Rey Mysterio Talks WWE Bringing Back Cruiserweight Division, Lucha Underground Inspiring WWE, More
On episode 103 of Sam Roberts' Wrestling Podcast, professional broadcaster and professional wrestling enthusiast Sam Roberts shared the Lucha Underground Panel he hosted at New York Comic Con. During the panel, Rey Mysterio talked about his Ultima Lucha Dos match versus Prince Puma as well as WWE's Cruiserweight Division.
On the topic of his match against Puma, Mysterio claimed the match was fun, but he always puts pressure on himself to perform well. 'The Master Of The 619' stated that the pair have "unbelievable" chemistry and went on to say that Puma is one of, if not the best, professional wrestler in the world today.
"That was fun, but I feel pressure every time before I go to the ring. That's my normal feeling every time I step into the ring or before I step into the ring. But, I'll tell you, man, it's very rare you get to step into the ring with someone, I believe he have wrestled one time before that match, somewhere out in an independent show, and that was actually our second match. We wrestled in the three-way tag teams, but never against each other, so it was pretty much fresh, to have chemistry like I had with Puma is just unbelievable. Still, to this day, and I believe I told you this last time I saw you, Sam, I think he's probably one of the best, if not the best, out there right now, so my hat's off to him."
According to Mysterio, it took a while for WWE to put together its recently reintroduced Cruiserweight Division and that Dean Malenko was trying to get the division going for a long time.
"It took some time for them to eventually develop that whole division. It was around for awhile, 2001, when I was part of that company, at the beginning, and it kind of just drifted off and disappeared. For a long time, Dean Malenko spoke about it and was trying to pursue to keep that division up and running because the cruiserweights were the ones bringing all the action, bringing all the excitement to the ring. For some reason or another, they didn't listen."
In Mysterio's opinion, Lucha Underground probably inspired WWE to bring back the Cruiserweight Division and showcase NXT. With that said, 'The Giant Killer' believes that Lucha Underground is unique and has more to offer than WWE.
"I truly believe that now that Lucha Underground has been around and run for three seasons, it was almost a temptation to, in a way, display the talent that they had, whether it was in NXT or whatnot, and start running with that talent, because of what Lucha Underground was doing." Mysterio continued, "we're completely different. In a way, we have more to offer."
Click here to check out the panel. If you use any of the quotes from this article, please credit Sam Roberts' Wrestling Podcast for providing the full audio from the panel with an H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
Source: Sam Roberts? Wrestling Podcast