Rey Mysterio Talks Impact Wrestling, Comments On Chances Of Debuting For Company In Future

At WrestleMania 33, WWE fans weren’t able to get to see Rey Mysterio as they had once hoped, so is an Impact Wrestling run possible for the former three-time WWE Champion?

Speaking to Sports Illustrated’s Justin Barrasso, Rey Mysterio looked back on the more than two decades he’s spent in the professional wrestling business, including his debut in the now-defunct WCW in 1996. At the time, he was only 21-years-old, yet very short at 5-feet-4, with a youthful appearance that he says made security at arenas mistake him for a 12-year-old boy. Ultimately, he was able to clear up any misconceptions about his age, and as the expression goes, the rest is history, as Rey was able to leverage a successful WCW run into an even more productive WWE career shortly after the latter company bought out the former in 2001.

Now 42-years-old, Mysterio now plies his trade in Lucha Underground, though that hasn’t quieted rumors that WWE may be interested in bringing him back, years after the company released him in 2015. But is Rey Mysterio interested in Impact Wrestling, which has oftentimes turned to former WWE Superstars to beef up its roster?

“I was actually in conversations a while back with Impact about doing some shows,” Mysterio commented.

“To be honest with you, it’s not that I don’t want to go work for them, it’s just like I didn’t have it in my game plan. I also didn’t have Lucha Underground in my game plan before it was created.”

With Rey Mysterio hinting that an Impact Wrestling run may be possible at some point in the future, he stressed that any work he does for the promotion may be on a part-time basis, similar to how WWE often brings back stars from its past to wrestle for a few months, or only for select shows.

“If the circumstances were right, I wouldn’t mind going. I’m not interested in signing a contractual deal, but I would love to do some shows. People want to see diversity in their opponents and fans want to see their dream matches. If people want to see a match-up, let’s make it happen.”

Last year, rumors of Rey Mysterio returning to the WWE were quite rampant, as Forbes wrote in June 2016 that the company was interested in signing several “40+ year-old guys to return for the new era,” per information from the Wrestling Observer Newsletter‘s Dave Meltzer. This was about one month before WWE brought back the brand split, as it divided its roster into two brands (Monday Night RAW and SmackDown Live) and called up multiple NXT talents to the main roster, so as to make sure both brands had enough personnel.

As it turned out, none of the names rumored by Meltzer – Rey Mysterio, Kurt Angle, Jeff Hardy, and Goldberg – were back in time for the July 2016 brand draft. But the three latter names all made their way back to the WWE in the months that followed, with Angle being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame and replacing Mick Foley as RAW‘s General Manager, Hardy returning at WrestleMania 33 with his brother Matt, and Goldberg coming back in October and kicking off a program with Brock Lesnar that included a brief run as WWE Universal Champion.

Alas, WWE fans have yet to see a Rey Mysterio return. An Impact Wrestling debut may be in the cards if everything falls into place, judging by Rey’s comments. But what about returning as a mentor to WWE’s Cruiserweight Division on 205 Live, which he praised in a previous interview with Title Match Wrestling?

In his new interview, Mysterio briefly commented again on WWE’s cruiserweight-centric show, but ultimately put over Lucha Underground, whose lineup includes smaller wrestlers such as Johnny Mundo (f.k.a. John Morrison), Sami Callihan (Solomon Crowe on NXT), and Prince Puma (a.k.a. American indy standout Ricochet), as having a superior cruiserweight product.

“Lucha Underground is the pioneer in the cruiserweight division. Years ago, Konnan mentioned to me, ‘Wrestling has to change. Wrestling cannot always be a world for the giants,’ and he was right. Wrestling has changed. That change is because of Lucha Underground.”

Assuming he still isn’t able to return to the WWE as many have been hoping for, would you like to see Rey Mysterio on Impact Wrestling, or would you prefer that he focuses on his current role as one of Lucha Underground’s veterans?

[Featured Image by WWE]