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Fans can call “Dirty” Dominik Mysterio a lot of things, a nepo baby, a bad wrestler, Rhea Ripley‘s little you-know-what, but now, when talking about the second-generation WWE Superstar, four words have to be affixed to his name: NXT North American Champion.
That's right, after rapidly establishing himself as one of the top heels in all of WWE, with fans often booing him out of cutting promos – a true sign of their hatred – the song of WWE Hall of Famer Ray Mysterio has become a champion, securing the W over Wes Lee in NXT with a little help from his The Judgment Day faction-mates to bring the maroon and gold belt back to San Diego.
Now for some, this was a pretty incredible development, as Mysterio isn't exactly winning grappling contests on the weekend between wrestling commitments like Jon Moxley, but one person who wasn't surprised by the development was Mox's old The Shield faction-mate Seth Rollins, who told Logan Paul on ImPaulsive that he fully expected “Dirty” Dom to become a top heel, as he possesses many of the qualities that people hate in a professional wrestling heel.
“I wrestled Dom in his first match on live television. We did this great story that no one probably ever saw where I obliterated this kid with a kendo stick. I annihilated him with it. It built to this match with him and I at SummerSlam. It was wonderful to see where he was then, he was a good guy and babyface, straight white meat, ‘I’m Rey Mysterio’s kid.’ For me, I knew. I was sitting at a live event not long ago, and he was getting boo’d out of the building, and Hurricane Helms was sitting with me, ‘If you had told me six months ago he was going to be a top heel in the business, would you believe it?’ Yes. I could see this coming,” Seth Rollins said via Fightful.
“He’s not built to be a babyface. He’s Rey Mysterio’s kid. People think he’s getting handed everything being Rey’s kid. It’s so easy to want to hate nepotistic jerks. It’s so easy to hate people digging off the family name. They’re going to love him at first, but eventually, it’s all going to come back around. For him to be able to feel [the boos], take that in, and apply it every single week and trust the people around him telling him what to do, to do that turn it into what it is now where he can’t pick up a microphone to say words because they will boo him out of the building. It’s fantastic. It’s so fun to watch.
“I’m with him on these live events all the time, and he’s a sponge for information. ‘Check this out, watch yourself do this, this is maybe a better way to do it.’ He’ll apply it the next day, and it works. You can see the little things that he does every step of the way start to improve. He’s a young cat. He’s still growing into his body, learning how to do this. You can’t fill Rey Mysterio’s shoes, you’ll never be able to. For him to develop himself as something completely different than his dad, that has to take so much weight off his shoulders. He doesn’t have to be his father, he can be his own thing, and that’s fantastic.”
Theoretically, Rollins' evaluation is right on the money; Mysterio has the crowd reactions down, he has all of the intangibles of being Rey Mysterio's kid, and he's now been afforded opportunities to get it done in the ring more consistently against similarly-experienced wrestlers in NXT. If Mysterio can get the wrestling part of being a professional wrestler, WWE might really have something.
Dominik Mysterio believes the North American Champion deserves more respect.
With SmackDown coming to fans from Orlando, Florida, WWE thought it would be fun to highlight some members of the NXT roster on the Friday night spectacular, with Wes Lee, Dragon Lee, Tiffany Stratton, Tony D'Angelo, and more all finding time to introduce themselves to some 2 million who might not be familiar with their work.
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But one performer fans of the WWE main roster know maybe too well is “Dirty” Dominik Mysterio, who decided to crash the SmackDown preshow to tell Cathy Kelley to spend a little less time talking about his “deadbeat dad” and a little more time on the new NXT North American Champion, himself.
“Kathy, why are we talking about my deadbeat dad when we should be talking about the new NXT North American Champion? Please, go ahead,” Dominik Mysterio said.
After Kelley gave Mysterio the smalled of acknowledgments, “Dirty Dom” thanked the backstage interviewer, even if it didn't quite live up to his expectations.
“Thank you, see, that's all I ever wanted, just a little respect, and I appreciate that. And do you know what? I feel like I'm the champion of the United States, Canada, and Mexico, so I should be getting more recognition than this, just a small congratulations, so please, I would appreciate a little more.”
Noting that Mysterio would receive far more boos if he sought out acknowledgment in front of a crowd, Dom took that personally, suggesting that Kelley's Chiweenie was as disrespectful a dog as his father is a deadbeat of a dad.
“No, see, this is my chance; this is my opportunity where I can speak freely. And the fact that you bring up these other people that boo me, one or two people, that's very disrespectful. So not only are you disrespectful but your dog is also very disrespectful,” Mysterio said, with Kelley vehemently denying, calling him a ‘wonderful dog.' “He is not a wonderful dog. Her small dog and my deadbeat dad, the reason they get along is because they're both Chihuahua-sized, so I'm just gonna end it on that. And you should be more happy for the new NXT North American Champion, baby.”
Is this a one-time appearance on SmackDown thanks to its proximity to the PC, or will fans have more Dominik Mysterio matches to look forward to in the not-too-distant future on the Blue Brand? Well, considering he's now 1-0 as champion thanks to a win over Butch on the show, it's safe to say no one is safe on any of WWE's brands.
