Friday, October 20, 2017

Rey Mysterio Jr: The Weakest World Champion


At WrestleMania 22, April 2, 2006, in Chicago Rey Mysterio Jr. defeated Randy Orton and World Heavyweight Champion: Kurt Angle in nine and a half minutes to win the World Heavyweight Championship.

I was not happy at all!  I was pissed when Mysterio won the Royal Rumble because for 60 of the 62 minutes he was in the ring he hid in the corner avoiding competition, if you're a heel that's smart, if your the underdog babyface you look weak.  

Mysterio winning the championship was the feel good moment stemming from the unfortunate death of Eddie Guerrero the previous November.  My thought is that it should have been Chavo an actual Guerrero family member to win the championship in Eddie's honor. 

I am of the opinion that Mysterio was booked as the weakest World Champion in recent history and it began before he won the Championship.  After winning the Rumble Mysterio was goaded into putting his WrestleMania title match on the line against Randy Orton at the No Way Out pay-per-view in Baltimore on February 19th.  A match that Mysterio lost.  Teddy Long the SmackDown general manager then re-inserted Mysterio in the match making it a Triple Threat.  He lost the match that he "earned" and then was awarded for no reason and put back in the match.  

Mysterio's title reign lasted 112 days from WrestleMania April 2, 2006 to July 23, 2006 at the Great American Bash, where he lost the championship to King Booker.  He competed in 48 matches during that period, sixteen of those were broadcast on television or PPV the rest were at house shows.  Of those sixteen matches only six of those did he win clean in the ring.  Of the ten remaining one was a tag match that his team won and one was a dq victory.  The remaining eight saw him come out on the losing end.
  

Mysterio's second reign as World Champion only got worse.  Lasting 28 days from June 20, 2010 to July 18, 2010 he competed in only thirteen matches of which three were televised.  He teamed with Big Show defeating Cody Rhodes & Jack Swagger by disqualification.  Then on July 18th at the Money in the Bank pay-per-view he defeated Jack Swagger in about ten minutes to retain the title only to have Kane cash in his Money in the Bank losing the title in less than a minutes.

Mysterio has had one reign as WWE Champion holding the title for only a couple hours.  On July 25, 2011 on Monday Night Raw from Hampton, Virginia Mysterio defeated Miz in the finals of a tournament to declare a new champion.  John Cena challenged Mysterio to a match that night and defeated Mysterio for the championship.

It's no secret to my friends that I am not a fan of Rey Mysterio, but it wasn't always that way.  Essentially I still am a fan of anything he did prior to being unmasked in WCW, after that though..pass.  Me being a fan of Mysterio or not though doesn't change the fact that in my opinion as World Champion he was made to look the fool.

Thanks for reading, please leave a comment, read my other posts, and like my blogs Facebook page and while you at it check out my weekly podcast Podcast of 1,000 Holds on the Nerdy Legion Podcast Network. 

Later Readers!

3 comments:

  1. Man, I’m so glad to read this. I was a HUGE Mysterio mark pre the demasking, but everything after that was trash. I wasn’t following the WWE when he won his first World Title that closely, but I upon reading the news I remember thinking, “What the hell? How did they book a guy with the move set and stature of Mysterio as the best in the company?” Obviously, they didn’t.

    I’ll admit, I’m biased towards smaller guys holding the World Title, but Mysterio hasn’t done anything in WWE to make himself deserving of the title. I agree that Chavo would have been better suited for a World Title run, especially if you were just giving away the title in tribute to Eddie.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I was initially excited to see him return, before his TV debut he wrestled in a tag team match at a house show here in Maine and he was great. However this entire WWE I was not a fan.

      Delete
  2. I don´t care what you or anyone says I think rey deserved it.

    ReplyDelete