Trivia / Rey Mysterio Jr.

• Follow the Leader: Recently, WWE imported Sin Cara - known in Mexico as 'Místico'.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.
  • They did the same a few years before, with Último Dragón, Psicosis, Super Crazy and Juventud Guerrera, as well as midget wrestlers like Mascarita Sagrada and Tzuki. Ultimo was popular but did not have the stage personality to be involved in storylines, and Juventud got fired for bad behavior. Psicosis didn't get over with the WWE fans for some reason and got released (not helped by being unmarketable without his mask); Super Crazy was pretty popular until it became clear that he wasn't getting a push, ever. The midget division ended quickly due to there being no real plot behind it. WWE's short lived Cruiserweight division was largely patterned for Mysterio, but ended due to the company's toning down of high flying moves after several wrestlers (for instance Brock Lesnar) had injuries performing them.
• Fountain of Expies: Just about every Masked Luchador WWE has hired in the late 2000s-2010s was hired with the same segment(s) of the WWE fanbase in mind^* That being Latino fans and fans of lucha libre.
• Promoted Fanboy: He was a big fan of the Steiner Brothers. The feeling was mutual - as he's noted being good friends with Scott Steiner. This may have helped him backstage at WCW as the Steiners were notorious as locker room bullies.
• Recycled Soundtrack: His WCW production theme had previously been used for both the Zodiac (Brutus Beefcake) and for Loch Ness.
• Took a Level in Badass: One positive of his unmasking was that Rey bulked up his muscles, got more tanned and got numerous tattoos to compensate. This helped him when he remasked for his WWE debut as he didn't look like the scrawny person he had prior to his unmasking but could hold his own against heavyweights. He was such a good worker and so over with the crowd that he went on to become a World Champion despite being considered a cruiserweight.
• What Could Have Been:
  • A rare case of a bad What Could Have Been being averted - Vince McMahon was not at all interested in Mysterio, didn't think WWE fans would be interested in small flippy wrestlers, and it took his entire creative team arguing against him to convince him to bring Mysterio in at a reduced rate.
  • A former WWE writer said in a shoot interview that Vince never planned on letting Rey keep the World Heavyweight Championship as long as he did. John "Bradshaw" Layfield was supposed to win the title, but injuries kept JBL from having a run with it.
  • Also, the Sin Cara character was meant to capitalize off Rey's popularity and serve as an eventual Spiritual Successor. The plan for Rey and Sin Cara was to team them together (and put the Tag Titles on them, depending on who you ask) or a time, which would have eventually culminated in a Teacher vs. Student match at WrestleMania, where WWE would have attempted to set a Guinness World Record for most people wearing masks at a televised event - potentially HSQ-breaking match notwithstanding. But between Sin Cara's botching and both wrestlers' injuries, WWE ended up being forced to give up on the experiment entirely.
  • Rey originally planned to retire in 2012 after his knee injury.