Rey Mysterio

[AshC]

Junior. Where do you rank him, among the greats? As alluded to in another thread, his longevity has been incredible and he can still go today, 30-odd years after his breakthrough. Perhaps the most synonymous masked wrestler, following more than two decades with WWE.

Obviously his in-ring work was revolutionary for its time and his ability to still hit some of those highs is insane. Add into that his influence and the sheer number of good to great Mysterio matches that must be out there, from TVs, PPVs, fucking ECW fan cams... 

I don't think he has the catalogue of main event matches a Bret Hart or a Shawn Michaels or a Steve Austin has. But his quality of output, week to week, month to month, year to year, decade to decade... who else ever has been that good for that long on a major stage? 

You can argue he didn't really work heel, beyond the WCW 2000 stuff and that may go against him. And he wasn't a promo guy as such. I don't think focusing on either massively suited his persona anyway. He was typically used to his strengths.

Was he involved in enough great programmes, issues, angles? Would he have worked earlier in the time line, even like three years earlier, when it comes to the WWE run?

Was some of his success encouraged by the move to a more in-ring, 'action' style... or was he that good that he drove wrestling towards becoming that style? 

This is a guy you could plug into the opener, the tag title scene or a main event challenge and it'd work. For years and years and years. 

Interested in thoughts about Mysterio and where he sits among the top lads.