Rey Mysterio was all set to face Jushin “Thunder” Liger at New Japan Pro Wrestling’s Strong Style Evolved event, but it didn’t go according to plan.
Mysterio suffered an injury at an indie event in early March and since then he’s been taking it easy. At the same time, WWE has reportedly been getting close to a deal with the former WWE World Heavyweight Champion. However, none of that stopped Mr. 6-1-9 from still showing up at New Japan’s Long Beach show to address the crowd.
Mysterio said he would wrestle for NJPW because it is on his bucket list. Then he took a seat at ringside to watch Will Ospreay wrestle in the contest that should have been his.
After the match was all said and done, Mysterio received another challenge and then Mary Scurll came down to make a huge statement. All of this seemed to point toward way more involvement for Rey Mysterio in NJPW.
Dave Meltzer discussed this subject on Wrestling Observer Radio where he said, “At least 3 Rey Mysterio matches [are coming] because he said he wanted to wrestle Liger, Will Ospreay — Will Ospreay challenged Rey. Rey wanted to wrestle Liger because he felt he owed that match, Will Ospreasy challenged [him]. And Marty Scurll came out and unmasked Rey. So you’ve got those 3 matches, Ospreay challenged for the Jr. Title so I would figure one of those matches will be at the Cow Palace and probably one of them would be at Dominion. I think maybe they’ll do another one at that Dontaku show in Fukui.”
Meltzer questioned whether there could be another United States show for New Japan which could allow another Mysterio match to go down before continuing. “It would at least tell you that the start of Rey — well, they could still start him on WWE TV and have him do the matches he’s committed to. It is possible they would do that.”
Cohost Bryan Alvarez noted how WWE lets guys finish out their commitments when coming in and it would be “really weird” if Mysterio were on Raw every week and still wrestling for New Japan. Meltzer noted WWE didn’t let Alberto Del Rio finish out all of his obligations after he came in as AAA Champion because he didn’t work any more shows for his former promotion.
It was then noted if Rey Mysterio was booked for future New Japan shows it would be “unlikely” that WWE would use him at the same time. “More likely than not if Rey comes in [to WWE], and it’s still an ‘if.’ If Rey comes in we’re probably talking the fall, maybe late Summer,” Dave Meltzer concluded.
Therefore if you love seeing Rey Mysterio in WWE it’s still not out of the picture at this point. Although his current status with New Japan might hinder his immediate involvement more than his current injury.
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News from The Wrestling Observer website was used in this post. For more on this story please visit WrestlingObserver.com. Dave Meltzer and Bryan Alvarez’ WrestlingObserver.com is the leading source for professional wrestling news. Click here for subscription information. Members get exclusive access to insider news from Dave Meltzer and Bryan Alvarez, daily audio shows, breaking news audio, the Wrestling Observer newsletter, newsletter archives, thousands of hours of archived radio shows, and much more.
