Rey Mysterio Says Dominik Convinced Him Not To Retire
Rey Mysterio has revealed that while he thought about retiring a few years ago, his son Dominik convinced him to keep going.
This might be the biggest WrestleMania weekend of the legendary career of Rey Mysterio. After all, the former WWE World Champion will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame later tonight. One day later on Saturday, Rey Mysterio will wrestle his own son Dominik at WrestleMania 39 on night one of the two-night event.
While Dominik has been against his father Rey since last September, it wasn’t always that way in WWE.
When Dominik debuted in WWE as a full-time wrestler in August 2020, his father Rey supported him and was right by his side. Less than a year later in May 2021, Rey & Dominik became WWE Smackdown Tag Team Champions.
During an appearance on WWE’s After The Bell podcast with Corey Graves & Kevin Patrick, Rey Mysterio talked about how he nearly retired a few years ago in 2019 until his son convinced him to keep going.
“I mean at one point when I first came back [to WWE], I was actually feuding with Samoa Joe and I remember that’s when I really wanted to hang up the mask and retire. As weird as it sounds, Dominik convinced me not to and told me to stay. I just felt like I was falling behind with all this young talent opening up a path… but I stayed and I committed to putting in the work and it’s been incredible ever since.”
“Yeah, I was really having doubts and I was like ‘Maybe it is time to step back and let this new generation come in and do their thing.’ But I think shortly after, I went to get some Stem Cells and I came back and I was ready to go.”
It’s a sweet story of a son supporting his father, but “Prison Dom” could also say he wanted Rey to keep wrestling so that Dominik could beat him in a match. We’ll see if it happens this Saturday at WrestleMania 39 at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles.