Turning the Page: Rey Mysterio

[LSN80]

Welcome to the fifth installment of my Turning the Page series, this time focusing on the Master of the 619, Rey Mysterio.

Since coming to WWE in 2002, Rey Mysterio has accomplished everything a superstar can. He holds the record for most cruiserweight championships with 8. He competed in the first ever WWE Tag Title Match in 2002. He holds the record for the longest time spent in the Royal Rumble, also winning said match in 2006. He's the smallest man to ever win the World Championship, defeating Randy Orton and Kurt Angle at Wrestlemania 22. He's also responsible for the return to prestige of the IC championship along with Chris Jericho in 2009. At Fatal Four 2010, Mysterio won his 2nd World Heavyweight Championship. As I said, Mysterio's done it all within WWE. Except turn heel, that is.

Before we get to that, enjoy some of Rey's career highlights within WWE.

When Rey Mysterio debuted in the summer of 2002, he shortly after began a feud with Kurt Angle and an alliance with then fan-favorite Edge. Angle at the same time had began to butt heads with Chris Benoit, leading to backstage altercation week after week. Frustrated by Benoit and Angle's constant fighting, Smackdown GM forced Benoit and Angle to team together. She also created tag titles exclusive to Smackdown, as the World Tag TItles had previously been exclusive to Raw. An 8 team tournament was formed, with Edge and Rey emerging from their bracket, and Angle and Benoit from their's.
What resulted at No Mercy 2002 was a masterpeice in the art of tag team wrestling, and my favorite match of the decade in the 2000's. Take the time to enjoy tag time wrestling the way it was meant to be.

Spoiler

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Fast forward to 2005, where Rey and Eddie Guerrero were the Tag Team Champions. Eddie began to become increasingly frustrated at his inability to defeat Rey, and abandoned him in the debut match against of MNM(Mercury, Nitro(now Morrison), and Melina), costing them the tag team championships. Guerrero and Mysterio continued to feud, with Guerrero threatening to reveal a secret he and Mysterio shared involving Mysterio's real-life son Dominik. After losing again to Rey at Judgment Day, Guerrero revealed that, in the storyline, he was Dominik's biological father. A ladder match was held to determine custody of Dominik, as a jealous and bitter Guerreo attempted to take Dominik from Rey since he couldnt beat him. Enjoy the match, and yes folks, Vickie Guerrero is a face here.

Spoiler

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Following Eddie's death, Rey began a storyline where he dedicated every match of his to Guerrero's legacy, despite their bitter feud. He vowed to win the Royal Rumble in 2006, and entering Number 1, it would be no easy task for the smallest man in the match. As I said earlier, Mysterio set the record for the longest time in a Rumble match in 2006. But was it enough to win it? Enjoy the ending to find out.

Spoiler

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After winning the Royal Rumble, Mysterio was confronted by Randy Orton, the man he had eliminated last to win. Orton disrespected the legacy of Guerrero, claiming Eddie was in hell, not in heaven. An insenced Myserio accepted Orton's challenge to put his title shot on the line, and Orton won it at No Way Out. Rey seemed left with nothing, until Teddy Long made the title match at Wrestlemania a triple threat, adding Mysterio back into the match. Would Rey be able to overcome Orton and Angle at Wreslemania 22? Here's the match.

Spoiler

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Rey lost the title 3 months later to Booker T, but fast forward to 2009, where Rey Mysterio began the return of the IC title to prominence , winning the title for the first time from JBL in 22 seconds. He then became embroiled in an amazing feud with Chris Jericho, and had 3 match of the year candidates with him. He defeated Jericho to retain at Backlash 2009, lost the title at Extreme Rules 2009, and was granted one last shot at Jericho and the title at the Bash. The condition? If he lost, he would lose his mask as well. Would he win the title, or lose his mask? Enjoy the highlights.

Spoiler

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The purpose of this thread isn't to praise Rey Mysterio, although re-watching some of his career highlights have been fun.Also, the point of this thread isn't to show why you would turn him heel, but explain how you would do it. You think Rey Rey should turn heel after 9 years as a face within WWE? Good. It's your chance to book it, danno. I welcome you ripping others scenario's to shreds, just be damn sure to give me an alternate one that will work as well. Oh, and have fun with this.

1. How would you successfully turn the beloved Rey Mysterio heel?

2. Why would this scenario work for him in your eyes?

3. In 2011, is it a good idea to turn him, or should he remain a face? Why?

 

[#hamler]

1. How would you successfully turn the beloved Rey Mysterio heel?

Alright, this one is very hard. Rey is a very over and sucessful face and has been for the most part of his career. Changing Mysterio to a heel role would be difficult to pull off, even for the WWE writers. He'd have to do something pretty drastic in order for the fans to turn their back on him. Here's what I think would need to occur for Rey Mysterio to be sucessfully turn heel. While his feud is about done with Alberto Del Rio, Mysterio needs another feud to keep him from slipping into obscurity over the next few years of his career.

A face vs. Face feud with Kofi Kingston would be best for Mysterio's turning. Yes, face vs. Face. Have Rey Mysterio and Kofi Kingston engage in some friendly back and forth matches. Then once the crowd is unexpected of a change, change. Turn heel. Attack Kofi when he loses a match. Beat the living shit out of Kofi. Next week on Smackdown, Del Rio challenges Kofi to a Intercontinental title match. Wins it with Rey's help. Rey and Del Rio hug and whatnot. This would lanch his heel character straight to the top, seeing as Alberto Del Rio is quite possibly Smackdown's biggest heel.

2. Why would this scenario work for him in your eyes?

Well, I mentioned Alberto Del Rio is an incredibly over heel. Having Rey work with Del Rio would immediatley force the crowd into hating him. Besides screwing over Kofi Kingston, a man who is veryover in his own right, would really stick it to the goody goody Mysterio fans. This would work, it would be tough because of the years and years and years Rey has taken ti build up a realtionship with these people, but this would work.

3. In 2011, is it a good idea to turn him, or should he remain a face? Why?

No. Hell no. Fuck no. This is an obvious answer. This is not an opinion, Rey should not turn heel in 2011. He sells merchindise. He has all these kids in the palm of his hand. They love him. He is looked up to and a very good rolemodel. Why on earth would the WWE be so foolish to risk all of this to turn him heel in a probable fail effort? Rey is a face. He just screams face, there will always be those guys who were born to play heels, and those guys born to play faces. Those who were born to play faces would be John Cena and Rey Mysterio.

 

[Disturbed]

I think a simple way to turn him heel would be to put him in Nexus. Here's how I woud do that. Have Nexus go after Smackdown superstars too. Rey can stand up to Nexus and try to take them out but he gets laid out every time. They continue beating down Mysterio for a few weeks. Mysterio challenges Punk to a match, and Punk says the only way he will accept is if Mysterio loses then he will join Nexus. Mysterio agrees and they have this match on Raw. The match gets started and Mysterio lays down for Punk. He pins him and Mysterio puts on a Nexus shirt. He then comes out with Nexus the following week and says if you can't beat them, you might as well join them. He wears a Nexus mask, instead of his usual ones and wears yellow and black attire. He says his mask, used to represent all of his fans. He says his new attire, the nexus mask represents Rey Mysterio. I would keep him with Nexus untill they disband.

This scenario would work because he would get so much heat if he joined them. Once he joined them, he would be hated so much. He has been a face since he came to WWE, and he needs something else.

I wouldn't mind them turning him heel this year if he went with Nexus. It would make them even more dominant.

 

[Oracular Spectacular]

1. How would you successfully turn the beloved Rey Mysterio heel?

Turning Rey heel is most likely one of the toughest things to do. The man is beloved by children and adults. He is arguably the most successful Luchador in the United States(not Mexico.)

I totally think Hamburglers way is very good and would work, I am going to try to go another way, this will be difficult and take a bit of work.

WWE needs to build up some good face cruiserweights. You don't need a cruiserweight title for this but it could help(except it wont happen). Find a marketable face, for this situation lets say the WWE signs Mistico(which there have always been talks of doing so....If you havnt seen Mistico, Youtube him)

So the WWE has Mistico debut and immedietly put on fantastic matches and get the crowd behind him. Have mentions of him being the next Rey Mysterio. Have the guy win some matches and Rey approach him in the back and praise him.

Continue this for a few weeks and build up to some kind of tournament, maybe for the Intercontinental title or King Of The Ring. Have the two face each other in the first round and Mistico get the upset. Mistico celebrates and Rey goes to shake his hand but lays him out, drags him over to the rope and hits a 619.

Next week you can have Mysterio cutting a promo saying that he put Lucha Libre on the map and that if it wasnt for him Mistico wouldnt be anywhere. Have him put down the fans for cheering for Mistico.

At this point you can ally Mysterio with somone like Del Rio to push the fact that he is a heel. Lead all this up to a mask vs mask match or even a mask vs career match(if Rey is really thinking of retireing) If it is a retirement match Mistico can go over and Rey can save face by hugging him or somthing. If Rey loses he could continue a short heel run, but it would get stale eventually.

Why would this scenario work for him in your eyes?

If he can cut the heel promo then yes it would. Rey does have limited mic skills but he has been around long enough that I could see him cutting a slid heel promo.

The angle would completly depend on the fans. It would be very hard to get Rey over as a heel, but if you really had him break all those little kids that where Rey masks heart's then It could work.

In 2011, is it a good idea to turn him, or should he remain a face? Why?

Well not with this scenario, you would need to sign Mistico and get him over enough to make the angle work. Maybe the end of the year at best, but with the Del Rio angle ending soon they will need to do something with him.

 

[Da Prophet]

1. How would you successfully turn the beloved Rey Mysterio heel?

I don't think you could do it with great success. The younger fans love to cheer for Rey Mysterio, he has that connection with them because of the mask. He walks up to the kids in the front row, showing that he cares for his fans. That is a special moment for the kids, and something they would remember forever. Rey Mysterio has the under dog size, someone the fans can cheer for to win. He is one of those superstars that will be a "Face" for his career in the WWE. So to answer the question, how to successfully turn Rey Rey heel, it can't be done.

3. In 2011, is it a good idea to turn him, or should he remain a face? Why?

As I said above, Rey will not turn heel, and he shouldn't. He will be a face for his whole career in the WWE. The fans love him, he has the special connection, the under dog gimmick. The kids can believe that if Rey Mysterio can live his dream, maybe they can.

----

I think a simple way to turn him heel would be to put him in Nexus.

This would be a shock, but why would he do it?

Here's how I would do that. Have Nexus go after Smackdown superstars too. Rey can stand up to Nexus and try to take them out but he gets laid out every time. They continue beating down Mysterio for a few weeks. Mysterio challenges Punk to a match, and Punk says the only way he will accept is if Mysterio loses then he will join Nexus. Mysterio agrees and they have this match on Raw. The match gets started and Mysterio lays down for Punk.

This is just ridiculous, a guy is going to be attacked by a group of men every week. Being laid out, destroyed, then the first chance he has a attacking the leader, he takes a dive. It makes no sense, CM Punk just ordered multiple attacks on Rey, plus the past history with Rey's family. And yet Rey Mysterio will join them?

He pins him and Mysterio puts on a Nexus shirt. He then comes out with Nexus the following week and says if you can't beat them, you might as well join them.

But he has beaten CM Punk before, so he can beat the leader. And I don't see Rey Mysterio being worried about the other members. As he doesn't stand down against The Undertaker. Also, why wouldn't Rey go get some help, if John Cena is smart enough to do it, why not Rey? Wouldn't someone like Wade Barrett want to help. They did kick him out of the group. Then you have faces like Kofi Kingston, Big Show, their are many options.

He wears a Nexus mask, instead of his usual ones and wears yellow and black attire. He says his mask, used to represent all of his fans. He says his new attire, the nexus mask represents Rey Mysterio. I would keep him with Nexus until they disband.

If the WWE put these "Nexus" Mysterio out for sale, they would go like hot cakes. I think people would find them cool, if nothing else.

This scenario would work because he would get so much heat if he joined them. Once he joined them, he would be hated so much. He has been a face since he came to WWE, and he needs something else.

It wouldn't work, because it doesn't make sense. The history with Punk, the multiple beat downs, and that would make him join them?

 

[hatehabsforever]

I think it would be relatively easy to turn Rey Mysterio into a heel, despite his popularity with the younger audience. Hamler basically beat us to the punch here. Simply align him with the most significant heel on Smackdown today, namely Alberto del Rio. Have ADR beating the bejesus out of someone, especially someone who is a crowd favorite. Cue Mysterio's music, with the crowd expecting Rey to come out to make the save. To the shock and awe of the crowd, though, he doesn't save the face, though, in fact he joins in with ADR to continue the beat down. Then, with the face laid out in the ring, Rey Mysterio and Alberto del Rio celebrate in the ring, and the show ends.

On the next episode of Smackdown, the two surprising allies address the crowd. In doing so, they act cocky, insult the fans, etc., and other typical heelish acts. To add fuel to the fire, Rey could even ditch the mask, even further distancing himself from his former face self. And of course, an attack upon a popular diva, either verbal, physical, or both, would finish the job.

I do think this could potentially work, at least in the short term. Having said all of this, I don't think there's a chance in hell of this happening. Ar this stage of his career, I doubt Rey would want to turn heel, and I imagine he has significant creative control of his character. I expect Mysterio's career is nearing it's end, and i don't think he'd want to conclude his face career with a heel run. Merchandise sales, the Hispanic demographic, these also would likely preclude a heel turn. I think it could be done, but I don't think it will be done.

 

[Hulk Hogan's Brother]

Turning Rey Mysterio is a nigh impossible task. He is the ultimate underdog of the WWE because of his size. Whenever he is in a match the audience would want him to win because any opponent he faces is going to be bigger than him.

The most important thing whenever you turn a guy heel is that his turn should be justifiable. Now for Rey to turn the situation needs to be really drastic and for his turn to be successful you need to find a way such that the crowd boos him at all times. Getting hated by the crowd is going to be a very difficult thing for Rey because the crowd are going to cheer for him whenever he steps into the ring.

I know this will never happen but since the premise of the thread is to book a situation which would result in a Mysterio heel turn, I would say that the only way for Rey to turn heel is to be a part of a racist anti American stable. He should also have a huge bodyguard with him and should be booked in a way that he talks trash to other face wrestlers and then hides behind the back of his huge bodyguard. This situation may come about if he say loses his mask in a match against another American wrestler due to the incompetence of an American referee. That might cause him to turn.

Of course all this is mere speculation. I cannot see why WWE would ever want to turn Mysterio. He should never really turn in his career as he is very believable as a face and a cash cow to boot.