When it comes to lucha libre in American pro wrestling, the biggest star to ever work that style has got to be Rey Mysterio. Starting his career in 1989, Mysterio began making an impression on crowds as early as 1992, and as the decade went on, he quickly became a must-see star, wrestling for AAA, ECW, and WCW. In the early 2000s, Mysterio debuted for WWE, where he became an even bigger star, and easily their most popular masked wrestler ever.
He's had a lengthy career and is still going strong after over three decades, and there’s still a lot of material to rank every iteration of the wrestler -- with close attention paid to in-ring performance as well as ring gear.
8 WWE (2010-2015)
In the summer of 2011, Rey Mysterio hit a career peak by winning the WWE Championship for the first time in his career. It was all downhill from there, as he lost it later that night to John Cena, and returned to the midcard. The next four years were full of injuries, losses, and an attempt at salvaging the failure of Sin Cara, via a short-lived tag team.
A particular career low came with his 2014 Royal Rumble entry, where he drew boos from the crowd by entering at #30 when fans were expecting Daniel Bryan. Even his gear was kind of a bummer, as his baggy pants were matched by a shirt to conceal his disappearing muscle definition.
7 Unmasked Rey
Rey Mysterio made a huge splash in WCW’s cruiserweight division in the 1990s, but as the decade was ending, the promotion decided to do something ill-advised with the rising star. At SuperBrawl IX, Mysterio lost a Mask vs. Hair tag team match against Kevin Nash and Scott Hall, resulting in him working without his signature mask for the rest of his WCW career.
Outside of the paradox of an unmasked luchador named “Mysterio,” that kind of match -- a HUGE deal in lucha libre -- was the result of a minor feud in WCW. Mysterio fared well after that, capturing titles and teaming with Konnan and Billy Kidman as The Filthy Animals, but Mysterio just didn't feel the same without the mask.
6 WrestleMania Cosplay Mysterio
For pay-per-views -- and especially THE pay-per-view, WrestleMania -- wrestlers love to don special attire for the occasion, a lot of which tributes pop culture like comic books, video games, or cartoons. Due of his agility and use of a mask, Rey Mysterio frequently (but not always) adopts straight-up cosplay in his gear.
Mysterio has been doing this since the 1990s, but his WrestleMania outfits have more often than not been surprisingly goofy, looking more like shoddy Halloween costumes than anything heroic. Despite that, he’s put on some amazing matches at those ‘Manias.
5 WWE Super Dad
After 2015, Rey Mysterio took a respite from WWE, wrestling all over the world, including AAA, New Japan Pro Wrestling, Lucha Underground, The Crash, and various indies. But after a few years, he would return to WWE in 2018, feeling more relevant than he did when he left.
During this period, he captured the US Championship a couple of times, and introduced his son Dominik, as his protégé. It helped that he got into a major and lengthy feud with Seth Rollins, centered around ocular violence. While the angle went on for a little too long, the amount of spotlight made Mysterio feel important again.
4 Lucha Underground
Before 2015, Rey Mysterio felt like a performer that fans and management alike were taking for granted. But it was obviously a matter of presentation, as his entry into Season 2 of Lucha Underground presented Mysterio as not only the living legend he was, but one who still had a whole lot of gas in the tank.
As Mysterio became intertwined in all the supernatural intrigue of the Aztec Temple, he also proved his continued worth as an in-ring competitor, putting on incredible matches with Prince Puma (a.k.a. Ricochet), Pentagon Jr., and even his old rival Chavo Guerrero Jr.
3 WWE (2002-2010)
After leaving WCW in the wake of its 2001 closure, Mysterio did not sign with WWE until 2002, where he was immediately pushed, thanks to a big feud with Kurt Angle, as well as a surprisingly successful tag team with Edge. Mysterio would also continue being a cruiserweight standout in this period, becoming a three-time champion in the division. While this era had him eschew form-fitting tights in favor of vinyl pipe pants, he at least had his mask back.
As the 2000s rolled on, the hits would keep on coming, as Mysterio would team up and subsequently feud with Eddie Guerrero, resulting in one of the era’s most enduring memes in the Custody of Dominik Ladder Match. Soon enough, Rey would move on to the heavier divisions, becoming a two-time World Heavyweight Champion and solidifying his status as one of WWE’s greatest underdogs.
2 Pre-WCW
Rey Mysterio delivered classic after classic in WCW’s cruiserweight division, but he didn’t start there. Fans of Rey would do well to check out his work in AAA, where he started really gaining momentum, as he put on some highly acclaimed matches with career-long rivals like Juventud Guerrera and Psicosis in epic 2-out-3 Falls bouts.
These rivalries would spill into other promotions like Japan’s WAR and America’s ECW, where Mysterio, Psicosis, and Guerrera would capture the imagination of a whole new set of fans, introducing the lucha libre style to American pro wrestling.
1 WCW Cruiserweight
It’s easy to succumb to nostalgia when it comes to ranking every version of a star like Rey Mysterio, especially because many fans still long for the days of WCW’s cruiserweight division. But the division was packed with incredible talent, including lucha libre stars (Psicosis, Eddie Guerrero), Japanese junior aces (Ultimo Dragon, Jushin Thunder Liger), and Western standouts (Chris Jericho, Dean Malenko).
It was a roster diverse in nationality and style, and Mysterio took them all on, in loads of classic, athletic matches that were full of crazy moves, becoming a five-time cruiserweight champion in the process.