Rey Mysterio might have spent several years wrestling without a mask on, but when fans think about him, it is with his identity covered that people recognize him the easiest. He has always had the mask on throughout his WWE career, but has the company ever pitched for him to lose it?
“Not at all,” was the answer Mysterio gave to “BT Sport” when he saw down with Ariel Helwani, with the former WWE Champion making it clear that there have been no creative ideas thrown his way for him to be unmasked. Of course, during his career, there have been plenty of storylines where wrestlers have taken Mysterio’s mask off, such as Randy Orton and Chris Jericho, but he has always been able to cover up after.
Even in matches where his mask has been on the line, Mysterio has always come out on top, with WWE never pushing for him to legitimately be unmasked behind the scenes, with those moments all being done to draw emotion from the crowd. The WWE veteran has a reason why he thinks that hasn’t happened, twofold.
“I truly feel, and I haven’t sat down to talk about this with Vince, but I feel Vince sees the respect that I have for the mask, and he respects that,” he said. “Rey Mysterio, I think, is marketable with the mask, and he’s always been. WCW didn’t take advantage of that opportunity, but Vince did, and man, did it work.”
WWE is marketing Mysterio a lot as they are celebrating his 20th anniversary since debuting with the company, even though he has been in the wrestling business as a whole for 32 years. This week, Mysterio was given a segment on “WWE Raw” to thank the fans and speak about his career in Madison Square Garden, showcasing the respect WWE has for him.
Rey now gets to work alongside his son Dominik Mysterio, as the two men have been working as a tag team for several years. Although there were talks about Dominik being masked up, he has spent his entire wrestling career unmasked up to this point. Even still, he still hasn’t ruled out the possibility of wearing one down the line. The Mysterios will be in action this Saturday at WWE SummerSlam in a no-disqualification match against The Judgment Day’s Finn Balor and Damian Priest.
