Rey Mysterio to be inducted into WWE Hall of Fame

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Originally published at https://www.postwrestling.com/2023/03/10/rey-mysterio-to-be-inducted-into-wwe-hall-of-fame/

Rey Mysterio is the first inductee announced for this year’s WWE Hall of Fame class.

The announcement was made during Friday Night SmackDown in Pittsburgh with the ceremony scheduled for 3/31 following the live edition of SmackDown in Los Angeles.

After becoming one of the top performers in the industry throughout the ‘90s, Mysterio was not immediately picked up by WWE after WCW went out of business in March 2001.

After many performers vouched for Mysterio, he eventually made his way into the company in the summer of 2002 after a series of vignettes over multiple weeks. WWE also made a significant course correction putting Mysterio behind his famous mask after an ill-fated choice to unmask the performer three years prior in WCW.

Mysterio added greatly to the match quality on SmackDown as a member of the “SmackDown Six” with tag partner Edge, Los Guerreros, Chris Benoit, and Kurt Angle.

In June 2003, he won the WWE Cruiserweight Championship and seemed destined for an underneath role that could work with heavyweights when called on.

After the death of his close friend Eddy Guerrero, he was booked to win the Royal Rumble two months later. After the Rumble, he feuded with Randy Orton with a storyline that hit new lows for poor taste by invoking Guerrero’s death.

Despite Vince McMahon’s aversion to the idea, he signed off on Mysterio winning the World Championship at WrestleMania 22 in a fast-paced match with Kurt Angle and Randy Orton that was cut for time.

Mysterio was poorly booked as champion and lost the title to Booker T. a few months later.

Injuries prevented him from wrestling at the 2007 and 2008 WrestleMania events but would have matches against JBL, CM Punk, and Cody Rhodes in subsequent years.

He left the company in 2015 and wrestled for AAA and Lucha Underground but returned to WWE as a surprise entrant in the Royal Rumble in 2018.

He did not sign with WWE and continued to work elsewhere including New Japan Pro Wrestling and the September 2018 ‘All In’ event before signing with WWE and has been exclusive to the company ever since.

In 2020, his son Dominik began wrestling for WWE, and the two are currently involved in a program.

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This is so weird. Why now? Are they gonna start including angles in the Hall of Fame now? Will Dominik attack him or something?

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That was my first thought. Dom ruins his night and he doesn’t actually go in, just building up heat for the Mania match. I’m sure some will hate this (which I totally understand), but I have no issue with it as Im loving this storyline.

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If they do anything to besmirch the sanctity of the WWE Hall of Fame, then Drew Carey and Kid Rock should ask to be removed.

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Omg are they both actually in ha ha

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Ya they have the celebrity wing….so are William Shatner and Pete rose.

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Donald Trump is also a hall of famer. Super high bar

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A Hall of Fame in the wrestling business will always be met with smirks as wrestling just isn’t a real sport, it’s a performance art. There isn’t a HOF in wrestling that has the legitimacy of a real hall of fame. I look at the WWE HOF the same way I look at the Hollywood walk of fame.

At the end of the day, it’s a way to honour people by giving them one more night to celebrate their career. If you’re looking for it to be anything more then that, that on you as any HOF that is picked arbitrarily is not going to have the same level of prestige as say the NHL HOF.

As for the celebrity wing, that’s all for PR and has zero credibility.

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They just went a bit heavy a few years ago with 5,6 maybe even more entrants some years. It should have always just been 2 and then maybe highlight the wrestlers we lost each year and they could have used that to see the reaction people got.
They’ve just saturated the market sadly

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First, they had 50 years of history to catch up on. Then they had to fill the room. Then they had to fill a few hours of TV time.

I’m not a person to bang on about who belongs in and who doesn’t (when it comes to actual wrestlers, not celebrities). But in classic WWE fashion, they got so far ahead of themselves that they ran out of guys. You could probably take one already inducted (and deserving) person from every past Hall of Fame class and make 3-4 new classes without adding anybody new, just filling in the “no brainer” guys as headliners when their time comes.

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This has gotta be an angle. This will be the first HOF put on by Hunter, right? Wouldn’t be surprised to see them try something different and use it to hype the match.

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There is the WON Hall of Fame

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The issue with the WWE HOF is that it’s a big ceremony type and in years past they have had issues with the pacing of the show.

They have inducted most of their big stars (Cena and Rock being the outliers so far and Hunter). So, each HOF has one big headliner now, whereas before you would get 1-3 big names per show.

So now everyone sits through speeches for marginal candidates waiting for the main event which often leads to people leaving early and being bored with long speeches from people no one really cares about (ie MR T).

If they can spice it up with some angles etc maybe it will make the more tolerable until you get to the final speech.

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I dont have a problem with 5 or 6 people being inducted, my only issue is that sometimes the bar is just so low. 2 wouldn’t be enough, its hard to sell a show on two people, and even harder to keep it diverse if its just two people.

You have to take it for what it is, its a wrestling HOF which means its meant for entertainment.

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I haven’t watched the Hall of Fame in years, other than a select speech here and there, but if they introduce Konnan as “best known to the WWE Universe as Max Moon” then I promise I will watch every minute this year and next.

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I want to see Dom go up to Konnan and talk to him about how Konnan is a poser, and doesnt have half the street cred as he does.