The SmarK Rant For Rey Mysterio 619 (DVD)

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The SmarK Rant for Rey Mysterio 619

– Well, in honor of the RAW boycott organized by Jeff Wahlman (and due to the seventh game of the Stanley Cup finals happening at the same time as the show) I’m skipping RAW tonight, and instead present a MUCH-requested review, of the Rey Mysterio DVD.

– Another quick plug before we get started, as the good people at www.stablewars.com have added a few new games for your prognosticating pleasure, so give it a look, won’t you?

– Comments from Rey’s old friends (Malenko! Benoit! Guerrero! Ace!) are shown over highspots of Rey’s matches. Sorry, but Torrie Wilson’s opinions on him as a worker don’t really mean much. Mainly people talk about how everyone respects him and how Rey can wrestle like a big man.

– Clips of Rey v. Albert, 12/05/02. Rey gets battered but fights back, only to lose a meaningless match and get injured. Man, does THAT injury angle look stupid in retrospect or what? What a waste that ended up being.

– Rey shows us his knee injury. Man, that guy has thinner legs than Nash does. In keeping with tradition, he wears his mask into the hospital. The mask comes off during surgery, but the cameraman only shoots him from the back in a nice touch. And in a nicer touch, when it’s unavoidable that they shoot his face, they blur it out. Have I mentioned how dumb WCW was to unmask him in the first place? Dr. James “You Can Keep Working As Long As You Can Take The Pain” Andrews talks about Rey’s injuries and the abuse his knees take.

– Rey, god bless him, spends a few minutes getting the Albert angle over and explaining the injury in detail, even though the WWE never really followed up on the angle later on.

– Comments from Mama Mysterio (en Espanola) and Papa Mysterio about how his was a mischievous kid and they had him in the US so they could immigrate from Mexico.

– Rey talks about hanging out with his uncle (the original Rey Mysterio, which prompts a clip from Starrcade ’90) and learning the business from him.

– Rey hangs out in San Diego and meets with old friends, and the face is again blurred out. He introduces us to the arena he first wrestled in and talks about seeing his uncle lose his mask one night.

– Rey talks about getting into wrestling while still in school, and shows us the gym where his uncle trained him. He talks about doing suicide dives between the bottom and middle ropes back when he was 4 years old. That’s nuts. Rey narrates some students training and even mentions the difference between Mexicans working right and Americans working left.

– He shows us around Tijuana (without the mask, since he’d probably get shot for walking around wearing it – it’s serious stuff to wear a mask again in Mexico once you’ve lost it) and introduces the local cuisine.

– Onto his first match, back when he was 15, and his parents gave him a year to accomplish something or else come back to school. He talks about training with Konnan, who put in a good word for him when he got to WCW.

– Clips of Rey’s WCW debut, against Dean Malenko at Bash ’96. The full match is in the extras, and we’ll get to it later. Rey and Dean talk about getting a standing ovation from the boys in the dressing room afterwards.

– Clips of the rematch from Nitro where Rey wins the title, and some other Rey-Dean matches. Again, the full Nitro match is in the extras, and we’ll get there later.

– Onto Eddie Guerrero, and the mask v. title match at Halloween Havoc. Again, full match is in the extras, although I’ve already reviewed that one twice. Eddie calls it one of the best matches he’s ever had. Can’t argue there.

– Rey talks about the mask and how kids love it, and we get clips of other luchadores (and Jushin Liger) and he talks about how fans don’t want to see people lose their mask, but at the same time they want to see what the real person looks like.

– We skip ahead to 2001 and the WWF purchase of WCW, as Rey decided to lay low until the time was right. Skipping 4 years is kind of annoying, but I guess otherwise you have to cover his unmasking. But then with these WCW stories they tend to do that, as with the nWo one.

– Clips of Rey v. Chavo, his debut in the WWE from 2002. Full match is in the extras.

– Rey introduces us to his house in San Diego. Again, no mask, but he’s only shot from the back. They don’t even show his face in the wedding picture. Say what you will about creative, but the production guys are PROS. His house is insanely huge, too, so I guess WCW paid pretty well. His shrine to wrestling is definitely a sign of someone who cares deeply about the business. Rey even has the Cruiserweight tag team title, which he got to keep when the company folded.

– Kurt Angle talks about his feud with Rey Mysterio leading up to Summerslam 2002. Rey relates a funny story about losing his mask inside his jumpsuit while hiding under the ring. We get clips of the match, while Rey talks about how cool it was that Angle was enough of a freak that he could hang with Rey’s high-flying stuff despite only being in the business for a couple of years. Rey talks us through the match, which is NOT in the extras (which is fine because the DVD is available elsewhere and I hate it when they duplicate like that) but it’s ***1/2 or so for those wondering.

– Onto Rey’s tag team with Edge, as they advance through the tournament before losing to Angle & Benoit in the finals. Clips of that match (my vote for MOTY) follow, and again it’s already on the No Mercy DVD so no full match in the extras. Next up, clips of the 2/3 falls match from a few weeks later where Rey & Edge win the belts. Sadly, this match is not in the extras either, although it really should have been because it’s awesome.

– Rey gets a 619 tattoo on his arm. He enjoys the pain, so he keeps getting them.

– Back to the knee injury, as Rey talks about what a jerk A-Train is. We get clips of Rey & Brock v. Show & Train from Smackdown as Rey pins Train to get revenge, although really as a payoff for the injury angle that was pretty meaningless.

– Clips of a triple threat match between Rey, Noble and Tajiri (full match not in the extras, but it wasn’t that great anyway) to determine the #1 contender for Wrestlemania. Rey of course wins.

– Clips of Rey’s opening match loss to Matt Hardy at Wrestlemania.

– More comments about respect close things out.

Well, that’s the DVD, but the program isn’t what people are buying this for, baby. Let’s get to

The Extras!

– Rey Mysterio, Heavy Metal & Latin Lover v. Fuerza Guerrera, Psychosis & Madonna’s Boyfriend. From When Worlds Collide in 1994. Heavy Metal starts with Guerrera, and Rey comes in against Psychosis and quickly heads up with a flying rana that sends Psychosis running out of the ring. Louie Spicoli (aka Madonna’s Boyfriend) presses Rey onto the top and then catches him coming off with another press, and back onto the top again. Rey comes off again, this time with a missile dropkick, and Latin Lover tags in. We get some dancing and Lover overpowers Spicoli, but walks into a clothesline. Spicoli does some dancing of his own, but gets superkicked out of the ring and Psychosis comes in, in his place. He goes with Heavy Metal and gets a clothesline, but Heavy Metal returns fire and they criss-cross and go nowhere. Rey comes in against Guerrera, but gets slapped down. Fuerza bails, but Rey follows with a headscissors off the apron. The rudos stop to regroup, and Psychosis goes against Latin Lover. He can’t overpower him, and then misses a blind charge and bails before Latin Lover can take advantage. So Guerrera comes in against Heavy Metal and goes low to take over. Heavy Metal comes back with a spinebuster and grabs an armbar, but Spicoli breaks it up and drops a knee. Spicoli chases Rey out of the ring and they brawl on the floor, which results in Rey getting tossed into the fourth row. Back in the ring, Heavy Metal gets worked over by the rudos while Spicoli suplexes Rey on the floor. A double boot puts Heavy Metal on the floor and they go after Latin Lover next, sending him out as well. Rey comes back in, limping, and Psychosis faceplants him. A second try is countered with a facebuster by Rey, and it’s Latin Lover v. Guerrera again. They slug it out and Latin Lover yanks him out of the corner and then goes up, but misses a flying splash. Guerrera puts him in the Sharpshooter, but that goes nowhere. Heavy Metal comes back in and they slug it out, and then Psychosis tries and ends up on the floor after missing a dive. Rey gets caught 2-on-1 but fights off Spicoli and then dives onto him with a somersault senton off the top, onto the floor. Ouch. In the ring, Guerrera misses a charge on Heavy Metal, who goes up and misses a senton. Guerrera hammerlocks the arm for the submission at 12:33. Bad finish, and the match was fun but nothing special. **3/4 There’s WAY better stuff from that PPV.

– WCW Cruiserweight title match: Dean Malenko v. Rey Mysterio Jr. This is Rey Jr’s debut. Tenay is doing commentary and notes that this is the first ever meeting between these two. Tony wonders if Rey can live up to the hype. Yeah, whatever happened to that Rey Mysterio guy, anyway? Slow matwork start, then we GO BABY GO! Rey armdrags Dean to the floor, then debuts his springboard dropkick. Beautiful sequence allows Rey to hit a sunset flip, but Dean rolls through and slingshots Rey out of the ring. Rey moves out of the way of a baseball slide. Dean viciously injures Rey’s arm and then goes to work. Rey walks to the top rope and dropkicks out of an armbar, then does a flip out of a powerbomb, only to get clotheslined for two. Malenko continues working on the arm as Tenay mentions Eddy Guerrero beating Jushin Liger to win the Best of the Super J tourney for 1996. Never did get a copy of that show, oddly enough. More vicious working on the arm. Tony begins a grand tradition by talking about the nWo (not called such yet) during a cruiserweight match. Sigh. Fans are getting restless with all the mat work. Malenko turns it up with a butterfly suplex for two, then goes back to the arm, pissing off the fans. Rey finally counters and sends Malenko to the floor, then nails a somersault tope to wake up the crowd. He springboards back in with a dropkick for two. They do a complex pinning reversal sequence that ends with Mysterio getting two. Mysterio gets the rana-rollup for two. Malenko catches him on the top rope, however, but Mysterio hits another rana off the top. Malenko goes for a tilt-a-whirl but Rey falls on top for two. Malenko powerbombs Rey and puts his feet on the ropes for good measure and gets the pin at 17:45. **** Great debut for Rey.

– Rey Mysterio Jr. v. Psychosis. From Bash at the Beach ’96. Some matwork to start, and then they say “f*ck this wrestling shit” and Psychosis pulls out a tope con hilo to get it going. He hits a legdrop, and then goes to the top and gets the guillotine legdrop, but amazingly it only gets two. Running clothesline gets two. Primo spot as Rey is laid out on the apron, and when Psychosis runs towards him, Rey alley-oops him into the ringpost, then pops up and hits a rana to the floor. Back in the ring and Rey snaps off the rana for two. Back in the ring, and when Rey goes for a leapfrog Psychosis goes with the momentum and dumps Rey onto the top rope. Rey goes to the floor, and Psychosis hits an eye-popping spot, delivering a MAN-SIZED senton from the top rope to Rey on the floor! Back in the ring and Rey does his fake-out, then rana’s Psychosis to the floor, hits the springboard dropkick, then finishes it by coming off the top rope and hitting a rana on Psychosis on the way down. Amazing choreography. Back in the ring, and Rey dropkicks Psychosis out again and follows with a quebrada (Asai Moonsault). Rey goes for the rana to finish, but gets powerbombed for two. Psychosis rams Rey into the turnbuckle chestfirst and sets up Splash Mountain, but Rey reverses into his rana for the pin at 15:17. Crowd goes nuts. ****3/4

– WCW Cruiserweight title: Dean Malenko v. Rey Mysterio Jr. From Nitro, July ’96. Dean takes him down quickly to start and goes for the arm, but misses a charge and Rey gets the headscissors. They reverse off a hiptoss and Dean bails, prompting Rey’s highspot fake that would become the 619 years later. Dean tries a suplex, but Rey reverses and tries a quebrada. Dean catches him, but Rey reverses him into the turnbuckles and dropkicks him to set up a springboard dropkick that gets two. Manic pace here. They mess up the Rube Goldberg bulldog spot and Dean improvises a pin attempt for two, and then hits him with a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker and a northern lights suplex that gets two. He goes to a surfboard as we go to a commercial and return with Dean faceplanting him to set up the Tiger Driver for two. Camel clutch, but Rey escapes and gets a snap rollup for two. Dean drops him on the top rope and puts him on the floor, and hits the chinlock back in the ring. Rey fights out, so Dean dumps him and suplexes him on the floor, with cheese on it. Hearing Tony and Larry talk about the “unmanliess” of the nWo is something. Dean tries a pumphandle slam, but Rey falls on top for two. A rana puts Dean on the floor and Rey follows with a quebrada, but they cross lines of communication and Rey splats on the floor, as Dean sells it anyway. Ah, live TV. Rey pops up and sends Dean back in, following with another rana from the top that gets two. Springboard moonsault gets two. He goes up, but Malenko follows with a headbutt to the gut to set up the EXPLODING GUTBUSTER~! That gets two. Man I love that move. He picks up Rey at two, however, which never works out well. Release overhead suplex gets two. He picks up Rey again, which is certain death for a heel. Once, maybe you’re okay, twice you’re dead. And indeed Rey snaps off a rana for the pin at 9:30 to win his first title. Good fast-paced TV match, but not really PPV quality. ***1/2

– Cruiserweight title, mask v. title: Eddy Guerrero v. Rey Mysterio Jr. Rey has his “SLAM EVIL!” alternate costume tonight. Big heel heat for Eddy here. Good fast sequence to start, with Rey mistiming a highspot and Eddy covering by bumping him onto the floor. Eddy springboards in and hits some stiff shots. Rey with a dropkick and Eddy blocks a handspring with a backdrop suplex and a jackhammerish move for two. Tilt-a-whirl gets two. Eddy goes for an abdominal stretch and turns it into a nasty pumphandle backbreaker. Ee-yow! It gets two. Eddy applies a knucklelock and gets a few twos. Rey fights up and goes into a springboard DDT. Dropkick sends Eddy to the floor, but Eddy thinks ahead of him and dodges the highspot. Brawling on the floor. Back in and Eddy rips at the mask while in a rear chinlock. Gory Special is reversed into an armdrag, so Eddy dropkicks him in the face and into another submission move. Flying elbow gets two. Rey is in the Tree of Woe, and Eddy gleefully charges, but misses and crotches himself. Rey hits a plancha as Eddy bails. Back in, and Rey snaps off a rana for two. Headscissors puts Eddy on the floor again, and Rey follows with a somersault plancha. Back in, and Rey hits a corkscrew moonsault for two. Moonsault #2 hits the knees and Eddy nearly KILLS him with a powerbomb. He misses a blind charge and Rey comes back with the rana, but gets caught with a backbreaker. Blown spot, but I can forgive it. Frog splash misses, and they head to the top and fight over a superplex. Eddy maneuvers into Splash Mountain, but Rey reverses to the rana for the pin at 13:49 for the title. Whew. ***** I still liked Hell in a Cell better for emotional impact and heat, but this was the better pure match.

– Cruiserweight title: Chris Jericho v. Rey Mysterio Jr. This is from Bash at the Beach ’98. Rey takes him down to start and springboards in with a guillotine for two. Jericho bails and they do a quick chase and mess up a headscissor spot on the floor. Back in, Rey chops away, but Jericho clips the bad knee and stomps on it. Rey is so tanned here that it might be Mr. America under that mask. Jericho misses a charge and bumps to the floor, but Rey chases him to prevent escape. They fight on the beach-themed set and Jericho takes a bump into the sand castle, and Rey follows from the lifeguard stand with a rana. Tony makes sure to mention that sand can be irritating. But is it abrasive to the skin? Back in, Rey tries a crossbody, which is rolled through for two. They head up and Jericho powerslams him off the top, and then grabs a chair. He goes to work on the knee with it (it’s no-DQ) but misses a flying kneedrop and now Rey goes to work on Jericho’s knee. Rey gets a carpet muncher and tries the West Coast Pop, but Jericho reverses to the Liontamer in an awkward spot. Rey makes the ropes quickly, and cradles to win the title at 6:00. Bad, sloppy match for both guys, and I’m not sure why they bothered sticking this on there. *1/4

– Chavo Guerrero v. Rey Mysterio. They do a mat-sequence to start and Rey gets a rollup for two. An inverted rana (!) and Chavo misses a charge and gets rolled up again for two. Chavo gives him a release german, however, to turn the tide. He drops him on the top and works him over in the corner. Abdominal stretch, but Rey reverses for two. They fight it out on top, and Chavo blocks a bodypress with a dropkick for two. Chavo slides him out of the ring like a bartender sending a beer down to a cowboy, and back in with the exploding gutbuster for two. Rey comes back with a dropkick that puts Chavo on the outside, and follows with a corkscrew plancha. Back in, Rey goes up, but Chavo follows him up there. Chavo hits the mat and Rey follows with a Bombs Away. Chavo goes back to the ribs, but the brainbuster is reversed into a rolling bridge for two. Gory Special 2000 gets two for Chavo. Chavo charges and hits boot, but gets dropped onto the middle rope and Rey finishes with what would become the 619 and West Coast Pop at 5:53. Good, but unspectacular, debut for Mysterio. I’m liking Chavo lately, though. **1/2

– Rey Mysterio v. Kurt Angle. Angle cuts a pre-match promo and maneuvers himself into saying that “he’s a man who loves to play with boys”. Ah, NAMBLA humor, the last frontier of lowbrow laughs. Tazz claims that the wedding is NOT a ratings ploy. They even trash Bischoff and talk about how he’s desperate for ratings to catch Smackdown. That’s just surreal. Angle slams him like a child to start. He takes him down and slaps him around, but Rey comes back with his own versions of both moves. They get into a chase and Rey dodges him, which puts Angle on the floor. Back in, Rey gets a headscissors and dodges ANOTHER charge, and gets a double-jump moonsault for two. Great sequence. Rey reverses the Angle Slam and gets a rollup for two. Angle suplexes him into the next time zone, however, to turn the tide. Backbreaker gets two. Rey comes back with a leg lariat, but walks into a belly to belly that gets two. I’m shocked Tazz didn’t say “pop the hips” there. Angle goes to a bodyscissors, which Rey reverses for two. Angle hits him with the rolling germans, however, but Rey counters with a bulldog. He mulekicks him into the corner and gets a moonsault press for two. They tumble out and Rey follows with a corkscrew plancha. Back in, springboard legdrop gets two, but Angle reverses to the anklelock. Rey escapes and hits the 619, and the West Coast Pop misses once, but a regular rana gets two. Rey heads up, but gets hits with a Pop-Up Top Rope Angle Slam for the pin at 8:25. That’s quite the finish. Not as energetic as Summerslam, but still good for a TV match. **1/2

– Kurt Angle v. Rey Mysterio v. Chris Benoit. Rey goes after both to start, and gets a quick two on Benoit before Angle tosses him. Angle and Benoit do some matwork, then stop to send Rey out again. Back to the mat and they fight for the anklelock, and Angle gets two with the ropes. Rey flips in and hits Benoit with a leg lariat and cradles for two. Angle charges and hits the post, and Benoit drops Rey with a backdrop suplex. Elbow gets two. Snap suplex gets two. Benoit goes to the neck vice, and tosses Rey out like a dart. Angle then jumps Benoit and stomps him down, and a short-arm clothesline gets two. Benoit chops back, but gets caught with a belly-to-belly for two. Benoit elbows back and gets the rolling germans, but Angle counters with his own. Angle Slam, but Rey springboards in with a dropkick and steals a two-count on Benoit. Angle yanks him out again and goes back to Benoit, but Benoit dumps him on his head with a release german. Rey sneaks in again with a missile dropkick, but Angle dumps him right onto the retreating Benoit. Angle deals with Mysterio and tosses Benoit back in for the anklelock, and Rey hits both of them with the 619. West Coast Pop is countered by Angle, but Rey finishes a sunset flip for two. Benoit gets the crossface on Angle, which Angle tries to reverse, but Benoit rolls through and hangs on. AWESOME. Rey springboards in with a legdrop on the open Benoit, and gets two. Rey dropkicks Angle into Benoit, who suplexes him out, and Rey hits Benoit with a rana for the pin at 8:42. This was AWESOME, almost as good as Edge-Eddy, but lacking another 5 minutes of action. But when have we EVER gotten TWO ****+ matches on the same show? ****

– Rey Mysterio v. Jamie Noble. Noble stomps away in the corner to start, but gets monkey-flipped and dropkicked. Flying headscissors sends Noble to the floor, and even Nidia can’t console him. Rey charges and misses a baseball slide, and Noble sends him into the corner to hurt the shoulder and starts working on it. Rey comes back with another dropkick, and flapjacks Noble to set up a leg lariat for two. Noble sneaks in with a capture suplex and tries the tiger bomb, but Rey reverses to a drop toehold and hits the 619. Nidia breaks up the West Coast Pop, but Rey hits one off the other ropes for the pin at 2:52. Pretty short, but good while it lasted. **

– And finally you get a 4-minute segment from Confidential on Rey.

– EASTER EGG ALERT! Each menu selection in the extras conceals a Rey Mysterio promo from the buildup to his debut in 2002: Just highlight each match and then press “Left” with your remote to access all 12 of them.

The Bottom Line:

The WWE’s obsessive need to make everything about them continues to baffle me, as much of this DVD is built around the last year and the veritable goldmine of Rey stuff from WCW and ECW is left mostly untouched. Just cutting out 4 years of the guy’s life is pretty unfair. A few of the extras are pretty questionable (the Jericho match is terrible and the Noble match is basically a squash for Rey, for instance) but the early WCW matches are essential viewing so it’s good to at least have them on DVD. It just felt like the documentary portion was, for the most part, put together to justify the matches in the extras section, which is silly. Wrestling fans have long shown the preference for just having the MATCHES rather than vacuous promo pieces to go with them. I’d rather have had 3 hours of wrestling than two hours of wrestling and an hour of a Confidential piece.

Highly recommended, but much like the nWo DVD, this could have been SO much more. Pick up
WWE – Rey Mysterio 619
at Amazon.