Rey Mysterio “Wasn’t Comfortable” Without A Mask In WCW
Rey Mysterio has explained why he didn’t feel comfortable when he was unmasked in WCW.
For many pro wrestling fans, WWE Hall of Famer Rey Mysterio holds the distinction of being the greatest masked wrestler ever. If you only watch WWE, there probably aren’t many wrestlers that you can think of that can come close to him as far as being the greatest masked wrestler.
At the WCW pay-per-view SuperBrawl IX on February 21, 1999, Rey and Konnan lost a tag team match against Kevin Nash & Scott Hall that was a “Hair vs. Mask” match. From that point on, Rey wrestled without a mask on WCW TV over the next two years until WWE bought WCW in March 2001.
When Rey Mysterio debuted in WWE in the summer of 2002, he had his mask on and he’s continued to have his mask on over 21 years later. For many fans, they have never seen Rey without a mask on although a quick search on the internet would lead to people finding Rey unmasked rather easily.
During a recent interview with Logan Paul’s Inpaulsive podcast, Rey Mysterio spoke about how he felt uncomfortable without a mask on.
“WCW was the only time I wrestled without a mask. I really wasn’t comfortable. I didn’t want to go through that phase. Back then, I really protected my face. You never saw me without a mask, and I would always move away from the group when we all traveled together, so they wouldn’t recognize me.”
“But, when I came to WWE, it’s like this a machine that wanted to promote and put my mask out there. That is something WCW never took advantage of. That’s why I came back with my mask.”
As Rey Mysterio continued, he spoke about how being unmasked may have helped him get to WWE.
“There was a phase in WCW where all luchadors were being unmasked. After Juventud [Guerrera] was unmasked by [Chris] Jericho, they actually wanted to unmask me at Halloween Havoc in 1997 during my match against Eddie [Guerrero]. I fought for it, and they didn’t go through. However, they eventually took it off [two years later at SuperBrawl IX].”
“In hindsight, I actually think that if they never unmasked me, I wouldn’t have gone through the Giant Killer phase. So, that kinda opened a new territory and gave people a new vision for me to work with bigger talents. In a way, that might have opened the eyes of WWE to eventually say, ‘Oh, we’ve never had a small talent like Rey, but let’s bring him over someday.'”