Rey Mysterio Discusses His Son Dominik's WWE Heel Turn, Being Proud As A Father
WWE legend Rey Mysterio has spoken with pride about his son Dominik Mysterio's journey in WWE, and why they decided to split as a team.
Dominik has become one of the most despised heels in WWE despite being in the industry for only a few years, but the "WWE Raw" star was initially not interested in being a wrestler, according to his father.
"My son was pretty much raised around the business. He was already part of a story angle in WWE in 2003, 2004 with Eddie [Guerrero] and he just grew up around the business," revealed the Hall of Famer on the "Jaxxon Podcast." "He just never showed any interest not until about the age of 19 and [he] wasn't good at school, played football but he wasn't going anywhere, and when he was like, 'Dad, I want to see if I can break into business ...' So I never expected that from him."
Rey and Dominik won the "WWE SmackDown" Tag Team titles, becoming the first father-son duo to win the tag team titles, but a split eventually happened when Dominik turned on his father. Rey said that he's proud of all that Dominik has achieved in just a few years.
"Sure enough, that was when he was 19 years old, he's 27 now, and in the past three years, he's had the success that I never had in three years breaking in the business. I mean, times are different, but as a father you can only imagine how proud I am."
Rey on Dominik's heel turn
Rey Mysterio admitted that his son Dominik Mysterio was finding it tough to adapt at first, and his son going his own way was the best thing to happen to him.
"For my son to come in out of nowhere and not have my style, have a different build — he's 6'1", he's about 190, so it was just ... it was very hard for him at the beginning to try to adapt and find his role as a wrestler. The comparisons were ... they were made and, of course, he couldn't live up to it not until we separated and he continued on his own path without having his dad by his side and that was the best thing that could have ever happened to him."
He revealed that Triple H, Bruce Prichard, and the creative team felt that Dominik should be separated from Rey as they had different styles of wrestling, and had to have their separate paths.
"It's crazy to even put a name behind someone that really had the idea of separating us but I think it was just a work of minds put together," said Mysterio. "I think the main idea behind it was the fact that we try to relate wrestling as much as we can to real life and who doesn't fight with their kids? Kids always think that they're right and the father's wrong. They don't take advice from the dad and just to be able to portray that story on TV for the fans to view was probably the success of the story."