He stands only 5-foot-6 and barely weighs 175 pounds, but a lack of size hasn’t stopped the incomparable Rey Mysterio from achieving giant dreams, like capturing the WWE Championship or outlasting 30 Superstars to win the Royal Rumble. Whether he’s standing up to a dangerous giant like Kane or flying down from the top of a steel cage, The Ultimate Underdog is a competitor who refuses to be intimidated.
Trained in the proud Mexican tradition of lucha libre before he was even old enough to drive, Rey Mysterio adopted his ring name in tribute to his uncle and hid his face under a mask as lucha custom dictates. In a world of hooded highfliers, the exhilarating Mysterio stood out enough to earn the attention of ECW and WCW where his thrilling bouts with such rivals as Eddie Guerrero and Psicosis became the stuff of legend among sports-entertainment fans. His greatest successes, however, were realized after joining WWE in 2002.
First establishing himself in the cruiserweight and tag team divisions, the Mexican Superstar soon proved that size doesn’t matter when he beat the odds to win the Royal Rumble Match in 2006. From there, Mysterio accomplished the inconceivable when he won the World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania 22, becoming the smallest Superstar ever to hold that title.
Mysterio’s accomplishments did not end there. The Master of the 619 has West Coast Popped his way to victory over such standouts as CM Punk, Chris Jericho and JBL, and earned both the Intercontinental and WWE Titles along the way. Although he was sidelined for nearly a year after a vicious attack from the snide Alberto Del Rio in August 2011, the masked Superstar made a thrilling return to Raw on July 16, 2012, and in recent months has mentored Sin Cara, making themselves a formidable tandem in the process. And after a brief separation, they briefly joined forces once again when each man returned in the Royal Rumble Match.
A hero and inspiration to the WWE Universe, Rey Mysterio continues to show that it’s not the size of the man in the lucha that counts, but the size of the lucha in the man.
