10 Wrestlers You Didn’t Know Rey Mysterio Has Faced
For many fans in the English-speaking parts of North America, Rey Mysterio — or Rey Mysterio Jr., as he’s sometimes known — is the luchador, a high-flying masked wrestler who’s been in the game for over 33 years. Wrestling for WCW, WWE, and even Lucha Underground, Mysterio’s put on countless great matches against big-name opponents like Eddie Guerrero, John Cena, Chris Jericho, and Pentagon Jr.
But those are just the opponents fans know about. Outside of those three promotions mentioned above, Mysterio wrestled on the indies as well as Mexico and other international scenes, against some pretty surprising opponents. Let’s take a look at 10 of these wrestlers that Rey Mysterio has fought.
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10/10 Luchasaurus
Fans who love trivia might be aware that Luchasaurus originally showed up in Lucha Underground as the masked, snake-themed heel Vibora, but he and Mysterio never crossed paths in the Temple. They did, however, meet at the event Rey Mysterio’s Lucha Wonderland, a 2017 Christmas card held by Mysterio between seasons of Lucha Underground. In the main event, Mysterio teamed up with New Japan’s Rocky Romero to take on John Hennigan (aka Johnny Mundo) and Luchasaurus in a winning effort.
9/10 Negro Casas
Ranking among the greatest luchadores of all time alongside Mysterio is Negro Casas, who made his debut way back in 1979, put on some legendary matches with El Hijo del Santo, and continues to perform to this day. In the early 2000s, Mysterio and Casas teamed up in some tag matches and once again in 2017, but they’ve only been opponents once in their careers. That was in 2003, when Mysterio teamed up with fellow former WCW star La Parka to defeat Negro Casas and Nicho el Millonario — better known as Mysterio’s old rival Psicosis.
8/10 Mike Bailey
Now signed to Impact Wrestling, Canadian wrestler “Speedball” Mike Bailey was an impressive fixture of the indie scene in the 2010s thanks to his martial arts gimmick and fierce in-ring style. Just before he got banned from the United States for five years, he actually took on Rey Mysterio in a match in Bailey’s home country.
Mike Bailey defended the International Wrestling Syndicate World Heavyweight Championship in a four-way match with Rey Mysterio and Jack Evans, but would lose the belt in the end to a wrestler named Black Dynamite.
7/10 Col. DeBeers
In June of 1994 — over a year before Rey Mysterio and Psicosis blew fans’ minds in ECW — Rey Mysterio had his first known non-AAA related match in the United States, for Pacific Northwest Wrestling in Vancouver, Washington. It was a six-man tag team match, with Misterio teaming with CW Bergstrom and Billy Jack Haynes, while Psicosis and Japanese wrestler Ryuma Go were joined by Col. DeBeers. Mysterio facing DeBeers is such a random thing to find out, as the Colonel’s was an old-school 1980s heel whose gimmick involved him being a military officer from South Africa — with an iconic mustache.
6/10 Eddie Colon (aka Primo)
Rey Mysterio stuck with WCW until the final episode of Monday Nitro, after which he wrestled for Mexico’s CMLL and other promotions, including Puerto Rico’s World Wrestling Council in early 2002. In WWC, he had a surprising opponent for the year 2002: Eddie Colon, son of WWC founder Carlos Colon and better known as future WWE Tag Team Champion Primo. Their first encounter saw Mysterio dethrone Colon as WWC Junior Heavyweight Title, with Colon winning it back about three months later.
5/10 low ki
If one were to ask die-hard wrestling fans to come up with dream matches for Rey Mysterio, more than a few would certainly put Low Ki on the list, whose fast-paced and high-flying style is indebted to Mysterio’s. They actually did meet in a one-on-one bout in 2015 for the now-defunct Jersey All Pro Wrestling, with Mysterio putting away Low Ki in a near 22-minute effort. Otherwise, they’ve met in various tag team matches, and a Raw vs. SmackDown tag team battle royal in 2010, back when Low Ki was briefly in WWE as Kaval.
4/10 Will Ospreay
Another dream match on that hypothetical list would be Rey Mysterio vs. Will Ospreay, which also already happened. Their bout happened for UK-based WhatCulture Pro Wrestling (later known as Defiant), which brought in an amazing group of talent for its two-night Pro Wrestling World Cup in 2017, including not only those two, but also names like Pentagon Jr. ,, Ricochet, and NJPW wrestlers like Kushida and Hiromu.
The Mysterio vs. Ospreay match served as the main event of Night 1, and the result proved to be an outstanding match that wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer gave 4.5 stars.
3/10 Ray Wagner
One of the great lucha libre rudos still working today is Rey Wagner — formerly known as Dr. Wagner Jr. — who has wrestled nearly everywhere internationally including CMLL, AAA, New Japan Pro Wrestling, and American operations like Lucha Underground and Game Changer Wrestling. Rey Mysterio and Wagner have teamed up in the past, but their last match as opponents was in June 2018 for AAA. Wagner defended his AAA Mega Championship in a three-way with Mysterio and Jeff Jarrett, with Jarrett emerging as the new champion.
2/10 Mikey Whipwreck
As alluded to, Rey Mysterio made his big ECW debut in 1995 against Psicosis, wrestling several more matches throughout the year. In November, he got a huge opportunity when he took on Mikey Whipwreck for the ECW World Heavyweight Title. Whipwreck and Mysterio make for an interesting combination, as both were famously presented as underdogs at different points of their careers, but Whipwreck would successfully defend the title here, and then again against Steve Austin the next day.
1/10 Kazuchika Okada
Before making a full-time return to WWE in 2018, Rey Mysterio wrestled a couple of six-man tag team matches for New Japan Pro-Wrestling, sharing the ring with some major NJPW talents in what were his only bouts for the company. His last one for the promotion saw him team with KUSHIDA and Ryusuke Taguchi against NJPW ace Kazuchika Okada and his CHAOS stablemates SHO and YOH. Mysterios’ team won the match, and fans got a taste of what a one-on-one match between him and Okada might be like.