The Ripple Effect 3.16.07: Rey Mysterio
Posted by Zac Calhoun on 03.16.2007
This week we take a look at how Dominic's non-papi came into WWE with an electrifying bang. It's short this week, but it's tight. That's what I'm telling myself, it's tight.
Welcome one and all to the latest edition of the RE!
I'm Zac Calhoun, and I'm superbly excited to have been writing this column for more than three months now. I've experienced some ups and downs along the way, and some weeks my mailbox overfloweth more than others, but I've had a hell of a time being a part of the IWC. It's only a matter of time before my hostile takeover!
Let's get going…
Diversions…
I was reading Fact or Fiction yesterday, and something Stephen Randle said really put into words what I couldn't about the loss of Batista's fire. Along with his gruesome in-ring performances since coming back from his injury, the Dave's character was also watered down, but I couldn't put my finger on what was gone. Randall hit on the head: his "sly wit." One of the big things that got Batista over in the long run was his personality, as he really is a very charming guy. But that quality has been absent since coming back. I'm glad I finally figured that out.
A big WWE news item this week was the announcement that all PPVs will feature talent from all three brands from now on. Some people think this is a good way to bring intrigue to all the shows and justify our hard earned money being spent on it. Others think it's an arbitrary announcement since they've been doing this for a while now (five of the seven official WM matches are interbrand). And more others think it's an atrocity that undermines the brand split (like it's so legit). As for my opinion, I think it could be either/or, depending on how they play with the concept. It could be a creative way to give the fans "special" matches they wouldn't see before this hyper-mixing, but it could also be a big fucking mess with no rhyme or reason. And judging from recent booking, I hesitate to pick the first one. But I'll play along until I get tired of Lashley.
In memory of the recently deceased Hall-of-Famer, here's an interview he did with Reeser Bowden. He was feuding with Andre at the time over the NWA North American title, and Ladd just goes off, in his own special way, on Andre here. I never got to see any of Ladd's stuff, and I had no idea how fucking big this cat is (no pun intended). And if this clip is any indication, he was certainly no slouch on the microphone. He tended to get a little rambling, but his accent and faux-dirty words more than made up for it. I guess in the ‘70s words like "dummy" and "fanny" "slap your face" were more risqué than they are now, because he says them like he's hurling verbal spears at Andre. Listen closely for the unintentional innuendo involving Andre's mouth; I almost fell out of my chair. The Big Cat shall be missed by many.
The Greatest Tap-out Loss of All Time
As we've touched on plenty of times in this column, sometimes the most important night of a wrestler's career is his very first. The sports entertainment business thrives on self-promotion, and wrestling organizations spend tons of money trying to get their new acquisitions over before they even debut. Many of our favorite stars raised their profiles considerably with the quality of their debut. Stars like Chris Jericho, Mick Foley (as Mankind) and currently Samoa Joe made the most out of their first impressions with smart booking centered around making them look like stars. Of course, there have been plenty more examples of disastrous debuts (Shockmaster anyone?), but still no one can deny the impact a new yet important face can bring to a company.
In the summer of 2002, WWE television started showing mini video packages advertising the debut of one of WCW's most memorable stars, Rey Mysterio. The fans were treated with a mysterious looking background and the sudden image of Rey's trademark mask and the words "Rey Mysterio is coming" on the Titantron. Immediately, wrestling fans everywhere started picturing what Vince could do to capitalize on one of WCW's major missed opportunities. Rey was one of the most over performers in WCW's history, and WWE's goal was to succeed where their former counterpart had failed. And to accomplish that, they did the one thing WCW would never do: make Rey look like a big deal.
The starting point for all this took place August 25, 2002 at the Nassau Coliseum. The show was SummerSlam, and the '02 edition is fondly remembered as one of the best WWE PPV offerings of the decade. With five matches (Edge/Eddie, RVD/Benoit, Brock/Rock, Shawn/HHH, and the one we're about to talk about) ranked above three stars by most authoritative sources, and none failing to at least be entertaining, SS was a bright light in an otherwise dark year for PPV in general. The show's opener was a one-on-one match pitting our Olympic Hero Kurt Angle, who had fought for the Undisputed title on PPV only one month prior, and Mysterio in his first big match with the company.
But for any new fans out there (and for my own personal enjoyment) let's get caught up first…
In February 1999, after multiple reigns as WCW World Cruiserweight Champion and massive popularity with both crowds and money spenders, Rey Mysterio Jr. and his boy Konnan were put in a match at SuperBrawl against Scott Hall and Kevin Nash of Wolfpac v.2. The stipulations were that if Rey's team won, Nash would shave his most beautiful and legendary head of hair; if the Outsiders won, Rey would lose his trademark mask. In a booking decision that confused many and pissed off many more, Rey took the final pinfall and never competed for WCW with the mask again. I don't know if you guys have ever seen his face, and I won't link a picture of it out of respect for Mysterio (you can find it pretty easily anyway), but Rey isn't exactly the most intimidating looking guy in San Diego. In fact, despite being 32 years old, he still looks like he's in high school. The mask, in Rey's case, was not only a way to honor Mexican wrestling tradition, but to skate by the problems that his boyish looks present.
After losing the mask, Mysterio's profile was actually raised for a little while, culminating in an almost successful shot at the Big Gold Belt against Ric Flair on Monday Nitro. But he eventually dropped to pretty much the same spot he'd occupied before losing the mask. Two bright spots for Mysterio on WCW's way out of existence were 1) being one half of the final WCW Cruiserweight Tag Team Champs with Billy Kidman, and 2) receiving a five second showcase (unmasked) in Ready To Rumble, where Kidman tosses him to the top rope for a hurricanrana. I forget who it was on…maybe Prince Iaukea.
When WCW was officially made Vince's property, Mysterio disappeared underneath the radar of the WWF (who evidently didn't buy out his contract) and the fans (who were too busy wondering if Goldberg and Sting were going to sign to worry about Rey). For more than a year, Rey never made a single appearance on television. Then in the following summer, Mysterio signed with the freshly renamed WWE, and the promotional machine began hyping the debut from one of WCW's biggest unsung heroes. And what made him different from Nash or DDP or even Goldberg was that Rey still had plenty to offer a national wrestling organization.
We're all familiar with the "Wrestler X…is coming" promo videos WWE likes to do, right? Well, Mysterio was no exception. The only difference between him and Wrestler X was that they could run a successful hype video for Mysterio without actually showing his face. All they needed was the one thing WCW insisted he not have: the mask! Side note: I started reading IWC stuff around this time and remember how weird it was that no one cried continuity when he put the mask back on…I mean, it's hard t keep the illusion up when any fan of his would know what he looks like by this point. But then I figured it out: people aren't going to want to remember that anyway.
But what good is hiring Mysterio if you can't see him do his thing in the ring? That was a much more interesting question. Who do you get for Rey's first feud in WWE? Well, the same guy they turned to for pretty much everything else during this time, Angle. There were other options that would've provided a good match (Benoit, Eddie), but they were tied up in other feuds and frankly we've seen that game before. Angle really was the perfect choice. He was mega-over, he could work at Rey's pace, and he always makes his opponents look good. For some reason, WWE had a fire lit under their asses to make SummerSlam 2002 awesome, and Angle/Mysterio was a BIG part of that.
The match itself was nine minutes of the absolute best from both men. It started out quick quick quick and never substantially slowed down. Rey was hitting all these lucha moves that the WWE guys were just not used to…and it worked, beautifully. Michael Cole would say things like "Angle's never faced anyone with the athletic skills of Mysterio" as if Rey were an almost supernatural physical specimen; they really put over the fact that Rey could do things no one else could do. And Angle's mannerisms and expressions told the audience that he was not taking his opponent lightly. His clotheslines hit hard and fast, and it looked like he was legit trying to pull Rey's body apart.
The finish came after Angle countered the top-rope hurricanrana (which is simply amazing) into an anklelock right around the nine minute mark. Rey fought like a champ, but there's just so much a guy can do in that situation. In the end, our Olympic Hero put the debuting Mysterio down in under ten minutes (and made him tap, no less). But did that mean that Rey was done? Absolutely not.
Rey was able to do what so many guys can't do after suffering a loss: maintain his credibility. The way he was able to do that was by relying on his unmatched (at least in WWE) high-flying prowess. It's safe to say that Rey was one of the most exciting guys in the company right from the start.
As for the present, Mysterio is now a former World Heavyweight Champion (winning the belt he came so close to winning seven years earlier), and if the rumors are true is in line to feud with Vince himself over the summer (?). True, he loses way too many matches, especially when he was champion. And true, WWE still does things regarding Mysterio that bug me, specifically calling him "all heart" and ignoring his immense amount of skill and talent. But no one can deny that Vince hasn't given Mysterio plenty of chances to shine.
What started out as a fantasic performance at SummerSlam, in a match that featured two consummate professionals, has turned into a great legacy for Mysterio. Let's hope this McMahon thing doesn't drag it too far down.
That's all from me this week. My spring break starts TODAY, and on Sunday I'll be heading to beautiful and crazy Austin, Texas, so expect various substances to be swimming around inside my body. To close everything out, I want you guys to take a good look at the cast of characters in the "Battle for ECW" at WM:
Aside from RVD, who in their right fucking mind would think that ANY of those guys would be fighting at WM one year ago?
Farewell, and as Wayne said in Saving Silverman, Carpe Poon!
