches with Ultimo Dragon, Dean Malenko, Psychosis, Eddie Guerrero, and Juventud Guerrera. In time, he would gain the WCW Cruiserweight title five times.

Cruiserweight Division

Mysterio quickly made an impact in WCW with his first Cruiserweight title reign. However, at the October '97 Halloween Havoc, Mysterio won his second Cruiserweight Championship against real-life friend Eddie Guerrero in a "title vs. mask" bout. The match was so highly acclaimed for its utter fluency and technicality that it was voted Match of the Year. By now, Mysterio was clearly a staple of WCW's roster.

After much feuding, the WCW Cruiserweight Champion was booked in a match against Chris Jericho. Mysterio would lose the title at WCW/nWo Souled Out on January 24, 1998. After the loss, Jericho continued the beating using a toolbox found at ringside. This would put Mysterio on the sidelines for several months before making a return six months later at Bash at the Beach 1998 to defeat Chris Jericho for the championship, however the next night the result was overturned due to the interferance of Dean Malenko and the belt returned to Jericho.

In 1998, Eddie Guerrero formed a group known as the Latino World Order (a take off New World Order) that included nearly every luchador in the promotion. Although Mysterio was pressured to join, he continually refused. He was finally forced to join in losing a match to Guerrero. As the two factions of nWo reformed - nWo Hollywood and nWo Wolfpac - they demanded the LWO's disbanding. Mysterio showed his loyalty in refusing and inevitably suffered the consequences.

Mask removal

In 1999, Mysterio was pitted in a tag team bout against the The Outsiders in a "hair vs. mask" match. He and Konnan would lose at Superbrawl IX on February 21, 1999 in Oakland, California, causing Mysterio to remove his trademark mask. The Lucha Libre community was offended by this move due to their strong tradition of luchadores wearing their masks. Despite this major setback, Mysterio remained one of the company's most popular superstars due to his high-flying, amazing, luchador style, how he always interacted with the fans, and his own personality, which was displayed in his clothing (in and out of the ring), music, and approach.

Mysterio would go on to prove himself without the mask. He became a "giant killer" by scoring upset victories over towering, powerhouse performers like Kevin Nash, Bam Bam Bigelow, and Scott Norton. He would also begin a successful tag team with Billy Kidman and join Master P's No Limit Soldiers. After Master P's departure from WCW, a new stable known as the Filthy Animals formed including Konnan, Eddie Guerrero, and Mysterio.

Main Eventer

His success finally led to a WCW World Heavyweight Championship title shot against Ric Flair on the 1999, Panama City Beach, Florida edition of WCW Monday Nitro. In a rare scene, a raffle was conducted to declare the challenger for Flair's title. Low-card performer El Dandy would actually be drawn, but gave the shot to Mysterio due to an injury suffered earlier in the show. This main event match clearly illustrated Mysterio's potential and fan following, but the underdog would come up short. Later, as Vince Russo came into the WCW picture, the promotion saw drastic changes.

Russo showed an obvious discrimination against nearly all Mexican wrestlers and supressed the majority of them from WCW airtime. Mysterio remained a steady performer through this and joined the New Blood faction in early 2000 to face the opposing "Millionaire's Club." Mysterio and Kidman would then feud with tag teams such as Misfits in Action and Team Canada throughout WCW's final months.Together, they would win the new WCW Cruiserweight Tag Team Titles on the final edition of Monday Nitro before the company folded in 2001. This would be Mysterio's last TV appearance for over a year.

World Wrestling Entertainment

In 2002, Rey signed with WWE, and promos began hyping his epic debut. And in what came as a surprise to many wrestling enthusiasts, Vince McMahon requested that Mysterio wear his mask again. In Mexico, one could be fined or even have their license suspended in lucha libre by the Box y Lucha Commission for this; there, once a wrestler loses his mask, he cannot regain it. In deference to this tradition, Mysterio continues to not wear a mask when performing in Mexico. This includes non-wrestling appearances in the Rey Mysterio: 619 DVD produced by WWE, although he wore a mask on the recent tour in Mexico. Rey Mysterio began his WWE career on SmackDown! as a babyface in a feud with Kurt Angle.

Rey later teamed up with Edge to win the WWE Tag Team Championship but after the team lost the titles they soon stopped tagging together. Rey challenged WWE Cruiserweight champion Matt Hardy at WrestleMania XIX in Seattle, but was unsuccessful after numerous interferences by Shannon Moore. Mysterio finally beat Hardy for the title in an emotional match broadcasted on June 3rd,taped in his hometown. He later lost the title to Tajiri. Rey later began to feud with Chavo Guerrero, Jr. and his father, again over the WWE Cruiserweight Championship. During this time, Mysterio teamed on occasion with Rob Van Dam, or Spike Dudley to face off against the Dudley Boyz. However, while Rey Mysterio was Cruiserweight Champion, Spike Dudley turned heel and joined with the other Dudleys before soon taking the Cruiserweight title from Mysterio.

Rey continued to team with Rob Van Dam, and before long the team was able to take the WWE Tag Team Championship from Kenzo Suzuki and Rene Dupree. However, RVD became injured and Rey soon lost the titles to The Basham Brothers.

Relationship with Eddie Guerrero

On February 20, 2005, Rey won his third WWE Tag-Team Championship with Eddie Guerrero after defeating Doug Basham and Danny Basham (a.k.a The Basham Brothers) at WWE No Way Out 2005. However, in a departure from traditional booking, the new champions did not defend their titles at WrestleMania 21 on April 3, 2005, but instead faced one another, with Rey winning. This led to a storyline in which the team broke up and had Guerrero turn heel due to being frustrated by being unable to defeat Mysterio on various occasions.Guerrero and Rey continued to feud, with Guerrero threatening to reveal a secret he and Rey shared involving Rey's son, Dominic. Unless Rey deferred to Guerrero's authority, he threatened to go public with the secret. Guerrero later revealed that he was Dominic's biological father, giving reason that Rey "fired a lot of blanks" (Smackdown 2005).

The storyline went that Guerrero knew Rey was having trouble starting his own family, so Guerrero left Dominik with Rey and his wife Angie to raise. In subsequent weeks, Guerrero threatened to take custody of Dominic, even drawing up custody papers and having his lawyer present them to Mysterio. At SummerSlam 2005, Rey defeated Guerrero in a Ladder Match for the custody of Dominic.Rey then became engaged in a brief feud with John "Bradshaw" Layfield with JBL eventually coming out the victor at No Mercy 2005. Rey also debuted a reggaeton entrance song called Booyaka 619 where he sings along with Mad One in October of that year.

On November 13, 2005, Eddie Guerrero was found dead in his hotel room in Minneapolis, Minnesota by hotel security and Chavo Guerrero. That same day at a WWE "Super Show" where SmackDown! and RAW were both taped, Mysterio gave an emotional speech about Eddie, and in a show of respect removed his mask (though he put his head down, so no one could see his face). Mysterio went on to defeat Shawn Michaels in an interpromotional match later the same night. After the match, Michaels and Mysterio hugged in the ring and Mysterio pointed up to the sky, crying, in memory of Eddie Guerrero. This began a span of weeks through which Mysterio, along with friends Chris Benoit and Chavo Guerrero, continued to dedicate their victories to Eddie either by word or by using his moves during his matches; Eddie chants continue to follow Rey and Chavo Guerrero in their matches.

SmackDown! vs RAW

Mysterio participated in the main event of Survivor Series as part of Team SmackDown! along with Randy Orton, (Eddie Guerrero's replacement), Bobby Lashley, Batista and JBL who defeated Team RAW (Shawn Michaels, Kane, Big Show, Carlito, and Chris Masters). On the Tuesday after Survivor Series, Mysterio faced RAW's giant, Big Show, in a match billed as David vs. Goliath in a SmackDown! Special, taped in Cincinnati, Ohio.

This grudge match, stemming from Mysterio eliminating Big Show at Survivor Series, ended as a "no contest" when Big Show's tag team partner, Kane, interfered in the match. Mysterio continued to feud with RAW's World Tag Team Champions, even gaining a tag team partner in then-World Heavyweight Champion Batista who, along with Mysterio, would be set to face RAW's Big Show and Kane in a tag match at Armageddon.

However, before Armageddon, Batista and Mysterio defeated MNM to become SmackDown!'s new WWE Tag Team Champions in a match they both dedicated to Eddie Guerrero. Now the Tag Team Champions, Mysterio and Batista's match with Big Show and Kane was billed as Champions vs. Champions. Mysterio and Batista lost this RAW vs SmackDown! encounter when Kane pinned Mysterio after a chokeslam.

On the December 30, 2005 edition of SmackDown!, MNM envoked their rematch clause, defeating Batista and Mysterio, with help from the returning Mark Henry, to regain the WWE Tag-Team Championships. World Champion Batista and Mysterio stayed together as close friends until Batista was put out of action as a result of injury.

Road to WrestleMania

On January 29, 2006 Rey Mysterio competed in the Royal Rumble' "Royal Rumble match" entering in the number 2 position, lasting over an hour in the ring to finally eliminate Randy Orton and win the match. By winning the Royal Rumble match, Mysterio gained a World Heavyweight title shot at that years WrestleMania which would be the first time he competed for a World Title during a pay-per-view event. Also, Mysterio set a Royal Rumble record by lasting over 62 minutes in the match.

Rey dedicated his fight, and his later win at the Royal Rumble to Eddie Guerrero. After his win, he was congratulated by Chris Benoit, Dean Malenko, Chavo Guerrero Jr. and Rob Van Dam - all old and close friends of Eddie Guerrero.

During the February 3, 2006 episode of Smackdown!, an upset Randy Orton interrupted Mysterio's victory speech. As Rey looked upward for guidance on this decision Orton verbally attacked him and the memory of Guerrero, saying "Eddie ain't in heaven, Eddie's 'down there'-- IN HELL!" Mysterio attacked Orton and later accepted the challenge.

The challenge took place at No Way Out with Randy Orton defeating Rey Mysterio while illegally using the ropes to aid the pin. Having lost the title shot at WrestleMania 22, Rey cried backstage with a few of Guerrero's close family. However on the next edition of Smackdown!, the SmackDown! General Manager Theodore Long declared the World Title match would include Mysterio, making the match a Triple Threat that would see Rey face off against both Randy Orton and then-World Heavyweight Champion Kurt Angle. Mysterio would go on to win the match and become World Heavyweight Champion.

World Heavyweight Champion

On the April 7, 2006 edition of SmackDown!, Rey Mysterio, who was billed as being an "underdog champion", made his first successful World Heavyweight Title defense against Randy Orton. The match took place only five days after Wrestlemania and saw Mysterio pull out a victory over the challenger. Mysterio went on to retain his title again during a Wrestlemania rematch on Smackdown against Kurt Angle only weeks later. The week before the title defence took place saw the starting of a feud between the United States Champion at the time John Bradshaw Layfield and Mysterio. The rivalry kicked off after JBL stated he desired the World Heavyweight title during his Celebration as U.S Champion.

This feud with JBL saw Mysterio face off against any opponent of JBL's choosing in the three weeks leading up to his title match against Mysterio at WWE Judgment Day 2006. Mysterio was defeated by Mark Henry and The Great Khali in non-title singles matches before facing RAW's Kane in a match, that went to a no contest, leading up to the PPV. Mysterio retained his title at Judgment Day He eventually won using a 619 and a frog splash to win the match. JBL lost the US championship to Lashley days later on Smackdown, during this feud. This led JBL to vow that if he didn't win his rematch against Mysterio, he would quit Smackdown. In the main event Mysterio won (despite JBL's numerous attempts of cheating whilst the ref was down)using a 619 and then a springboard legdrop to retain the World Heavyweight Championship and causing JBL to leave Smackdown! seemingly once and for all. (This became so until ECW One Night Stand, when JBL anounced he would return as commentator.)

In the weeks leading up to his title defence at ECW, Mysterio defeated WWE Cruiserweight Champion Gregory Helms in a Champion v Champion match and was defeated by Rob Van Dam at WWE vs. ECW Head to Head on June 7, 2006. Immediately after WWE vs. ECW, WWE.com reported that Paul Heyman approached Mysterio about jumping to ECW. Rey announced on the June 9 edition of SmackDown that he would stay "home", on WWE's SmackDown!.

At One Night Stand, Mysterio retained his title after both men were ruled unable to continue following a DDT from Sabu which drove both men through a table.

Mysterio would later defend his title against Mark Henry. Mysterio won the match, after Chavo Guerrero came to the ring as the referee was down and hit the Worlds' Strongest man with a steel chair. When the referee regained consciousness, Rey had used a trick of Eddie Guerrero's and pretended to be knocked out and left the challenger holding the chair and eventually won via DQ. Mysterio would then start a feud with King Booker after Booker won a Battle Royal to become the number One Contender at The Great American Bash for the World Heavyweight Championship. King Booker brutally attacked the champ from behind backstage with the help of his wife Queen Sharmell. The attack was not shown live and was during the beating of Mark Henry by Batista. The footage was aired the week later on Smackdown and was followed by Mysterio attacking the King and his court.

This rivalry continued for several weeks and saw Mysterio defeating King Bookers' royal court member William Regal on an edition of Smackdown, moments before attacking the challenger and hitting him with a 619 around the steel-post. During Saturday Night's Main Event, Mysterio defeated King Booker in a 6-man-tag match and again days later on Smackdown in one-on-one action.

At the Great American Bash, Rey faced King Booker in the main event, after a few minutes in the ring King Booker threw Rey into the referee causing the ref to be knocked out. Chavo Gurrero came out picked up the chair and struck Rey with it, allowing Booker to pin Rey and win the championship.

Feud with the Guerreros

Later that week on SmackDown!, Rey got a rematch against Booker for the title, but Chavo once again cost Rey the match. As Rey Mysterio was about to use a Springboard splash upon the newly crowned Champ, his former friend appeared whilst the referee was distracted and tossed him onto the barriers. King Booker capitalized and finished Mysterio with a Scissor kick.

On the August 4 episode of SmackDown!, Chavo claimed that he had cost Rey the title because he was "disrespecting Eddie's memory" by using his name and his "spotlight" to become champion. Rey came out and attacked Chavo in response, bringing out Eddie's widow, Vickie Guerrero to break up the fight. In Mysterio's next match against Ken Kennedy, he looked to have the match won after a series of momentum-building moves and setting his opponent up for a 619. Mysterio was then met with Chavo again, after he came to the ring. This time Rey was prepared and started the assault himself and was then again met by Vickie Guerrero. The incident saw Vickie be inadvertently knocked over.

At SummerSlam 2006, Rey lost to Chavo after Vickie knocked him off the top rope, seemingly by accident. During their match at SummerSlam, Vickie Guerrero pleaded with Chavo Guerrero and Rey Mysterio to stop fighting and slapped Chavo in the face. After Vickie accidentally knocked Rey from the top rope, Chavo delivered a Frog Splash to defeat his former friend and recorded the three-count. Also, during the SummerSlam match against Chavo, Rey's mask accidentally fell off when Chavo tried to punch Rey he pulled his mask off. Rey was able to put the mask back on and continue with the match.

On August 25, 2006, Vickie Guerrero made her first heel turn by becoming the second Guerrero to turn on Rey. When Chavo grabbed a steel chair from outside the ring and prepared to hit Rey, Vickie tried to stop him, and ended up taking the chair from him and intentionally hitting Mysterio herself. Both Guerreros hugged as Rey lay hurt in the ring. The next week on SmackDown!, Vickie confirmed that she was now Chavo's business manager, slapping Mysterio afterwards.

Wrestling facts

• Finishing and signature moves

• 619 (Tiger feint kick) followed by:

• West Coast Pop (Springboard hurricanrana)
• Droppin' The Dime (Springboard legdrop or diving legdrop bulldog)
• Pickin' The Dime (Springboard splash)
• Mysterio Senton (Springboard seated senton)

• Frog Splash
• Mysterio Express (Sunset flip powerbomb)
• Crossbody press / Twisting crossbody press
• Springboard Crossbody
• Roll out of Sunset flip and quick low kick to the side of opponent's head
• Wheelbarrow counter (bodyscissors) to moves like bulldogs, roll-ups and arm drags
• Satellite headscissors
• Tilt-a-whirl headscissors takedown
• Baseball slide to headscissors takedown
• Diving hurricarana from the ring apron to the outside
• Frankensteiner
• Missile dropkick
• Springboard dropkick
• Plancha
• Corkscrew tope
• Moonsault on a standing opponent
• Split-legged moonsault
• Sitout facebuster
• DDT variations
• Bronco Buster

• Double team moves

• 4:20 (Double leg drop) with Rob Van Dam
• Catapult-Rana (Catapult into a diving hurricanrana) with Billy Kidman

Championships and accomplishments

Commission de Box y Lucha Libre Mexico D.F.

• Mexican National Welterweight Championship (1 time)
• Mexican National Trios Championship (1 time w/Octagón and Super Muñeco)

• International Wrestling All-Stars

• IWAS Tag Team Championship (1 time w/Konnan)

• Pro Wrestling Illustrated

• PWI ranked him # 56 of the 500 best singles wrestlers during the "PWI Years" in 2003.

• World Championship Wrestling

• WCW Cruiserweight Championship (5 times)
• WCW World Tag Team Championship (3 times) (1 time w/Billy Kidman, 1 time w/Konnan, 1 time w/Juventud Guerrera).
• WCW Cruiserweight Tag Team Championship (1 time w/Billy Kidman) (Final Champions before the belts were retired after WCW purchase to WWE)

• World Wrestling Association

• WWA World Lightweight Championship (3 times)
• WWA World Welterweight Championship (3 times)
• WWA Tag Team Championship (1 time w/Rey Misterio)

• World Wrestling Council

• WWC World Junior Heavyweight Championship (1 time)

• World Wrestling Entertainment

• World Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
• WWE Cruiserweight Championship (3 times)
• WWE Tag Team Championship (4 times) (1 time w/Edge, 1 time w/Rob Van Dam, 1 time w/Eddie Guerrero, 1 time w/Batista)
• 2006 Royal Rumble winner

• Wrestling Observer Newsletter

• 1992 Rookie of the Year
• 1995 Best Flying Wrestler
• 1996 Most Outstanding Wrestler
• 1996 Best Flying Wrestler
• 1997 Best Flying Wrestler
• 2002 Best Flying Wrestler
• 2002 Match of the Year (with Edge vs. Chris Benoit and Kurt Angle, WWE No Mercy, October 20 2002)
• 2003 Best Flying Wrestler
• 2004 Best Flying Wrestler
• 2005 Best Flying Wrestler

Luchas de Apuestas record

1. Three way match involving Angel Mortal
2. The match was scheduled to be Konnan & Mysterio vs. Kevin Nash & Lex Luger, but Luger claimed to be injured and was replaced by Scott Hall. The wager was Mysterio's mask vs. Elizabeth's (who was managing the Outsiders at that point) hair. Since joining WWE, Mysterio has begun wearing the mask again, and WWE never makes any mention of his having lost it.

Personal information

• Rey currently resides in San Diego, California with his wife Angie and two children, Dominik and Aalyah (both of their names are tattooed underneath his left and right biceps).

• Mysterio is a Catholic, and makes the sign of the cross before every match.

• Mysterio has numerous tattoos, including his children's names, his wife Angie's name, various designs, his masks, and the word "Mexican" on his stomach. He also has tattooed a large spine onto his back.

• Rey Mysterio Jr. (as he was named in WCW) appeared (unmasked) in the 2000 film Ready To Rumble.

• Rey also makes an uncredited appearance (under his given name) in the film "Freddy vs. Jason". Imdb has his role listed as Jumper. Many fans claim he is in the party scenes unmasked. This is false. Rey appears as one of Freddy Kruegers stunt doubles, most notably in the scene where Freddy launches himself out of Crystal Lake and onto the dock. He also doubles in a few shots of the fight sequences with Jason Vorhees.

• His friends P.O.D. played a version of his entrance theme Booyaka' 619 at WrestleMania 22. Rey Mysterio performed on the WWE Originals CD (2004) with a bilingual song called "Crossing Borders". The song served as the official theme song for 2004's No Way Out PPV.

• He is the nephew of Rey Misterio, Sr. who he was trained by and given his name.

The Mask

For almost all WWE appearances, he keeps his face covered by his mask. These mask colors vary. He also wears contact lenses to match the color of his clothes.

During non-wrestling appearances he generally wears a black mask, but sometimes has been seen with highly custom masks such as one made by Louis Vuitton.

He has been unmasked three times while in the WWE. The most recent was during Summerslam 2006 where his entire mask came off due to a punch delivered by Chavo Guerrero. He removed his mask in his testimonial video on the Eddie Guerrero RAW tribute show, but put his head down so no one could see his face. He also did this on an episode of Tough Enough, though the camera was behind him.

DVD

• Rey Mysterio 619

External links

• The official website of Rey Mysterio
• WWE.com profilehas

• 1974 births
• American professional wrestlers
• Extreme Championship Wrestling alumni
• Living people
• Mexican American professional wrestlers
• Mexican professional wrestlers
• People from San Diego
• Roman Catholic entertainers
• World Championship Wrestling alumni