After being called out by Logan Paul after securing a very weird win in a celebrity boxing match, Rey Mysterio has been doing the around inside and out of the professional wrestling world in the lead-up to what many assume is going to be a match for the United States Championship at Crown Jewel.
One of the spots on Mysterio's tour was the MMA Hour, where he sat down for a wide-ranging conversation with the man who literally asked Paul what's next after his match, Ariel Helwani.
Discussing one of the hottest topics in professional wrestling right now, Paul “Triple H” Levesque becoming the new creative lead of WWE while his father-in-law, Vince McMahon, has effectively been de-clawed of any power, Mysterio revealed how he feels about the 14-time Champion's booking thus far and how smooth the transition has been.
“He was part of the roster, so he understands what we do and go through. I don't think they could have picked a better person to take that role,” Rey Mysterio said via Fightful. “He's been doing incredible. From the whole writing team, and him, and whoever the final person that gives the authorization to say, ‘that's a go,' it's been doing really good. To a certain extent, we would have times where things would be changed last minute. Right now, things are flowing very smoothly, very very smooth. It's a good atmosphere.”
Though Mr. McMahon did get in the ring from time to time during his professional wrestling career, Levesque was a full-time performer for decades, with matches against plenty of current stars, including Mysterio, AJ Styles, John Cena, and The Shield on his illustrious resume. If anyone has been around the WWE block enough time to innately get what WWE is doing, it's gotta be “The Game.”
Rey Mysterio reveals the advice he gave to El Hijo del Vikingo.
It seems like every couple of years, some performer inside or out of WWE gets graced with the moniker “The Next Rey Mysterio.” From Sin Cara – Azul and Negro – to the members of Lucha House Party, to Santos Escobar, Dominik Mysterio, and now Dragon Lee, it seems like the world is desperate to see another performer rise to the level of the 619 native and not just match his in-ring abilities but also embody his perennial underdog spirit both inside and out of the ring.
Fortunately, Mysterio has been open to helping out some of these young performers out as they traverse the roadblocks along the path to international stardom, including some luchadors who don't even work for WWE, like El Hijo del Vikingo, who the WWE Hall of Famer actually praised back in August for his in-ring wrestling abilities.
Sitting down for an interview with Marc Raimondi of ESPN, Mysterio revealed that he actually had private words with Vikingo earlier this year, too, and suggested that, after watching his incredibly high-risk, high-reward style lead to a knee injury, he would like to see the 26-year-old take his signature offense down a few notches in order to increase his longevity.
“He's actually very, very good. I believe he was going through an injury at the time, and I kind of connected him with people to see if he could get his knee taken care of,” Mysterio told Raimondi of ESPN via Fightful.
“Overall, I said, ‘It happened to me, a lot of people would tell me to slow down. With all due respect, I said thank you, yes, I will, and it would almost come in one ear and out the other. Until you start going through injuries and surgeries, and you're not slowing down because they tell you, you're slowing down because you need to, and you can't risk your body anymore as you did.' I pretty much gave him that advice and told him he could still be incredible if he just toned it down two or three beats more. Pick the moments where you want to do your things to impact. You don't have to do it every night because they already know who you are. I hope that he takes the advice and doesn't have to suffer what I did, which is learn the hard way.”
When attempting to make a name for yourself in professional wrestling, it makes sense that a young star like Vikingo would do everything in his power to try to get people's attention in the hopes of securing some sort of career longevity, but considering Raimondi's own company, ESPN, placed the second-generation Viking as one of the ten best wrestlers under 30, it's clear his future is set… baring a career-altering injury, of course. As Mysterio suggested, it might be wise to simply hedge his bets and pick his spots moving forward to avoid a future filled with pain and surgeries.