Former World Heavyweight champion Rey Mysterio recently spoke with Green Bay, Wisconsin’s Post Crescent newspaper to promote Monday’s episode of WWE RAW, which takes place from the city. Mysterio, whose Hall of Fame-worthy career has been plagued by various injures, had this to say about the toll his high-flying in-ring style has taken on his body:
Which Of His Moves Hurt Him The Most To Perform: “Without a doubt, and this is what has held me back and put me out for surgeries, is the West Coast Pop, which is a version of the Frankensteiner. I used to do that every night I would perform and it was just hard on my knees. At the time, being so young, 17-years-old and just going out there and doing it was like, man that’s cool ‘cause the reactions from my fans were incredible. And of course, you get the feedback from the rest of the boys. Man, you’ve gotta take it easy on your body. You wanna make sure you last in this business. But you never listen to that as a young kid. You just wanna go, but that West Coast Pop has given me at least five major surgeries on my left knee.”
Practicing His High-Flying Moves: “In the past, I used to have trampolines in my house and that was one of my ways of creating moves… But now, as I’ve gotten older and wiser with how my body feels and just trying to stay healthy in sports, I just like to look at the ring and visualize certain moves. Sometimes not even practicing them until I’m in the ring and it comes down to that one point of OK, here it comes in front of a live audience and if it happens, it happens and if it doesn’t, it doesn’t. But I probably hit nine out of ten.”
His Various Injuries: “Knock on wood and thank God that I haven’t suffered any neck injuries, which is one of the worst injuries that a superstar could have. I would have to say without a doubt, my knees. It’s only one knee. It’s the left side that has been aggravating me and kind of limiting me to a certain degree to perform at a peak level in sports entertainment. My ACL kept on snapping from my left knee almost on a year-in, year-out basis. I would have my surgery, be gone for about nine months, come back, wrestle for a year and then right after that year went by – boom – it would snap again and I’d have to go back in and get my knee sliced up again. That’s one of the main surgeries and main reasons that I’ve suffered a lot in this industry.”
