I missed this yesterday, but happened to see it this morning:
Mistico will be getting a WWE tryout during the California swing over the next two weeks. I’m not sure of the date or dates but it is happening soon, and with TV in Bakersfield and San Diego, it could be this week.
Let’s take a moment to note Super Luchas had this right (though we’re still waiting for 3 more – maybe the tryout will be tag matches!) and Ovaciones had this wrong. I wonder if CMLL lied, or just didn’t know.
WWE in Cali dates:
02/19 – Bakersfield, CA
02/20 – San Diego (with a scheduled Rey Misterio appearance – talk about your photo ops)
02/26 – Fresno, CA
02/27 – San Jose, CA
Mistico’s booked on 02/19 in Pubela (teaming with La Mascara and Volador Jr. vs Averno, Efesto, Mephisto), so maybe it’ll be next week? Puebla’s gotten too many noshows lately that they may not want to do a big one, but I don’t really know.
There’s a very slight chance this could make TV, but WWE typically runs a dark match before it starts it’s B-Show tapings, and the tryouts always happen in that dark match.
I don’t know. We were discussing this same thing one year ago this time, and nothing came of it. (And until Mistico is in a WWE ring, I’m always going to have trouble believing it.) I presume Mistico’s role to be cruiserweight babyface. If he was an instant hit and things got sorted out quick, he could even debut on WrestleMania winning that belt, but that may be pushing it and perhaps one step beyond best case scenario.
There’s a lot of questions about how Mistico would adapt to WWE style and WWE rings (and, by the size of Super Crazy lately, WWE free lunch buffets!) Will they have him keep his mask? They’ve had success with Rey masked, but haven’t succeeded with anyone else. (Ultimo Dragon failed because they didn’t were expecting him to be a Rey clone; Mistico would be better at that.) Without knowing who in the company wants to bring him in and why, it’s tough to correctly guess how he’ll be used. We also don’t know who actually owns the gimmick or what Mistico’s contract status is.
If you’re the conspiracy type, you may note how the Reyes de Aire happened a lot sooner than usual – as if CMLL knew they might be losing one it’s top small tecnico highflier and decided they needed to get serious about creating another one ASAP. If a card juggles so Averno & Mephisto are in position to pick up the tag team titles, then we know for sure.
My feeling is Mistico has worked very hard and very often for the last 3 years, and as a guy who came to CMLL with no name value and no leverage, he probably isn’t getting paid as much as he might deserve. Everyone who’s good at what they do deserves a chance to extract as much as they can out of it; even if he doesn’t sign with WWE, just the possiblity that he could’ve is going to help him. And if he ends up with a contract that has him working 3-4 times a week, rather than 3-4 times on some days, that’s going to be pretty good for him. I have reservations about how well this is going to work, but Mistico’s deserving of the chance.
Update:
I’m not sure regarding the status of Mistico coming to a WWE TV taping over the next two weeks. Seems CMLL is extremely unhappy about this and is putting the pressure heavy on Mistico not to come.
– Meltzer, today.
Swear to god, when this story comes up again (and it surely will), it’s getting one sentence and no more until Mistico’s actually in a WWE ring.
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I think another interesting thing that you didn’t note, is what would happen if Mistico goes to WWE, then tries to come back to CMLL. I’m sure he’d still have tons of bookings, and AAA would probably hire him, but would CMLL take him back?
I have my doubts about this one, I don’t know. Meltzer seems to think WWE would sign him just to bury him. I guess I can see them doing this, but I somehow don’t think it’s gonna happen.
For what I read, acording to a newspaper/magazine, Mistico… well, the guy gets paid less than 20% of what CMLL charges promoters for the booking of the character, so I could see him going to WWE but NOT WITH THAT GIMMICK, which would be worthless…
I’m leaning more for this info to be fake (not the first time it happens). But if he goes, I, for one, wouldn’t be missing him.
It’s way too soon for him to even be considering leaving Mexico. He can’t even be trusted to work a straight singles match unless it’s with one of three opponents following the same exact match formula. It’d be like Rey Jr. packing up and leaving for the WWF in mid-1993. If it proves to be true, this has disaster written all over it. Not to mention he has legendary status written all over him at this point and unmasking to work in the WWE would kill any hope he has of returning to Mexico as a star.
What about the family connections? Sure Porky went and returned because of B. de Oro, but Porky means not 0.00001% of what Mistico represents for CMLL right now, so… even if the guy is considering leaving, couldn’t CMLL pressure Mistico with the rest of the Salazars being fired…
Gee, this might be better than expected.. **Evil grin**
Seriously though, I don’t think this will happen, maybe the guy just want to get a bigger bite at the money he produces.
Apocalipsis being fired… maybe there is a bright side to all this.;)
Just put Valiente under the Mistico mask and let him leave!:D
Who owns the mistico gimmick? CMLL? Because if he does go to wwe and gets fired, he could go to AAA and have the Mistico vs Mystico feud that i’ve been waiting for. I for one don’t see him going to the wwe. Especially since he doesn’t speak english i don’t think.
CMLL owns the name, looks, storyline (Fray Tormenta’s student) etc, I’ve heard that the guy only gets 300 dollars per match and CMLL keeps the rest.
I’m thinking it is Mystico the one doing the tryout and someone got confused?
WWE signed the wrong one-legged wrestler some time ago so anything can happen when Johnny Ace is running the show!
Don’t worry, Luchas 2000 announced the return of Rayo de Jalisco (no longer billed as Jr) to Arena Mexico (CMLL?), so Mistico is not needed anymore…
“Foristas” are salivating in anticipation of Rayo feuding Cien Caras once again…
My understanding is that Mistico had signed an exclusive contract with CMLL similiar to contracts that WWE and AAA wrestlers would have.It would make sense for CMLL to want to keep Mistico as long as possible.Why waste time and money building someone up so he can just go and sign with someone else?