Rey Mysterio needed to be certain WWE wanting to induct him into its Hall of Fame as an active wrestler didn’t mean what he feared.
So the 48-year-old lucha libre legend had one concern upon hearing the news.
“I was pulled aside by Triple H and he mentioned to me, ‘Rey, we would love to induct you into the Hall of Fame,” Mysterio said. “It was very shocking to me. It was like, ‘Wow.’ I remember the first words that came out of my mouth were just like, ‘I’m not ready to retire.’ He’s like, ‘No, it’s not like that.’”
Mysterio, who began his pro wrestling career in 1989 at the age of 14, has no interest in slowing down just yet.
He is still going strong after initially believing he wanted to hang up the mask at 45, but stem cell treatments and taking care of his body more have allowed him to extend his career.
Mysterio, whose induction will happen after SmackDown on Friday night, will also wrestle his son Dominik at the two-day WrestleMania 39 (April 1-2, Peacock) at Los Angeles’ SoFi Stadium this weekend.
WWE felt his San Diego roots and the large Hispanic community in the area made this a perfect time to put him in the Hall of Fame, he said.
However, it is something Mysterio is still processing given the circumstance.
“I’m still having a hard time digesting it because Hall of Fames are supposed to happen when you retire, when you’re getting close to retirement,” he said. “I don’t feel neither of them are close for me, but it’s a huge blessing.”
He says he has a new target retirement age, and it’s a number he wants to keep.
“I think I do have a number and I want to keep it at that and my number is 50,” Mysterio said. “I’m hoping at 50 I can go ahead and say it’s been an incredible ride and I think it’s time for me to step back now.”
Mysterio will be inducted by longtime close friend Konnan.
He was instrumental in getting Mysterio out of just wrestling in Mexico and into ECW in 1995 and WCW in 1996, where his career took off as a member of the brand’s now legendary cruiserweight division.
Konnan is also Dominik’s godfather.
“I’ve known Konnan since I was 12 years old,” Mysterio said. “He’s opened up most of the doors in my career from AAA, to ECW to WCW. If that wouldn’t have happened, I could have been a good wrestler, a good local wrestler in Tijuana. But especially back then in the early ’90s you had to use your connections, if you had any, to try and get into certain places and Konnan was that person.”
It allowed Mysterio, who has spent 18 total years in WWE, to have one of the industry’s most storied careers wrestling across the globe for nearly every major promotion.
He is a grand slam champion in WWE, won the 2006 Royal Rumble and a six-time WCW cruiserweight champ.
“Bars keep rising,” Mysterio said. “Of course, I thought about it, ‘Man I hope one day I get to be part of the Hall of Fame and be on with the list of legends who paved the way. Here I am, at 48, being inducted in full career mode. It’s just incredible.”
Also part of Mysterio’s WrestleMania weekend is promoting being on a cereal box for the first time in his career with Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cinnamojis.
Mysterio will be on a limited quantity of boxes available this month at Walmart for $6.19 after Mysterio’s “619” finishing move.
The brand will be a part of the WrestleMania show this weekend.
Being on a cereal box was something he always hoped would happen, but didn’t expect it at this point in his career.
“I just spit it out in the world and hoping one day it would happen and here I am,” Mysterio said of being on a cereal box. “These are all like moments that when you break into the business you always have this expectation of just wanting to make it, but you don’t know what that consists of. Now I understand what it means to want to make it.”
Mysterio certainly made it with the WrestleMania weekend he has ahead and with more to give to the wrestling business.
As far as the legacy he hopes to leave when he does finally call it quits, Mysterio likes to keep that simple.
“When people talk about Rey Mysterio,” he says, “the first thing that I would love for them to have is a big smile on their face, their brain saying, ‘Man, he gave us some of the most incredible matches and always kept us off our seat from the moment he walked into the ring till the moment he walked out.”
