In recent years, more and more anniversaries have come along to make fans like me, who came along during the attitude era feel old. A really big one is coming soon, as 2026 marks a quarter of a century since the end of World Championship Wrestling. Over the next few months as you browse this website, you’ll likely see masses of content about this historic anniversary, so I thought I’d get on the bandwagon early, but do it in my own way. By deep diving into the year for a wrestler who appeared on the last Nitro, bypassed the Invasion storyline and made his way to WWE for what would become a pretty legendary run.
In this video, we’ll follow the career of Rey Mysterio through 2001, starting with the last episode of Nitro, and covering the places he worked in his wilderness year, and what was reported at the time by the newsletters.
WCW Contracts
At the final WCW Nitro on March 26th 2001, Rey Mysterio would pull double duty, with he and Billy Kidman defeating two out of Three Count, and the Jung Dragons to earn a shot at the Cruiserweight tag team championships. Their title shot would come later in the night, and they would beat Elix Skipper and Kid Romeo to win the belts. The Cruiserweight Tag Team titles while an interesting idea, were less than a month old at the time, with Skipper and Romeo being crowned the first champions at the recent Greed pay per view just a week earlier.
In the Observer covering the last Nitro and the end of WCW, Dave Meltzer says that a meeting held with some of the main creatives in WWF, specifically to pick out which names they wanted and who they didn’t from the purchase. Names that were given a thumbs down at the time included (1) “Scott Steiner, Konnan, Rey Misterio Jr., and Kevin Nash.” All of these names would eventually make it to WWE, though it would take Konnan more than twenty years and another company being bought. While there were many wrestlers who were not picked up by WWF, at least not right away, few seemed to have support quite like Rey. In the Pro Wrestling Torch, (T1) it was alleged that “some wrestlers started a campaign to hire Rey Jr. at the MSG house show this past weekend when they received word he wasn’t on the WWF’s “keeper list””
Much like every other WCW talent, the details of Rey's contract would become a decider on if he would be picked up in the WWF’s acquisition of the company or not. It was first suspected that Rey may have a contract with a (2) “90 day cycle”, which would have meant that he like other talents could be a free agent by sometime in July. As they did with some others, WWE had the option to buy out his contract and bring him in straight away, but they would choose not to do this based on how much Rey was being paid. (3) In late April, it would come out that Rey, as well as a list of other talents were being paid over three hundred thousand dollars per year, and weren’t picked up as this was considered too high. I guess the Millionaires Club turned out to be a terrible idea after all. A few weeks later, it would come out that Rey actually had the rest of the year on his Time Warner contract, and seemed to be content to sit it out. (4) “There is no way they’ll sign him to a deal anywhere close to what he’s making by sitting out, so he doesn’t appear to be stressed by the situation as many people are.”
The term “sitting out” might not be appropriate here though. While other WCW wrestlers have talked about being content with waiting until Time Warner were no longer paying them, Rey Mysterio seemed keen to get back on the road. In mid-May, Rey was advertised for California based Ultimate Pro Wrestling, and their May 30th event called Power Play in Santa Ana. Rey was scheduled to face ECW wrestler the Prodigy, but as Dave Meltzer would note, (5) “this one I wouldn’t lock in stone because Misterio Jr. 's Time Warner contract would prevent him from making the date and don’t think his contract expires until July.” Other WCW talents would work that show with no issues, such as Sean O’Haire, Chuck Palumbo and Chavo Guerrero Jr, which just goes to show how everybody's contractual status was seemingly very different.
Despite his willingness to continue to work, it was reported that Rey (6) “hasn’t been aggressive in contacting WWF so Jim Ross didn’t even meet with him when he came to California.” For a lot of other talents this might be a big gamble, as who knows if WWF would be interested in Rey once his contract eventually did end? Despite not being able to work in the US, he seemingly had something useful to him. Even before WCW closed, Rey Mysterio was occasionally working indie shows in Mexico, so it’s safe to assume he was still allowed to with his contract after the company was sold. The advantage to going back to work for Rey was simple, it would keep his name out there for when he was free to sign with another promotion.
Mexico
Rey wouldn’t wait too long to get back in the ring, as his first match post-WCW would take place in Tijuana on April 6th, at an event called Destino Final. He would face a very familiar opponent who he’d encountered many times starting in Mexico, then having a noteworthy trilogy of matches in ECW, and finally in WCW, Juventud Guerrera. In the most ‘indie wrestling’ quote I’ve read in a long time, Rey and Juvi competed for the newly created ‘IWC Cruiserweight title’, which was actually (7) “an indie belt from Northern California promoter Kirk White, who gave Juvi his cruiserweight belt. Juvi isn’t working for the company any longer so put it up as a new belt in Mexico this weekend.” Kirk White was the promoter of Big Time Wrestling, which is still active today even after White passing away in 2021. I struggled to find any more information about this as I was intrigued, but I did read in an Observer from January 2001 (20) that Juvi did move from San Diego to Mexico City, and after that he would more regularly work in Mexico.
According to reports from the time, (8) the show was said to be a sellout in front of six thousand fans. We can actually see this match thanks to fan recorded footage on YouTube, from which it feels very different to their ECW bouts, very much slower in pace, even (9) referred to as “American TV style” by Bryan Alvarez’ in his review for Figure Four Weekly. Bryan would use this to explain why the fans didn’t seem much into the match, but noted that Rey himself was very popular after the bell.
Remember a little bit ago when I said we could assume that Rey had been allowed to keep working in Mexico? That assumption turns out to have been very wrong. In late April, after Rey had already resumed working, it was reported that (T2) “AOL/TW has informed all wrestlers that they are prohibited from working anywhere else while under WCW contract; if they do, their contracts will be terminated.” Wade Keller explains that if they aren’t allowed to work elsewhere, they may be more willing to accept a lower buyout rate, so they can get out of the contract and work again. Rey continued wrestling in Mexico, and was eventually caught in mid May. (T3) “Time Warner officials recently contacted Rey Mysterio Jr. and accused him of wrestling shows in Mexico. Despite the company claiming that they have pictures of him wrestling, Mysterio denied the allegations. For the record, recent reports indicate that Mysterio has been working the shows in question, but has taken a “catch me if you can” attitude regarding the situation.”
Sadly the Torch never follows up on this. I don’t normally like to include something without some kind of follow up, but the idea of Rey being presented with evidence of him wrestling that he vehemently denies is quite funny. Rey would though, continue to wrestle in Mexico, which led to some pretty interesting situations. For example, on July 1st 2001 in Tijuana, Rey was involved in (10) “an afternoon show to raise money for a candidate in the upcoming Mayoral election.” This was a cause to get behind, because as Dave Meltzer explains, (10) “a new Mayor would appoint a new commission. The current commission actually governs wrestling, keeping out things like cage and other gimmick matches.” I’m just glad that Mayors everywhere haven’t taken this oppressive stance on gimmick matches. Dave Meltzer notes that in the main event of this night, (10) Rey would hit his uncle in the head with a chair, perhaps leading to the next odd encounter he would have, which I’ll get to soon in the timeline.
In early August, it was reported that Rey Mysterio met with Jim Ross in California. On the 3rd, Jim had actually told the fans that the meeting was coming in his Ross Report column on WWFs website. He does also state though that there are no imminent hirings of WCW talents coming, saying (T4) “There is no movement whatsoever with any negotiations with any former WCW competitors. Some are not interested at all, some mildly interested, some have financial issues to deal with, and Scott Steiner is still injured.” I wonder if that last part was just Jim’s way of getting fans to stop asking when Scott was coming in.
A few weeks later, more would be reported about the meeting, which took place at the August 7th Smackdown taping in Los Angeles. Wade says that Rey brought Juventud Guerrera with him to meet with Ross and John Laurinitis. I’ve already told one Juvi story in this video so why not another? The Observer gives us a different version of this story, saying that (17) Juventud “came with him but did not have a meeting scheduled.” He then says that Juvi actually managed to approach JR in catering and ask him for a job, to which “Ross praised his talent and told him to contact him in January and at that point they would have a more lengthy discussion. Ross did bring up to Guerrera that they won’t put up with any drug problems and brought up Road Dogg and Brian Lawler”, those being two big stars for WWF who were both let go for similar issues as Juvi was in WCW in late 2000. Dave ends by saying that Paul Heyman, who had booked Juventud for some of his first matches in the US, “told Guerrera that he’d try and open doors with McMahon to speed up the process.” Juvi would eventually make it to WWE, even becoming a two time cruiserweight champion, but it would take a few years longer than Rey, signing in 2005.
Getting back to Rey’s meeting with JR, according to the Torch, (T5) “Ross advised Mysterio to continue collecting the remainder of his guaranteed money from AOL Time Warner until his contract expires in January. Ross made it sound like both wrestlers will be considered for employment around that time, but offered no guarantees.” Wade also notes here that Rey’s official website, ReyMysterio.com, now redirected to WCW.com, which essentially took you to WWE’s site. The wayback machine doesn’t show us a lot as there are a few broken links, but before then it definitely didn’t look like a WCW owned site, so take from what what you will. If you’re curious, the URL all these years later still redirects to the WWE.com home page. I did wonder, by which I mean wasted a lot of time trying it, if everyone's name takes you to WWE.com, and some actually do like Brock Lesnar’s name dot com. CodyRhodes.com is available by the way, and I might have for a moment considered buying it to redirect to this channel.
We can now come to the odd sounding match I was referring to earlier, which occurred on August 24th 2001. Rey would take part in a two versus three handicap match, teaming up with Gigante Silva, who had also competed in WWF and New Japan, taking on La Familia de Tijuana faction members Damian 666, Halloween and his own uncle Rey Misterio Senior. Sadly we may never actually see this match, though others from around this time still exist online, like his televised matches for another promotion in Mexico. Towards the end of the year, and his WCW contract, he would join one of the biggest promotions in Mexico, CMLL. It seemed like Rey was apparently getting cocky while avoiding the eye of Time Warner, or maybe he was emboldened by his meeting with Jim Ross, and knowing that WWF was in his future.
CMLL
In November 2001, Rey would make his debut for CMLL, as part of an eight man tag team match, making his first ever appearance in Arena Mexico. (11) Him coming into the promotion wasn’t unexpected, as the Observer had been saying it was likely throughout October. As Dave Meltzer points out, Rey joining CMLL (12) meant that he would be set to make his first television appearance since the final Nitro, but this would also be airing in the US, giving Time Warner yet more evidence for the dossier. By this time Rey already had interest from the WWF, and so he might not have been as bothered about being let go from his WCW deal, if he ever was to begin with.
In an interview with Matt Striker for the WWE produced Life of a Masked Man DVD which was released in 2011, Rey talks about waiting for his WCW contract to end, and noted that his daughter Alliyah was born around this time. He says that it was a dream of his to wrestle for CMLL in Arena Mexico, comparing it to Madison Square Garden. He doesn’t go into any details about whether or not he was contractually allowed to though.
Rey would only have just four matches in the historic Arena Mexico plus six more in other venues that wouldn’t be televised, with his first taking place on November 2nd. At the time he was one of a few talents who previously worked for AAA to make the jump there, along with Psicosis, now going by the name Nicho En Millionario. Halloween, better known to WCW fans as Cyclope, and Rey Misterio Sr would follow later in November. According to the Observer though, CMLL promoter Paco Alonso wasn;t willing to make everybody welcome, as (12) Konnan would try to get booked, “but Alonso wouldn’t talk with him.” Dave would explain a couple of weeks later for Paco, that there was (18) “Still tons of bitterness over Konnan and Antonio Pena raiding so much of his talent back in 1992 to form AAA.”
Rey’s first match in Arena Mexico would air on November 13th, where he would team with Antofaz Del Norte, Felino and Black Warrior, against Juventud, Virus and Nicho, as well as Black Tiger. That’s the third one played by Silver King, not Eddie Guerrero. Rey first in ring action is against Nicho, a very familiar opponent for him, and he begins by missing a dropkick. It gets better though, as he earns the first fall for his team pinning Juventud with a move very similar to Zack Sabre Junior’s European Clutch. Rey doesn’t have all that much ring time in his debut, but he makes the most of all the time he gets, including a beautiful dive to the outside in the third fall. After a reverse-rana off the second rope to Black Tiger, Black Warrior hits this whatever it is to score the victory.
Before it aired (13) “Misterio Jr. and Nicho were said to have looked great,“ and it definitely seemed like people tuned in to see him. (14) The airing on Galavision drew bigger ratings than the show had done in months, earning a 2.2 rating. Another reason for these higher ratings could have been because Galavision had been airing reruns in the weeks prior. (19) To give you an idea of why they would have been airing reruns, “Televisa in Mexico, which owns the wrestling show, and is contracted to send weekly tapes, some weeks just doesn’t get around to editing them for the U.S., and in those weeks, just sends an old tape. This happened again on 11/27”
Rey’s last appearance for CMLL would be on December 14th, taking place at the Sin Piedad pay per view. This time in the semi-main event, Juventud teaming with La Familia’s Damian, Nicho and Halloween, would get the better of Rey and his partners, El Hijo del Santo, El Hombre Sin Nombre and Negro Casas. Bryan Alvarez would have this to say about Rey’s team losing. (21) “The Tijuana guys (the outsiders — take note, WWF) lost every single time they had a match on TV, but then at the PPV they pulled out the win, and it was a huge one.” He would add that it was quote “said to be a great match.”
Another thing Bryan would note is that everyone had new ring gear, which for Rey meant for the first time as best I can tell, wearing attire similar to his WWE look. In the match itself Rey would look especially good while he was in the ring, hitting a 619 early on, and scoring the first fall pin for his team, with the same European Clutch as his debut. He would however be pinned to lose the second fall, but only after being teamed up on by three of his opponents. He would later hit a moonsault to the outside, ensuring that he wasn’t involved in his team losing the third fall.
Up to this point, Rey had received rave reviews for his matches in Figure Four Weekly, but it would seem like his time there might be coming to an end. He would wrestle one more match for CMLL in Puebla a few days later, and would not appear for them again. In the meantime, he had been having more talks with WWF. On December 9th, Vengeance 2001 came from San Diego California, (15) and here Rey would meet with Jim Ross again.
While nothing would be reported about this meeting would be reported in the Observer, Figure Four or Torch, Dave ends 2001 not on the most optimistic of notes for Rey. His contract hadn’t yet ended so it’s not like an offer could have been made, (16) but Meltzer laid out how he thought a Rey Mysterio WWF run might go, saying that his size might actually be a hindrance to him there unless they put more focus on smaller guys, though going to WWF would likely make him the most money.
To give you an idea of what the company was like for smaller wrestlers at the time, the Light Heavyweight title hadn't been seen on television since it’s last holder X-Pac suffered an injury in October. Before that it was set to be unified with Tajiri’s Cruiserweight title, the belt it was created to rival. The relatively short lived championship ended up being defended on a few house shows when X-Pac returned in March 2002, and after would be phased out quietly.
Instead, the company would just carry on with the Cruiserweight title, recognising it’s lineage from WCW, including Rey holding it six times. While that title continued, there wasn’t much attention on it, or a formal division as such, until it would become property of the Smackdown brand in 2002, but none of this was on the cards in December 2001.
Of the potential move to WWE, Dave would say “It’s probably the worst place as far as career advancement for him under the current conditions, but from a financial standpoint, the money would likely be so much greater than indies and Mexico that he’d have to take a deal and it probably wouldn’t even be huge money because WWF isn’t in a position where they need to be giving large downsides.” Now being the biggest game in town by a huge margin, they likely didn’t need to.
Ending
While this might seem like an odd place to end this video, with such a pessimistic report on Rey’s future, I found it to be a fascinating contrast with how Rey’s WWE career actually went. As I said in the intro, he would go on to have a legendary career, but shortly before he would sign many expected his ceiling to be the rarely focused on light heavyweight title, and a never ending feud with X-Pac.
Rey would go on to win two world heavyweight titles, and a very brief WWE championship that was finally avenged by recently by Dominik. Add to this the eleven more titles, a Royal Rumble win and a Hall of Fame induction, which are all far more than it looked like the guy wearing Devil horns from WCW could win.
Sources:
FInal Nitro
1. WON Apr 2nd 01https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/april-2-2001-wrestling-observer-newsletter-final-episode-wcw-monday-0/ Rey not on nice list
T1. https://vip.pwtorch.com/2021/03/20/vip-2001-back-issue-pro-wrestling-torch-647-march-31-2001-major-news-wwf-buys-wcw-the-inside-story-in-depth-analysis-mark-madden-torch-talk-on-downfall-of-wcw-kellers-end-notes/ Campaign for Rey
2. WON May 7th https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/may-7-2001-wrestling-observer-newsletter-career-johnny-valentine-97326/ Rey possibly becomes a free agent (contract)
3. WON Apr 23rd 01 https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/april-23-2001-wrestling-observer-newsletter-relaunch-wcw-more-97320/ Why Rey wasn’t picked up (Contract)
4. 6. WON May 28th https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/may-28-2001-wrestling-observer-newsletter-decline-monday-night/ Waiting out contract - not a free agent
5. WON May 14th https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/may-14-2001-wrestling-observer-newsletter-wwf-insurrextion-review-more/ Advertised for UPW but might how happen (Contract)
7. WON Apr 9th https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/april-9-2001-wrestling-observer-newsletter-wrestlemania-x7-reviewed/ Juvi Match with indie belt
8. https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/april-16-2001-wrestling-observer-newsletter-wrestlemania-x7-shatters/ April 6th sellout
9.https://members.f4wonline.com/newsletters/figure-four-weekly/f4w303-ecw-parent-company-files-bankruptcy-april-16-2001-88816/ April 6th review
T2. https://vip.pwtorch.com/2021/04/10/vip-2001-back-issue-pro-wrestling-torch-650-april-21-2001-wwfs-plans-for-wcw-take-shape-mitchell-feature-on-wwe-becoming-last-standing-territory-rock-acting-lessons-wwe-backstage-n/ Banned from working
T3. https://vip.pwtorch.com/2021/05/01/vip-2001-back-issue-pro-wrestling-torch-653-may-12-2001-keller-reviews-foleys-second-book-rocks-movie-career-takes-off-jerry-jarrett-insider-insight-into-wcw-demise-wcw-post-buyo/ Caught working
10.
https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/july-9-2001-wrestling-observer-newsletter-fans-reject-wcw-talent-raw/ Political implications
T4. https://vip.pwtorch.com/2021/07/24/vip-2001-back-issue-pro-wrestling-torch-665-august-11-2001-breakout-star-booker-t-to-co-headline-summerslam-wwf-changes-plans-on-wcw-relaunch-why-nitro-was-cancelled-torch-talk-with/ Before JR meeting
T5. https://vip.pwtorch.com/2021/08/07/vip-2001-back-issue-pro-wrestling-torch-667-august-25-2001-summerslam-report-and-roundtable-wwes-plans-for-new-saturday-night-tv-show-keller-on-final-chapter-of-wcw-era-mcneill-on/ After JR Meeting and website
CMLL
11.
https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/october-1-2001-observer-newsletter-wwf-unforgiven-review-more-97454/ Expected to join CMLL
https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/october-22-2001-observer-newsletter-wwf-losing-fans-over-30-tons-news/ CMLL likely
12. https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/november-5-2001-observer-newsletter-frustration-wwf-more-97405/ CMLL debut coming, US TV
13.
https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/november-12-2001-observer-newsletter-chaos-continues-wwf-more-97408/ debut
14.
https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/november-19-2001-observer-newsletter-mass-wwf-layoffs-more-97411/ CMLL ratings 1
15. https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/december-10-2001-observer-newsletter-wwf-contemplating-brand-split/ Upcoming JR meeting, WWC and CMLL
16. https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/december-31-2001-observer-newsletter-2001-retrospective-more-97426/ WWC and back and forth with WWE
17. https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/august-20-2001-wrestling-observer-newsletter-5-members-inducted-hall/ Rey and Juvi JR meeting
18. https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/november-19-2001-observer-newsletter-mass-wwf-layoffs-more-97411/ Konnan not allowed in CMLL
19. https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/december-10-2001-observer-newsletter-wwf-contemplating-brand-split/ Galavision
20. https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/january-29-2001-wrestling-observer-newsletter-royal-rumble-review/ Juvi moved to Mexico
21. https://members.f4wonline.com/newsletters/figure-four-weekly/f4w339-wwas-threatens-us-pay-view-december-24-2001-89121/ CMLL PPV 1
https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/december-24-2001-observer-newsletter-death-russ-haas-more-97423/ WWC
https://members.f4whttps://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/december-24-2001-observer-newsletter-death-russ-haas-more-97423/online.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/december-31-2001-observer-newsletter-2001-retrospective-more-97426/ WWC and back and forth with WWE
No comments:
Post a Comment