At the rumble I marked hard. At Wrestlemania I marked even harder but Smackdown has left me with a bitter taste in my mouth for the past few weeks. Of course I’m talking about the ultimate underdog Rey Mysterio. The Rey experiment (at this moment in time) has failed, ratings have dropped, Judgment Day will probably do less buys than No Way Out and the fastest growing market in America is tuning out on Friday nights. Why has this happened, and why shouldn’t it have happened?
As soon as Rey arrived in Stanford he was treated differently than every other cruiserweight. WWE is the land of the giant genetic freaks but there’s something about Rey which has allowed him to stand out from the rest of the cruiserweights. His instant push into the upper mid-card tearing it up with Benoit, Angle, Eddie and Edge in 2002 showed Rey was thought of as different by the bookers. They knew he had talent and wanted to exploit this. The topic of Rey being world champion is something which has come and gone over the last few years, but last summer, all of a sudden, it seemed a damn good idea.
It was a good idea because it was a simple idea. Rey Mysterio is possibly the easiest person to book for in the whole of the company. He’s smaller than virtually every guy in the company, he’s over as hell and the fans truly believe he can beat anybody and has been booked in a way that he looks like he can beat anybody. He is the ultimate underdog. Clichéd it may be, but it’s true and it works. Going into Wrestlemania the build was simple. You take a heel champion, for example Randy Orton. You take Rey Mysterio and book a match for the world title at Wrestlemania. You have Orton goad Rey all the way about the fact that he’s too small, had never performed at the highest level and most of all couldn’t beat him. You have Rey prove he is worthy of being there, nearly beating Orton in various tags but Orton always worming his way out of a loss. Then finally, at Wrestlemania one million people by a pay-per-view to finally see Rey win the belt, the roof comes off the place and everybody goes home happy.
It’s simple, but not every story has to be complex to be good. When WWE seemed to catch on to the idea this would work they booked Rey to go from number two in the royal rumble and go all the way to win the damn thing. The pop was huge, fans were excited, and finally Rey would get his chance to become world champion. A growing Latino audience would be delighted as would every single fan out there who bought Rey as a legitimate title contender.
Of course, it got fucked up. Rey only won the rumble because of help from beyond the grave. It was pushed upon us that Rey’s victory was total fluke. Rather than having Rey come out there and prove it wasn’t fluke and build him up further as number one contender, they had him, they had him, hold on. They had him virtually admit it!
After loosing his title shot to Orton at No Way Out the dream looked to be over for one Rey Mysterio. That was until booking decisions changed and Rey was put in the main event at Wrestlemania. So what angle did they use to get him in there? Did they build him up and make him look strong by beating a monster? Did they have him perform an impossible feat and get to the main event? Sadly no. The angle was Teddy Long felt sorry for him and put him in the main event. Rey was pushed as a charity case who got into the Wrestlemania main event through sympathy.
It seemed like sense was finally reached when they put the belt on Rey. His win got a good reaction and him as champion was something new. It was also something exciting. Everybody believes that Rey can beat anybody (OK Undertaker excluded), but they also believe anybody can beat Rey. Having a champion who can loose his belt at any given time can make for some very interesting television. The Smackdown off the back off Wrestlemania put him in a world title against Randy Orton. The theory worked as many people were questioning if WWE were going to do the switch here putting the belt on Orton. It later came out that Orton was going to be suspended so it made sense for him to put Rey over in a very good match. One thing should be made clear though. It wasn’t the main event. Oh no, the main event was the debut of The Great Khali (incidentally a seven foot three genetic freak). The confidence shown in Rey was seen from the word go.
The next week was even better when Rey was kept off television and actually worked a dark match! The new world champion, the new face of Smackdown, the guy to take the company to a whole new audience wrestled a dark match. Since that Rey has been destroyed on television. Admitting he was about to tap to Angle, Mark Henry not killing him only by request of JBL, The Great Khali eating him for breakfast and today is May 19th so work out who he’s going to be facing. Secondly guess what they result’s going to be.
Rey’s been buried beyond belief and has taken the belt with him. The fact is, Rey’s the easiest guy on the roster to book for. The Judgment Day build could be simple. JBL is bigger than Rey and believes Rey to be easy pickings. Rey proves otherwise and at the pay-per-view they have a fight. It’s not going to set the world on fire, but it keeps Rey and the belt strong. It might not add a million viewers, but you’re loyal fan base is continuing to watch and buy pay-per-views. Rey hasn’t been even been made to look like he can win on Sunday. He looks like a joke champion, Smackdown looks like a joke and nobody’s going to tune in on Sunday to potentially see Rey Mysterio have the shit kicked out of him.
I don’t know whose idea it was to book Rey this way. I don’t know if they thought it was a good idea or if they simply hate Rey. All I know is that they’ve taken a new, exciting and most importantly simple to book storyline and fucked it up. One of the basic rules of booking is play to your talent’s strengths. Rey’s strengths aren’t brawling, they aren’t promos and they aren’t getting beaten up every week. Rey’s strengths are good matches, crazy, innovative moves and being the ultimate underdog. If JBL wins the belt this Sunday, what’s he going to have done? He’ll have won a nothing belt from a nothing champion and we’ll have another tune out title reign from the self-proclaimed wrestling god. The sad thing is, it could have all been a completely different (simple) story.
Comments? Email me: paul@behindtheangle.com.
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