Ask WWE Hall of Famer Rey Mysterio to pick one match from his legenadary career — and he can't quite do it.
Speaking with Adrian Hernandez of the Unlikely podcast at a WWE community event in Las Vegas ahead of WrestleMania 42, the WWE Hall of Famer was posed a variation of the question WWE has been leaning into with their recent "moments and matches" video packages: if you could put one match in the Hall of Fame, what would it be?
He gave two answers. Both tell you everything about who Rey Mysterio is.
WrestleMania 21: The Eddie Match
I'm a big fan of Eddie and I — WrestleMania 21, WrestleMania Goes Hollywood," Mysterio said.
The match took place on April 3rd, 2005, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. It was the opening match of the evening — both men were the reigning WWE Tag Team Champions at the time, and Chavo Guerrero had spent weeks planting the seed of jealousy in Eddie's mind.
Rey won via a reversal into a hurricanrana pin, and the two shook hands in the ring afterward in one of WrestleMania's most genuinely warm moments.
The match turned out to be Eddie Guerrero's final WrestleMania appearance. He passed away in November 2005, and the months that followed saw Rey dedicate his 2006 Royal Rumble win — and eventual World Heavyweight Championship reign — to his late friend.
There is an additional layer of irony in Rey choosing this match now. The custody storyline that followed WrestleMania 21 — Eddie claiming to be Dominik's real father, culminating in a ladder match at SummerSlam 2005 — is the very origin point of the on-screen DNA that Dominik Mysterio has been leaning into throughout his heel run.
Dirty Dom has publicly questioned whether Rey is really his father, channeling a version of Eddie that lives on in the most complicated way possible.
SummerSlam 2002: The One That Started Everything
Rey's second pick was his very first WWE pay-per-view match: Kurt Angle vs. Rey Mysterio at SummerSlam 2002 on August 25th at the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, New York.
I'm also a big fan of my first pay-per-view with WWE — SummerSlam," Mysterio said. "Kurt Angle versus Rey Mysterio.
The match opened a card that is widely considered one of the greatest SummerSlam events ever assembled — Angle vs. Mysterio, RVD vs. Benoit for the IC title, Edge vs. Eddie, and Shawn Michaels returning for an unsanctioned street fight against Triple H.
Mysterio had debuted on Raw just weeks before and was still largely unknown to WWE audiences. He lost to Angle via ankle lock in around nine minutes, but the crowd — raucous and immediately converted — treated him like a star from the first spot.
Angle himself later reflected that the result was the right call at the time, but argued the loss didn't hurt Rey — it helped establish his signature as someone who could compete with anyone at any level.
The host's response after Rey named the match — "You should have won, dog. We don't got time to get into it" — captured the fan sentiment perfectly. It remains one of the more hotly debated results in SummerSlam history.
Two picks. Two opening matches at two legendary events. That pattern isn't an accident.
