WWE – Rey Mysterio: 619
Released: 5/27/03

THE DOCUMENTARY:

Who’s That?: We start the documentary portion with video clips that show off Rey’s athleticism while his wrestling friends talk about how amazing he is.

Rey Injures His Knee: On an episode of Smackdown on 12/5/02, they work an angle where Rey gets his knee injured after a match with Albert (or A-Train as he was known at this point).

Knee Surgery: After they show the angle, we go over all of Rey’s knee problems over the years. We hear from Rey’s wife Angie and it seems this is the knee issue she’s most concerned about. Rey’s mask is off during the pre-op and post-op scenes, but he’s shown from behind so we don’t see his face. They show some of the surgery done by Dr. James Andrews. He feels confident Rey will be back in the ring with no problems. Rey cuts a promo saying he will come back stronger than ever to get his revenge on A-Train. He just hopes while he’s out rehabbing that the fans don’t forget him.

Growing Up: They show us Rey’s parents and they talk about him as a kid. CRAZY how much his son Dominic looks like him. Rey talks about his uncle and that he hung out with him when he was a kid.

Tijuana Memories: Rey meets with some of his old pals down in Tijuana. We go to the first building he ever worked back in 1988. He tells “they were HANGING FROM THE RAFTERS” stories from back in the day.

Early Training: We go where Rey did his training by his uncle. Apparently people still get trained there as of 2003. He shows off how hard the ring mat is and doing dives between the first and second ropes like a midget wrestler. By the way during all this Tijuana footage, he’s wearing a Tazz “13” track suit.

Early Struggles: He moved to Tijuana when he was eight and talks about how different life is there versus the United States. He likes the security of the US because if you break the rules in America, you get punished. Down in Tijuana, some people tend to make up their own rules and that makes it harder to keep his family safe. That’s an interesting point of view.

WCW Debut: Through a connection with Konnan who worked as a liaison between AAA and WCW, he managed to get Rey a deal in WCW. He debuted at the Great American Bash in 1996 to face the cruiserweight champ Dean Malenko. Great montage of the four-star match. Mysterio and Malenko tell us they received a backstage standing ovation when they returned back through the curtain.

Vs. Dean Malenko: They show even more clips of Malenko-Mysterio feud that continued throughout the revolutionary year of 1996.

Vs. Eddie Guerrero: We move right into the “title versus mask” match at Halloween Havoc 1997. Another great montage of clips from this FIVE star match. Easily a top five WCW match for me.

The Mask: He loves that little kids love the mask. He talks about how people always wonder what you look like under the mask, but then they’re ultimately sad when you lose it. To Rey, the mask is his greatest treasure. Is this his way of saying how stupid losing the mask was in 1999 without really showing any frustration about it?

WCW’s End & Going to WWE: We move forward to the end of WCW in March of 2001. Rey was scared about the direction of his career when WCW ended because he didn’t know if WWE would pick him up. He did some independent work in 2001 and some of 2002. When the time was right, the phone call came.

WWE Debut: He debuts as a part of the Smackdown roster on July 25, 2002 against Chavo Guerrero. He’s like the Rey of old with about twenty pounds more muscle. Hmm.

Rey’s Crib: Because this is 2003 and MTV Cribs is a popular show about showing off the houses of rappers and celebs, they do the same thing with Mysterio. Whoa, LOTS of cologne. But yeah, It’s a house. Let’s get back to wrestling. He shows some of the belts he’s won, but you have to sit through several minutes of boring house stuff to get to it.

Vs. Kurt Angle at SummerSlam 2002: They show Mysterio getting the upset win on Kurt Angle on Smackdown leading up to their match at SummerSlam. Who is this backstage interviewer guy? Another great montage of this match. Rey adds some occasional comments on the match throughout the montage. They still treat all of this like the work is a shoot which you don’t see on WWE specials anymore.

Tag Teaming with Edge: They show a montage highlighting the WWE tag titles tournament on Smackdown in the fall of 2002. Great time to be a fan of Smackdown. This all leads to the finals at No Mercy where Edge and Mysterio battled Chris Benoit and Kurt Angle. This was a five-star match and match of the year as far as I’m concerned. Even though this was a losing effort for Rey, I feel like they should have told more of the story from this match here. The feud continues with a 2/3 falls match on the November 7 Smackdown where Rey and Edge win the tag belts. Another classic match.

Tattoo: Next up, we get more MTV reality style footage – this time of Rey getting a “619” tattoo.

Injury & Comeback: Rey returned six weeks after the injury as Brock Lesnar’s mystery tag partner against the Big Show and A-Train because obviously Rey wants revenge. More footage of his comeback doing springboard moves to people showing that his knee is working again.

Vs. Tajiri & Jamie Noble: By the March 6 Smackdown, Mysterio found himself in a triple threat number one contenders match for the WWE cruiserweight title against Tajiri and Jamie Noble where the winner faces Matt Hardy at WrestleMania 19. Cool TOWER OF DOOM spot. Rey wins pinning Tajiri and now he’s GOING TO WRESTLEMANIAAAAAA.

Going to WrestleMania XIX: It’s a dream come true. Yeah yeah yeah.

Vs. Matt Hardy at WrestleMania XIX: This is the year Rey wears his Daredevil full body suit to the ring. Hey look, Shannon Moore is at ringside. Surprisingly enough, Hardy manages to regain the cruiserweight title against Rey via cheating. This was the opening match of the show, by the way.

Respect: The documentary ends like it began with his wrestling friends telling us how great he is over clips of his matches.

THE MATCHES:

• Rey Mysterio Jr., Heavy Metal & Latin Lover (tecnicos) vs. Fuerza Guerrera, Psychosis & Louie Spicolli (rudos) – (AAA When Worlds Collide, 11/6/94)
  

Well this is something you don’t see me doing very often and that’s LUCHA LIBRE~! In fact, this may be the first AAA match I’ve ever recapped on PDR. This is from the much heralded AAA PPV – the first one to make it onto US PPV – known as When Worlds Collide that took place in Los Angeles. The match of the night was between Los Gringos Locos (Eddie Guerrero and Art Barr) against El Hijo del Santo and Octagon in a three falls hair versus mask match that people still love to this day. The first several years of AAA were the best of times for them and we pick up with this match. Outside of the obvious names you will recognize like Mysterio and Psychosis, the only other thing I can add to this before we get started is that Louie Spicolli goes by the name “Madonna’s Boyfriend” during this period in AAA, which was a controversial thing to be in 1994. Now it’s just gross and weird. Since AAA has partnered with WCW, WCW has hired Mike Tenay to join Chris Cruise to do the color commentary. What an underrated commentator Cruise was in my opinion. Tenay did as well as you possibly could especially considering this as his first wrestling broadcasting job.

Fuerza – the father of Juventud Guerrera – starts off against Heavy Metal for armdrags and tilt-a-whirl backbreakers. We get a showdown between Rey and Psychosis who will RULE 1995 together in AAA and ECW. Rey is full of headscissors takedowns for Psychosis. In comes Spicolli, he overpowers Rey and NO-SELLS his dropkick. Here comes Latin Lover for a better matchup size-wise. Tenay tells us Latin Lover was a male stripper before AAA. Cruise is confused as to how he knew that. Spicolli is just full of charisma here and eats a reverse crescent kick. Now Heavy Metal wants Fuerza, but gets Psychosis instead. They run the ropes and Heavy Metal slams Psychosis down by the head and kicks him out to the floor. Time for Rey and Fuerza. Rey shows off with a nice headscissors takedown from the apron onto the floor. Cruise can’t even BEGIN to call what that was. Tenay mentions a feud that was happening at the time between Mysterio and Fuerza’s son Juventud who recently beat Rey for the lightweight title. Back inside, Psychosis can’t shoulderblock Latin Lover and takes his signature corner bump on his neck. Fuerza begs off when Heavy Metal enters, but of course cheapshots him. They trade dick shots. Spicolli comes in and takes Mysterio to the floor to throw him into the fourth row! Poor Rey. Back in the ring, Latin Lover has been tossed so that Psychosis and Guerrera can double-team Heavy Metal. He gets booted out of the ring and Latin Lover gets owned as well. Mysterio gets back in the ring and he’s thrown around by Psychosis. He manages to slam the face of Psychosis down on the mat and reaches his corner. In comes Latin Lover to trade blows with Fuerza. Latin Lover wins that exchange and slams Fuerza for a flying splash, but misses. Heavy Metal turns the tide against the rudos. He does this incredible back flip using the top rope and then boots Psychosis through the ropes. That sets up Psychosis for a dive, but Fuerza intercepts Heavy Metal. Mysterio cleans house on Spicolli and Guerrera and then somersault sentons onto Spicolli. Meanwhile in the ring, Heavy Metal crashes and burns hitting the mat on his shoulder. Fuerza then sits on his neck and pulls back on an armbar to get the submission to win the match. (12:54) Good showcase for Mysterio, but not long enough to be a classic. ***¼

• WCW Cruiserweight Champion Dean Malenko vs. Rey Mysterio Jr. – (WCW Great American Bash 1996)
  

Both Malenko and Mysterio deliver some nice escapes and counters to a wristlock. Malenko tries grounding Mysterio with a chinlock. That’s no good as Rey gets to his feet. After an awesome exchange as they run off the ropes, Mysterio puts Malenko on the floor with a lucha armdrag. Springboard dropkick takes Malenko off the apron to the floor. Back in, Mysterio sunset flips OVER Malenko out of a knucklelock, but Malenko rolls through that and catapults Rey over the top rope to the floor. Rey avoids a baseball slide, leaving Malenko to rethink his strategy. Back in again, Malenko does indeed change his strategy and decides to break Rey’s elbow inside and out of the ring. Rey kicks back and walks up the ropes to dropkick Malenko away. He can’t follow up though as Malenko shoves off a hurracanrana. Rey lands on his feet, but then gets run down with a clothesline for two. Back to the elbow. Just call him Dean Anderson in this match. Richard Dean Anderson, perhaps? Hammerlock back suplex gets two. Release hammerlock Northern Lights suplex gets another two count. I mean, DANG. More cranking on the elbow leads to a surfboard. Mysterio slips out into a bridge from Malenko for two. That was cool. Painful looking hammerlock roll looks like it could quit Mysterio, but no sir. Short-arm scissors doesn’t finish him off either. Backdrop driver from Malenko only gets two. Butterfly suplex gets another two count for Malenko. WHAT MORE CAN HE DO TO MYSTERIO? Malenko reverts back to the elbow and tries a Fujiwara armbar. Still no tap out. Mysterio gets a break once he’s vertical. He flings Malenko off him to send him out to the floor. Rey dropkicks Malenko back for a SPRINGBOARD SOMERSAULT PLANCHA! Back inside, a springboard dropkick gets 1-2-NO! Mysterio falls on top of Malenko and gets a nearfall. SPRINGBOARD HURRACANRANA (West Coast Pop) gets 1-2-NO! Where’s the selling of the elbow? Mysterio gets caught up top, anticipates the Top Rope Gutbuster, and ranas Malenko down to the mat. Rey falls on top of Malenko out of a tilt-a-whirl for two. Mysterio jumps up on Malenko’s shoulders and tries a spinning hurracanrana, but Malenko sees it coming and powerbombs the life of Mysterio. With his feet on the ropes, he gets the 1-2-3. (17:48) Fantastic debut for Rey. This would be a great example of putting someone over by beating them. But yeah, what about the elbow there, Rey? ****

• Rey Mysterio Jr. vs. Psychosis – (WCW Bash at the Beach 1996)
  

This was a classic lucha feud that has spanned two countries and now three promotions – AAA, ECW, and now WCW. Psychosis refuses a handshake and slaps Rey across the face. Armdrag puts Psychosis out on the floor, but he’s quickly back inside. They do some back and forth mat stuff for a while which is pretty neat. Rey hits a wheelbarrow armdrag, but Psychosis sidesteps a quebrada and drills Mysterio with a spinning heel kick that takes Rey to the floor for a suicide dive – or tope suicida for my Latin audience, which probably doesn’t exist. Back inside, Psychosis hits a jumping leg drop for two. He wears Rey down for a few moments in a chinlock and then heads up top for the GUILLOTINE LEG DROP for 1-2-NO! More wear down stuff from Psychosis. They head over to the apron where Mysterio monkey flips Psychosis into the ringpost! That was different. With Psychosis dazed on the floor, here comes Rey with a running hurracanrana off the apron. Back in, Mysterio hits the SPRINGBOARD HURRACANRANA for 1-2-NO! Psychosis catches Rey with a drop toehold and reapplies a headscissors down on the mat. Off a whip, Psychosis launches Mysterio chest-first onto the top rope. Down on the floor, he drops Rey on the guardrail. You know, just for fun. That sets up Rey for a FLYING SENTON ON THE FLOOR! Geez. Back in the ring, Psychosis rips at Rey’s face during a camel clutch. He’s just being MEAN to the guy. Rey comes out of a hammerlock with a snapmare and then cartwheels onto the shoulders of Psychosis for a spinning rana! That sends Psychosis to the floor. Rey springboard dropkicks him on the apron and takes him to the floor with a flying headscissors! AWESOME. Back inside, a split-legged moonsault from Rey gets two. Rey sends Psychosis on the outside with a springboard dropkick and follows up with a springboard corkscrew moonsault on the floor! Holy crap. Back in, Psychosis counters the SPRINGBOARD HURRACANRANA with a sitout powerbomb for 1-2-NO! Psychosis looks to finish with the Splash Mountain, but Rey counters *that* in mid-move with a rana for 1-2-3! (15:18) Definitely a highlight opener for WCW PPVs and a MOTYC for sure which set the standard for cruiserweight wrestling in the US. ****½

• WCW Cruiserweight Champion Dean Malenko vs. Rey Mysterio Jr. – (WCW Monday Nitro, 7/8/96)
  

Rey takes Malenko to the floor early on with a headscissors over the shoulders and a satellite armdrag. Mysterio fake dives on Malenko to a HUGE pop. Back in, Malenko buries a knee and tries a suplex, but Rey flips out and tries a quebrada. He gets caught, but shoves Malenko off into the corner for a sunset flip off the shoulders. That fails, but he avoids the punch and levels Malenko with a springboard dropkick. He catches Malenko with one more for good measure. Cover, 1-2-NO! Mysterio escapes a powerbomb with an armdrag, but Malenko finally stops this guy with a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker. Commercial time. We come back to see Malenko still in control. Tiger Driver gets two. Mysterio lasts through a camel clutch, but gets hung out to dry. Down on the floor, Malenko goes the extra mile and delivers a Brainbuster on the floor! Holy crap. Back in, that gets two. Mysterio ranas Malenko to the floor and tries an Asai Moonsault, but Malenko doesn’t get up in time to catch him and Mysterio goes SPLAT on the concrete. Back in, Mysterio is STILL in control with a flying headscissors from the top. Cover, 1-2-NO! Split-legged moonsault gets two. Mysterio heads up, but gets crotched and taken down with the SUPER GUTBUSTER! Cover, 1-2-NO! WHAT. Malenko lifts him up off the mat. Belly to belly throw, but Malenko lifts Mysterio off the mat again. Malenko goes for a tilt-a-whirl, but Mysterio counters *that* into a hurracanrana for 1-2-3! (9:47 shown) And we’ve got a new WCW World Cruiserweight Champ. The internet insiders at the time were saying that originally, WCW was gonna have Rey job to Malenko again…then they decided to do a tag match instead with Rey/Eddie vs. Psychosis/Dean, and then changed their minds again to put the Cruiserweight Title on Rey. Even though the idea of that tag match really intrigues me, I’m glad they went with it this way as a great Nitro moment. And boy, Mysterio didn’t stop for one second during that entire match. ***½

• WCW Cruiserweight Champion Eddie Guerrero vs. Rey Mysterio Jr. – Title vs. Mask (WCW Halloween Havoc 1997)
  

Incredibly loud “Eddie sucks” chants. He tells Rey that he’s going to beat him and take the mask right off his face. Eddie goes to punch Rey, but Mysterio ducks and fires back. He tries a quebrada, but gets caught and armdrags Eddie away. Monkey flip takes Eddie over and now Rey puts him on the floor. He tries a fake dive and lands on the apron, but Guerrero yanks him down onto the floor! The dude is just MEAN. As if that wasn’t mean enough, Eddie grabs Rey and runs him head first into the steps. Back inside, the Hilo connects. Rey is on the move with a dropkick and tries a handspring into something, but Eddie grabs him in mid-air and drives him with a back suplex. Brainbuster and a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker score nearfalls on Mysterio. As if the moves themselves aren’t impressive, the impact at which Eddie delivers them make them mean that much more. You’ve seen Eddie do those moves a thousand times, but it makes you feel something more when he does them in this match. An abdominal stretch allows Eddie to rip at Mysterio’s mask which is part of his purple body suit. Fans of WCW/NWO Revenge will remember the gear. Mysterio never hiptosses this hold away and instead receives a pumphandle backbreaker. Guerrero tries to hold down Rey down for a pinfall, but Mysterio manages to escape and leap onto the top rope for a QUEBRADA DDT. Holy crap. Tony says that was one for the highlight reel for the year. Just poetry in motion. Mysterio wants to fly out on the floor and Eddie knows it, so he quickly gets back in the ring and dropkicks Rey down when he lands on the apron. Guerrero whips Rey into the guardrail and brings him back inside for the camel clutch. Another hold he can easily rip at the mask. He switches over to the Gory Special, but Rey manages to get loose and armdrags his way out. Eddie swats away a dropkick though and then dropkicks Rey in the back of the head. Just nasty.

Canadian backbreaker leads to a bow and arrow submission. When Guerrero gets bored with that, he whips Rey in for a jumping back elbow for two. They trade blows over in the corner – which of course Eddie wins – and then tosses Rey into a tree of woe on the opposite side. Eddie builds up to a baseball slide, but Mysterio sits up and Guerrero posts his balls. As Guerrero rolls out to regroup, Mysterio is perched up on the top turnbuckle and planchas down onto Eddie. Back inside, Rey avoids another tilt-a-whirl backbreaker and catches Eddie with a jumping hurracanrana for 1-2-NO! Eddie runs him down with a clothesline, but then Rey goes on the move again and twists through the ropes into a headscissors that takes them both over the top rope and to the floor. Rey finally gets that somersault plancha, but this time HE UPS HIS GAME as he keeps going and twists Eddie around into a headscissors. Back in the ring, Mysterio continues his offensive ways with a corkscrew moonsault off the top for two. Split-legged moonsault hits knees allowing Guerrero to hit that DISGUSTING powerbomb for 1-2-NO! Eddie starts to show some frustration. He runs Rey into the corner and calls for a charge, but Rey launches him into the corner. Spinning heel kick takes Eddie down as Mysterio calls for the Springboard Hurracanrana. Eddie sees it coming and catches Rey with a backbreaker! That’s just cruel. Mysterio still manages to roll away from the Frog Splash. Eddie somersaults away as well, but catches Mysterio charging in the corner and launches him onto the top turnbuckle. Mysterio gets his feet taken out from under him as Eddie looks to end this with the Splash Mountain. Instead, Mysterio counters with a Hurracanrana and gets the HUGE upset victory to recapture the cruiserweight belt. (13:51) One of the greatest performances of my generation. Not just all the fancy highlight reel moves, but the way in which they were all executed to perfection. Eddie gives one of the best heel performances I’ve ever seen. He took everything to another level. Not saying that this was a broomstick match by any means, but all Rey Mysterio had to do was follow his lead. If you could find anything wrong with this match – and I’m open to criticism – I do not think you will win the argument. *****

• No-DQ Match for the WCW Cruiserweight Championship: Chris Jericho (c) vs. Rey Mysterio Jr. – No-DQ Match (WCW Bash at the Beach 1998)
  

This is the surprise return of Mysterio after Jericho injured his knee back at Souled Out in January. Rey is REALLY oiled up and tan here. He may have been hitting the juice a little bit too. Rey is hot on Jericho’s trail and gets a two-count off a springboard legdrop. As Jericho heads to the floor for a breather, Mysterio headscissors him into the guardrail. Back inside, Jericho decides it is time to get after the bad knee. When he misses a corner charge, Jericho decides to just leave. Mysterio heads out after him and they fight on the Bash at the Beach set. Jericho gets yanked off the lifeguard stand onto a sand pyramid. Tony tells us that sand can be very abrasive to the skin. Hey, especially when it’s formed into a pyramid. It’s like a spike! Mysterio comes off the lifeguard stand and headscissors Jericho. Back to the ring, Jericho rolls through a flying bodypress for two. Over in the corner, Jericho super powerslams Rey. He brings a chair in the ring and hits Mysterio across the knee. Jericho wants to pillmanize the knee as well, but Mysterio moves and Jericho crashes his knee on the chair. Looks like a plastic folding chair though. Nevertheless, Rey dropkicks the chair into Jericho’s knee. Mysterio faceslams Jericho and calls for the SPRINGBOARD HURRACANRANA. Jericho counters to the LIONTAMER, but Rey manages to reach the ropes. When Dean Malenko starts to come down to ringside, Jericho gets a little distracted. As he’s trying the Liontamer again, Rey reverses and rolls up Jericho for the three-count. (6:00) If I recall, this was one of the stronger matches of the night. Of course there’s not much competition when you have Karl Malone and Dennis Rodman on the card in a wrestling capacity. It appears Rey has regained the cruiserweight title here after months of being on the shelf, but actually the title would be returned to Jericho the next night on Nitro because of his claim that a suspended wrestler like Dean Malenko isn’t allowed to be at ringside and him being at ringside caused him to lose. Gotta love WCW. **½

• Rey Mysterio vs. Chavo Guerrero – (WWE Smackdown, 7/25/02)
  

This is the WWE debut of Rey Mysterio taking on a familiar opponent. After some introductory wristlockage, Mysterio turns the knob up to eleven with fancy sunset flips and headscissors moves. Chavo shuts down though with a release German suplex that lands Mysterio on his belly. He hangs Mysterio out to dry and punches on the ribs. Mysterio escapes an abdominal stretch, but flies into a dropkick to the gut. That gets two. Guerrero slides Mysterio out to the floor for that VINTAGE bump. Back inside, Chavo delivers a nice gutbuster off the shoulders for two. Mysterio catches Chavo with a few dropkicks to send him out to the floor for a corkscrew pescado. Back in, Rey nails Chavo with a seated senton, but Chavo goes back to the ribs. Rey then counters a suplex and surprises Chavo with a fancy bridging pin attempt for two. Chavo blocks Code Red with the GORY BOMB for 1-2-NO! Unfortunately for Chavo though, he misses a corner charge and Rey trips him up in the ropes for the 619 and the WEST COAST POP for the pinfall. (5:35) Not just a good debut for Rey as he didn’t try to do too much, but a good match for both of these guys. **½

• Rey Mysterio vs. Kurt Angle – (WWE Smackdown, 9/12/02)
  

We continue the rivalry between these two after SummerSlam. Angle shows zero respect to Rey to start completely embarrassing him on the mat simply because he can. When Rey slaps Angle across the face, Angle chases him around the ring and eventually falls out to the floor. Back in, Mysterio delivers a headscissors and hits a double-jump split-legged moonsault on Angle for 1-2-NO! Rey counters an Angle Slam with an armdrag and rolls him up for two. Angle makes him pay with a huge release German suplex that lands Mysterio on his belly. He stays on the ribs with several rib breakers. Nice Belly to Belly Throw by Angle gets two. Angle takes Rey to the mat for a body scissors and crimps the sternum as well. Once Rey finds a way out, Angle sticks Mysterio with Rolling Germans. Rey counters a third with a bulldog. Both men are down! Rey staggers Angle with a boot in the corner and gets launched on the top rope for a moonsault press for 1-2-NO! Mysterio takes Angle to the floor and delivers a corkscrew plancha. Back inside, the springboard legdrop connects. Jackknife cover gets two, but Angle appears to be playing possum as he pounces on Rey for the ANKLELOCK. Rey mule kicks him away and trips Angle in the ropes for the 619! Angle avoids the WEST COAST POP, but turns around into a standing headscissors for two. Rey heads up again, but Angle charges him and brings Mysterio down with the SUPER ANGLE SLAM. Cover, 1-2-3. (8:02) This was right there with the SummerSlam match as far as I’m concerned. Real good stuff. And how do you not love watching Kurt Angle wrestle? ***½

• Rey Mysterio vs. Chris Benoit vs. Kurt Angle – (WWE Smackdown, 9/26/02)
  

Smackdown comes from San Diego this week. Once again, no respect shown from Angle for Mysterio. Nevertheless, Rey works Benoit and Angle against each other to start. Rey gets tossed to the floor so Benoit and Angle can mat wrestle. He finally finds a way back in the ring and kicks these guys around. Angle misses a corner charge and falls out to the floor as Rey backs up into a back suplex from Benoit. Cole is actually calling MOVEZ here. Love it. Benoit slowly takes Mysterio apart with suplexes. When Mysterio starts to come back, Benoit launches him out to the floor. In comes Angle, he jumps Benoit in the corner and puts the boots to him. Short-armed clothesline gets two. Benoit fires back with chops, but Angle explodes on him with a belly to belly suplex for two. Benoit goes for the Rolling Germans, but Angle counters and starts his own series of Rolling Germans. Good grief. ANGLE SLAM! DOWN COME THE STRAPS, but that’s when Rey springboards in with a dropkick and sends Angle to the floor. Rey jumps on Benoit for 1-2-NO! Angle nails Rey and yanks him out to the floor. He charges Benoit, but runs right into a release German suplex that lands Angle on his belly. Benoit calls for the end, but Rey flies in with another dropkick to send Benoit out. Rey runs the ropes and gets launched by Angle onto Benoit for a seated senton plancha. Well that was just nuts. Angle goes to the floor and heaves Rey into the barricade. He then takes Benoit back inside and chopblocks him to set up the ANKLELOCK. Benoit finds the ropes, but Angle refuses to release the hold. When he does release the hold, he chokes Benoit in the ropes just as Mysterio comes by and hits them both with a 619!

As Rey launches himself for the springboard, Angle knocks Benoit through the ropes and gets caught for a WEST COAST POP. He manages to not let Mysterio take him over, but yet pulls Mysterio up and over his shoulders for a sunset flip for 1-2-NO! As Mysterio stands up, Angle is there to knock him out of the park with a clothesline. Holy crap. Angle walks over to Benoit for the CRIPPLER CROSSFACE. When Angle tries to roll up Benoit, Benoit uses the momentum to flip Angle back to the center of the ring. WILL ANGLE TAP? Nope, Rey hits Benoit with a springboard legdrop and covers Benoit for 1-2-NO! Angle takes a dropkick from Rey and then receives a back suplex over the top rope to the floor. Benoit launches Rey, but he doesn’t go over the top rope onto Angle. Instead, Rey catches himself on the second rope and bounces back into Benoit for a hurracanrana to get the three-count! (8:21) Of all the Smackdowns that have aired and we just passed 900 of them, you would be hard pressed to find a stronger one than the 9/26/02 episode. There’s not just this match, but there’s also the amazing “no holds barred” match between Edge and Eddie Guerrero that came before this one. That’s right — someone had to FOLLOW *that* match and managed to do just as well as they did. Really great storytelling and just strong action from end to end. Also, if you can find a better three-way match in WWE that strictly stuck to in-ring action – no tables or weapons – then I’d love to see it because I don’t know what that match is. ****¼

• Rey Mysterio vs. Jamie Noble (w/Nidia) – (WWE Smackdown, 11/21/02)
  

This is the Smackdown after Survivor Series when Rey was submitted by Eddie Guerrero to lose the WWE tag titles so they give Mysterio a match to look strong again after the loss. Jamie Noble lost a championship as well at Survivor Series – the cruiserweight title to Billy Kidman. Rey dropkicks and headscissors Noble all around sending him to the floor. Back in, Noble starts ripping at the shoulder of Mysterio. Rey comes back with more kicks, but gets pulled into a head and arm suplex. Mysterio avoids the Tiger Bomb though and hits 619. Nidia prevents the West Coast Pop and gets chased into the ring by Mysterio. Noble catches Rey and launches him into the ropes for a rebound hurracanrana for the 1-2-3! (2:54) Cool finish for sure. **

Confidential “619”: Remember WWE Confidential? It was a cool, hour-long magazine type show that went “behind the scenes” in WWE on Saturday nights after Velocity. You can imagine it being on the WWE Network today – except now it would *completely* ignore kayfabe. He explains how he prepares for his matches and tells us all about the origins of the 619 and the West Coast Pop.

Final Thoughts: Okay, first the documentary. The thing about Rey is there’s not a ton of controversy surrounding him that would make the documentary very interesting. He thought about wrestling all the time as a kid, his uncle got him into wrestling, he had a unique and marketable style, he kept climbing up the ladder of success, and now he’s made it to WWE. Since this is 2003, there’s no run for the WWE title like in 2006. He seems very likeable and nice to everybody and perhaps that’s the purpose of the documentary. When this was released, he had only been in WWE for ten months and maybe WWE felt since he was relatively new to WWE fans that they could not just market this DVD set to sell, but get their audience if they hadn’t already to embrace Rey Mysterio the person as well. The doc is just over an hour at 67 minutes so it’s not very long, but there’s not a lot of meat here to keep you interested in my view.

As for the matches, HOLY CRAP there is a ton of gold here. You will be entertained match after match. I think Rey is one of the top ten workers of the last twenty years and you get to see him shine here. Since this is only a one-disc set, you won’t be overwhelmed because sometimes with the longer sets you get well over a dozen matches to watch plus a doc. The match portion is close to two hours and not one of them is a disappointment. They were so good that I didn’t even realize his short ECW run wasn’t represented here, but I would choose the Bash at the Beach match with Psychosis over the ones they had in ECW anyways. Because the matches are so strong and some of them especially like the Smackdown matches are forgotten gems, I’m going to give Rey Mysterio: 619 a thumbs up despite the underwhelming documentary. I mean, it’s not really Rey’s fault that he’s a nice guy who doesn’t cause a lot of backstage issues. Even if you just pick this up on Amazon for the matches, you won’t regret it.