One of the most famous lucha libre imports to the WWE, Rey Mysterio has had a stellar career in the the business and has grown into one of the most recognisable faces in the business over the past decade or so. Recently, the star spoke to the Sam Roberts Wrestling Podcast about his initial trepidition at joining the WWE and how his traditional constumes even attracted a warning from the powers that be in the company.
He said, he had doubts about joining the company since the WWE had a reputation of favouring bigger, stronger talents. "In all honesty, I was doubting myself because so many guys had told me, 'man, Vince [McMahon] ain't about the smaller weight classes. He likes bigger guys in his company.' So when they bought out WCW, they said, 'sit back with your WCW contract and get paid. You're not going to have to work. Just get paid and when your contract runs out,' which was the following year of 2001, April, 'then, we can sit down and negotiate.'" Mysterio continued, "[do] you know what? They kept their word. I remember January of 2001, I did a little bit of shows in Puerto Rico because I had never been there. I was able to work in Arena México for the first time, so a lot of things happened that I wanted to accomplish on my own. And then, sure enough, the call came. [Jim Ross] hit me up and he said, 'hey, are you ready to sit down and negotiate?' We sat down [and] negotiated. I was like, 'all I want is an opportunity'. You know, that's all I wanted and that's what I got."
The WWE also warned him against wearing constumes inspired from copyrighted things. ".. I didn't do it, in all honesty, with the intentions of making a profit out of it. That's just how my mind flows, with outfits, with my gear, and with my wrestling moves. Actually, at one point, they told me, 'you've got to stop doing this because we're going to get sued.' So I've always tried to keep it fun and mysterious for the fans because it was always like, 'man, what are you going to bust out now, Rey?' and they would give me ideas."
Quotes from wrestlinginc.com
