Rey Mysterio discusses his legacy.
At 44 years old, Rey Mysterio is closer to the end of his career than the beginning. Mysterio has teased retirement over the past month, but pulled back thanks to his son Dominick, who is training to become a wrestler himself. In an interview with Newsweek, Rey discussed Dominick's future in wrestling.
"I'll tell you this. I'd be the first one to tell him directly, 'Hey, you suck. You have to step it up a notch.' That's how I've been with him and my daughter," said Rey. "Overall, I've seen him train from day one up until now and it's definitely in his genes. It's in his bloodline. There's no doubt in my mind that this was the right choice for him and I'm glad that I didn't push him into this and it came organically from him. He' doing incredible and he's learning day by day. This is only the beginning for him and I can't wait to see what the future is."
Rey continued, "The number one advice I give him, and I'll remind him to this day if I have to, you cannot live in my shadow. You can't. You're a much bigger person. He's 6'1" and about 200 pounds so you cannot even compare my in-ring ability to his. You have to be yourself. You have to create your own legacy. You can't follow in my footsteps. Yes, you are my son, but you have to do your own thing. Don't ever go back and try to be me. I think he picked that up on day one. He definitely created his own legacy and creating his own mold. I think the hardest thing for the fans trying to compare him to what I did in my career. There's not going to be another Rey Mysterio. There never will be — just like there will never be another Shawn Michaels or Eddie Guerrero or Undertaker — there's only one. For my son, that's gotta be him he's gotta create his own style and his own legacy."
Rey is arguably the most popular luchador in US wrestling history having started his US career in ECW in 1995 before joining WCW and then eventually enjoying a successful run in WWE.
When asked if he thinks about his legacy, Mysterio said, "I do when I get complimented on it. When I see other wrestlers that I happen to run into or at certain shows they say, 'Rey, you're the guy that made me say I can do it.' That really changes your train of thoughts and really makes you feel incredible, you know? It's a blessing to be able to inspire so many young athletes out there. And its not just wrestling, it could be other sports. The fact that they saw a smaller athlete doing what they love and I inspire them in some way or form is a blessing. At the end of the day when you talk about the legacy and the accomplishments and everything I went through, I just want the fans to remember that whenever they saw Rey Mysterio they were excited and pumped to watch me go and never disappointed them."
On the subject of his legacy transcending race, Mysterio answered, "I definitely think it transcends cultures. The fact that I was one of the pioneers to make it into an organization in the United States that displayed their talent worldwide. The fans around the world for once was able to see a lucha libre style, which from my background, my Hispanic heritage, that's a blessing on top of a blessing that I already had. To be able to display my lucha libre style not just in the U.S. or Mexico but around the world. I don't know how many fans in Egypt or Korea or Japan that just love watching Rey Mysterio. I'll never get to know how many are out there, but it feels good that you transcend cultures with this sport."
Mysterio is set to challenge Seth Rollins for the WWE Universal Championship on Monday's Raw.
Fightful will have live coverage of Raw beginning at 8 p.m. ET.
