Dominick Mysterio SI interview

[Chris]

Son of a Legend: How Dominik Mysterio Forged His Own Path

“I’m carrying lineage, my family, and history on my shoulders”

www.si.com

“I was raised on that old-school love of the business,” said Mysterio. “That’s a big part of our family dynamic. We have a lot of respect for the Mysterio name and this sport.

“I’m carrying lineage, my family, and history on my shoulders. My six godfathers, who are all legends, I’m not going to let them down.”

“Not everyone can say they worked with Eddie,” said Mysterio. “I hear people say, ‘My dream match would be Eddie Guerrero.’ Shit, mine too. Looking back, just sharing the ring with him, it’s an honor.”

“Eddie helped plant the seed in 2005 that this was what I was going to do,” said Mysterio, 27. “I’m very blessed to have known him, and I am always grateful to keep his memory alive.”

“My journey is so different from everyone else’s,” said Mysterio. “Getting compared to my dad, that’s a losing battle. People wanted me to move like him, be like him, and even wear the mask.

“But I had a lot of support behind me. Plus, I was so busy with my head down working. I didn’t have time to focus on the outside noise. But if it weren’t for going my own way and sh----- on my Edge and my dad, I wouldn’t be where I am today.”

“Konnan, man, he’s the tough love I always needed,” said Mysterio. “Especially if you know him, you know he calls it how it is. He doesn’t sugarcoat. Personally, that’s something I needed. I don’t want to say the wrong thing and get in trouble here, but starting off in the business, as the son of Rey Mysterio, you don’t know what’s what. I could have a sh---- match and people would say, ‘That was really good’ just to be on my good side. You don’t know what’s it’s real or not. But then I’d get a call from Konnan. He’d say, ‘Your punches looked like shit,’ ‘You need to work on this,’ or ‘Stop doing the 619 if you’re not going to do it properly.’

“Konnan gave me tough love, right from when I started training with him and my dad. He still keeps an eye out on my matches, and I’m a student of the game–so I’m always willing to learn from someone who revolutionized the sport.”

“Judgement Day, they really helped me out,” said Mysterio. “My confidence, my in-ring presence, they put me in a position to do my best. Finn and Damian are incredible in matches, the way they put together matches. Finn is amazing at that. It comes so naturally to him. Damian gives me advice, too, the type where he says to do something in a match and it turns out incredibly. I’d get all the credit, but it was all his idea.

“And when you think of Judgment Day, Rhea is the most special of all. There is no one like her. That core of us, I think we’ll be special forever.”

“I haven’t even been doing this very long,” said Mysterio. “But I know who did this before me. I owe it to all of them to be the best I can, so I’m going to do the best to the best of my abilities.

“Living up to the name, that’s a lot. I want more than that. I am going to keep working until I am the greatest of all the Mysterios.”