Rey Mysterio has revealed that one of the biggest moments of his early WWE career happened because Kurt Angle personally chose to work with him.
Speaking on The Undertaker’s Six Feet Under podcast, Mysterio looked back on the start of his WWE run and shared how much Angle helped him during that transition.
At the time, Mysterio had just arrived in WWE after making a name for himself in WCW, ECW, and AAA. However, adjusting to WWE’s style was a completely different experience. That’s where Kurt Angle stepped in.
Kurt Angle personally requested Rey Mysterio for WWE SummerSlam 2002
Mysterio recalled that before SummerSlam 2002, WWE gave Angle a list of three possible opponents for the event. To his surprise, Angle specifically asked to face him.
“The first one to pull me aside was Kurt Angle. I remember he told me they gave him three opponents to work with for SummerSlam, which was my first pay-per-view with WWE, in Long Island. He said, ‘I chose you. I’ve always wanted to work with you since seeing you in WCW,’” Mysterio said.
Angle was already one of WWE’s biggest stars and one of the most respected wrestlers in the world. He had won an Olympic gold medal and had already established himself as one of the company’s top performers. The fact that he specifically wanted to wrestle Mysterio showed how highly he thought of him.
Mysterio also said that Angle helped him understand WWE’s storytelling style and how to structure matches differently.
“He was like the first guy that kind of pulled me under his wing and I was learning all these new methods of how to make my craft much better,” Mysterio said.
More than 20 years later, that SummerSlam match is still remembered as one of the best opening matches in WWE PPV history. It helped establish Rey Mysterio as a future star.
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