#what about feuds with AJ or Balor or Escobar or Sami or Gulak or Cole or Roddy or Dunne?

[danwhobrowses]

Oh No, Not Another Rey Mysterio Deserves Better Rant!

Probably what you're thinking but considering how my last one was January it was pretty alarming.

Spoilers for MITB 2021

So despite a good match, the Mysterios lost the titles they only really defended against the Usos at about 2 months, and it annoyed me. Which is unsurprising but also commonplace in a PPV that squashed Kofi in another World Title match, saw Charlotte beat Rhea again (storytelling bloating and sucking all investment of Rhea getting her win back so that Flair could win a 14th title) and saw Nikki ASH win MITB despite being the sillier character and probably the least popular babyface in a pile of Asuka, Naomi and Liv.

It was practically a similar finish to SD's 6-man tag with the Usos cheating and frankly I don't see why it happened. Usos as a tag team are great for sure but now who do they face? The wealth of babyface teams like...oh that's right there are none on SD. Sure the image of the Bloodline in gold is a visual - though one that feels like a Xerox of another company's big time world champion and heel brothers tag champions - but what does it serve in the now? The Usos will face nobody or just rematch with the Mysterios again as side characters, and Rey Mysterio should not be a side character.

Leading into the crux of my point. Rey Mysterio has been working in the business since he was 14, in 1989. His career spans across 5 decades and he's still going, not just part time going he is still going on a regular basis. Even when he wasn't in WWE he didn't stop, he went to the indies, to AAA, to Lucha Underground (people talking about him vs Ricochet like they didn't put on a banger at Ultima Lucha), to All In, to even NJPW. Legends of the business and highly respected wrestlers have praised Rey on countless times and yet he's in this spot where he's WWE's pin cushion, taking losses and being flattened by Otis or ragdolled by Roman for cheap heat.

A 2 month tag reign with his son and a Universal title match only looks good on paper but considering that over the last year Rey has in kayfabe been thrown off a building, had his eye ripped out, watched his son be beaten up by whoever looks at him funny because they know Rey's pledge of vengeance doesn't actually come back round to them and then spent a lot of the time taking pins and losing clean on consecutive weeks to Corbin, and it doesn't look so great. Even his tag reign was merely a tool for Roman's story, and when we had a small chance of establishing a big-name feud between Rey and Roman we didn't even give them time to build, in fact they made their tiny build even shorter because they didn't let them do it on the freaking PPV, and then after all that they made him tap out - because vengeance means nothing - in what was up till then a great HIAC match, before Rey and his son again played understudy and then ends up being pinned and losing the tag belts to the brother who was done for another DUI, but goes unpunished because WWE's 'plan' exceeds health and safety.

At this point I do have to wonder what Rey has to do to warrant the same respect others that came at the same time as him did. I mean, Edge and Cena are great wrestlers but why do they get the instant world title shot and months of build? They show up for a few weeks after sitting pretty at home for months or in Lesnar and Goldberg's case years while Rey is wrestling week by week putting other guys over? And when he gets his turn it's just filler, that objectively feels backwards. What, does Rey have to be a part timer just to get some brain cells put into his booking? If he wasn't doing his damnedest to give his son the best training and support he can he could be in another company tearing it up on a higher level, and it hurts that people seriously take him for granted.

I mean he's 46, he's older than AJ, older than Jeff, older than Cena, older than Brock and he's still moving like that. Even with all the damage the job has done on his knees as well, and he still has the fans' hearts, imagine being this consistently over and not thinking that he's a legend? Someone worth using higher up on the card. The tag reign would've been good if they had a longer run at it and some more valid opponents but WWE don't really give two shits about tag teams anymore, so the Smackdown Six member gets scraps while all his 6 foot buddies get big money programs.

It just, infuriates me you know? We don't know how much longer it'll be until Rey hangs up his mask, have we considered what wrestling would be without him? Some of the most athletic talent in the world man and woman have Rey's career to thank for inspiring them, for breaking the barriers to allow them to reach the coveted brass ring. It feels like Rey could be doing a lot more in his late career, I mean there is so much he could be doing right now, granted he could still go into his 50s like Jericho, Big Show, Mark Henry, Dustin Rhodes, Liger etc. did but you never know.

WWE, of all the things you've been messing up on as of recent - and there are a lot - your creative laziness towards Rey is extremely damning and wasteful, the man is an icon, treat him as such.