Dominik Mysterio Says He Might Still Wear A Mask And Change His Name

One of the staples of lucha libre wrestling is the wearing of colorful masks, and there may not be a more famous luchador than Rey Mysterio. His career spans over 30 years, and while it's still going strong, the next generation of Mysterios is also making its mark.

Rey's son Dominik has been a staple on WWE television over the last few months, but the younger Mysterio has wrestled mask-less. He was asked if he'll ever wrestle with a mask when he joined The Chris Van Vliet Show.

"There's still talks about it. We would like to eventually get into the tradition of Lucha Libre, which would be putting a mask on me and taking on the name, but I think that's all down the line in the future," said Dominik. "But now everyone kind of knows my face and what I look like, and the idea of wearing a mask is to hide your identity, to be able to go out to places and stuff like that. But I think I could find a unique way of bringing the mask into my character."

Rey Mysterio and his uncle, who was the original Rey Mysterio, have wrestling names that translate to "Mystery King." They both wore masks which played into the mysterious nature of their characters, so Dominik was asked what his name would be if he wore a mask.

"I don't know. We have our thoughts. My long goal would be Prince Mysterio for me, since Rey in Spanish is king," stated Dominik. "So, for my character, it'd be Prince Mysterio. I don't know; we'll see where it goes."

Dominik had been training for a couple of years, and he was immediately thrust into a huge angle on a major stage as his first professional match came at WWE SummerSlam. He was asked what the original plans were for him before being inserted into his father's feud with Seth Rollins.

"We didn't have a set plan. We said that the end goal would be to eventually be signed to WWE and be in WWE. I never had any intention of? it all happened so fast. The opportunities presented itself, but yeah, the idea was to get some independent work, start building my name a little bit, eventually make it down to WWE, and start training at the PC. But everything just happened so fast, and they gave me the ball and I started running with it," said Dominik.

At SummerSlam, Rollins defeated Dominik in a street fight, but the young star received wide acclaim for his wresting debut. He talked about what was going through his mind leading up to his first professional match.

"I think I was more nervous about the hours leading up to it, because I started warming up – and this may sound weird, but I didn't feel a thing. I was just ready, and I was ready to finish the task at hand. I knew what had to be done. I knew the eyes were on me. I loved the pressure, and I just knew I had to go out there and perform," stated Dominik.

"So, I was in game mode. But before that, the night before, I couldn't sleep ? freaking out all night. I woke up, I got three and a half hours of sleep. I woke up, I was watching non-stop film because I wanted to make sure that I knew whatever would happen. I wanted to be prepared. I was shaking all day. I had too many Red Bulls, just freaking out. But when it came down to it, I was ready."

Prior to that match, Dominik did have a couple of spots in the ring where he took bumps or delivered a 619, but no one knew quite what to expect from the son of Rey Mysterio. Dominik talked about the expectations from fans of his debut, and the feedback he received after the match.

"Like I said, it was surreal. People didn't know what to expect from me. They just saw the 619 and the splash when I hit Brock, and they saw me getting my ass thrown around all over the ring from him," said Dominik. "So, they had just seen those little things. They hadn't actually seen what I could do.

"So, I was excited to be able to go out there and perform and put on a show. I remember the first thing I asked my dad after the match was how was it, because I wanted to make sure that I performed to the best of my abilities and people were happy. And sure enough, people were really happy about it, and I was really happy about it. The fact that Vince, and Seth, and my dad, and everyone was really happy with the match made me really happy, and I was able to sit back and enjoy and be proud of myself."

On WWE The Day Of: SummerSlam 2020 we got to see Dominik and Vince McMahon embrace after the match, and the boss offered some congratulatory words to Dominik. He talked about the significance of that embrace, which is something that all WWE Superstars long for.

"It meant the absolute world to me. I'm getting chills right now; it was surreal. Seeing everybody – like a lot of superstars, my dad, Eddie [Guerrero], seeing guys like that get that hug and embrace from Vince, and actually like me getting an embrace from him and getting those sweet whispers as they call it, it was surreal. And I'm very thankful for the opportunity, and it was a night I'll never forget," stated Dominik.

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit The Chris Van Vliet Show with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.

Mehdy Labriny contributed to this article.