Report: Rey Mysterio Returning to WWE, Info on New Contract
Rey Mysterio is headed back to WWE officially, according to PWInsider’s Mike Johnson. It’s a story that has been ongoing since Mysterio’s surprising return at this year’s Royal Rumble that saw Mysterio get one of the loudest crowd reactions of the night. Since then, there have been numerous reports about WWE signing Mysterio to a deal. Mysterio wanted to do some other things, though, so he worked for companies like New Japan, he wrestled in Mexico, he worked indy shows around the world and was in the main event of the All In show earlier this month. However, now he has finally agreed to return to WWE.
According to Johnson’s report, Mysterio has signed a two-year contract with the company. Mysterio wanted a deal for 18-months, but WWE wanted two years and apparently, Mysterio has some clause in there that could allow him to give notice at 18-months if he wanted to. Mysterio is ready to go and is waiting for WWE to work him into their storylines.
Mysterio is 43 years old, he’s had numerous surgeries on both knees due to the high-risk style he popularized in the mid-1990s pre-WWE. Mysterio signed with WWE in the summer of 2002, went on to win his first World Title in 2006 and left the company in 2015 after 13 years on a schedule that saw him wrestle full time for nearly the entire time, except the last few years when he was dealing with injuries.
It’s not known yet what show (Raw or Smackdown) Mysterio will be on or if it will be a full-time deal that would require him to work live events on weekends. I would make the educated guess that it’s not full time and that WWE sees value in Mysterio as a TV star that can move merchandise with a comeback that will see a lot of Mysterio masks sold to kids. At nearly 44 years of age, it doesn’t make sense for him to work the full live event schedule anymore.
There has been no public comments form Mysterio on WWE on this report. It’s likely that WWE will choose not to say anything and have Mysterio’s return be a surprise on television.
Mysterio tweeted today that his son Dominick, who you might remember from Rey’s feud with Eddie Guerrero in 2005, is training to wrestle with Lance Storm. Like father, like son.
Analysis: I hope it works out. Rey can still go and he’s one of my favorite wrestlers in the last 25 years because of his innovative style that influenced so many current wrestlers. I know that some fans make injury jokes about him, which I understand because of his knee issues, but he also had those knee problems because he put his body on the line so much to entertain us. It’s not that surprising that a guy had knee injuries while doing the crazy shit that Rey was doing long before others were doing top rope hurricanrana counters to powerbombs and stuff like that. I respect a guy like him for how innovative he was. I’ll always be a fan of Rey Mysterio.