Why didn't Ultimo Dragon get over but Rey did?

[Trill Co$by]

Both men are foreign masked highflyers (one from Mexico and one from Japan, and holding nine titles at one time). Both men brought unique moves to the WWE that were never seen before. Both men were even tag team partners at one point in WCW. And in WCW, both men got over so well because of their speed and agility.

But for some reason, when it came to WWE, Ultimo Dragon just did not compete with Rey Mysterio... Why is that?

If you ask me, the two of them would be perfect in today's WWE. Even if Dragon was on ECW, he would be some excitement for the fans. He would even be a suitable opponent for Christian. So why on Earth did he not get over?

 

[Tougie]

In WCW, for the same reason all the other cruiserweights didnt get over, the fans only cared about the big stars. Personally i found that i enjoyed just as much of dragons works as i did Mysterios.

In WWE, i really have no clue why he didnt get over, I saw him live at a house show in 03, he worked with Noble and put on one hell of an 8 minute match, and was a lot more entertaining than Rey's match on the same card. I personally believe its because Rey is smaller, and can enduce more sympathy.

 

[Thriller Ant]

I think the language barrier would be the big thing. Rey is smaller and gains more sympathy and all that, but I don't remember ever hearing Dragon speak English. He was a great wrestler in WCW, but in America a guy either needs to speak English or have a manager to be able to get over in the Sports Entertainment version of pro wrestling we see today. Unless I'm misremembering, that would be why Rey got over but Dragon didn't.

 

[Cena's Little Helper]

I think this is actually pretty simple: some guys need cruiserweight divisions in order to thrive. As everyone here should know, the Vince hated WWE's cruiserweight division (or at least someone in the back did), and Ultimo Dragon is just not a wrestler that could fare well against heavyweights like Rey Mysterio, Jr., can. As a case in point, look at Taka Michinoku. He could, in my opinion, have done great things in WCW, but he was unfortunately with the company that had an arrangement with the WWF at the time, The Great Sasuke's Michinoku Pro. Although the WWF did give him a spot on WM XIV's card, he essentially became irrelevant that night with the dawn of the Attitude Era.

 

[Bernkastel]

I remember Utimo being exciting; he had a few solid performances if I remember. However, I also remember him being an incredibly spotty and botchy bastard, even moreso than Rey at the time. Not an accomplishment to be proud of.

Rey has improved leaps and bounds since 2002-2003. Ultimo Dragon's moveset paints him as a powerhouse amongst crusierweights, limiting his aerial offence. I don't think he could paint as realistic a performance as Mysterio could against performers twice his size.

Probably why WWE just limited him to the crusierweight divison only.

 

[Trance Metaphor]

I think it has more to do with Ultimo Dragon not being able to adjust to the WWE style. Where you have Rey Mysterio who is fast and exciting with tons of aerial offence to get the huge crowd reaction, Ultimo Dragon didn't have the same traits. I think when people first saw Ultimo Dragon make his debut, they expected the masked wrestler to have a similar outcome as Rey Mysterio. Personally, I thought Ultimo Dragon was a very good in-ring performer with the exception of his occasional botches. He had a good moveset and his dragon cutter was a memorable finisher. He had an awesome match against Kanyon on Velocity once. While Rey was on the aerial routine, Ultimo was more on the technical work like Jamie Noble (another under-appreciated wrestler).