Joseph and Colette Discuss Rey Mysterio Jr. vs. Psychosis
Rey Mysterio Jr. and Psychosis set the world on fire to open up one of the most important nights in wrestling history, but where does the match land on the BIG EGG MASTERLIST?
It says a lot about the overall quality of the WCW cruiserweight division that it is such a core component of what people remember the company for despite being a centerpiece of the company for two years. For all of the praise that is (correctly) heaped upon it, the division was flawed in a way no American wrestling promotions have truly figured out how to get around when it comes to divisions in wrestling, whether they're based on weight or gender, which is making it so that the division is as meaningful and important as the men's world heavyweight championship. In WCW, that was the cause of some friction: stars like Rey Mysterio, Chris Jericho, and Eddie Guerrero likely saw being a cruiserweight as a glass ceiling keeping them from the true upper echelons of the card, while the established heavyweights who occupied the main event spots looked at their peers and deemed them "vanilla midgets" as if the only thing any of them had going was their workrate. In a paradigm that places the most importance upon the men's world title, your cruiserweight, X, tag team, and women's divisions can identify potential stars, but not break them.
Rey Mysterio Jr. is one of the biggest stars in the history of professional wrestling, and WCW had him from 1996-2001. He spent most of that time pressed so firmly against the glass ceiling that he would have left the imprint of his mask upon it had not he lost it to Kevin Nash in 1999. What this match makes staggeringly, abundantly clear is that they had Rey Mysterio the all-time superstar from the start and failed, over and over again, to appreciably elevate him to the level his work demanded, which, given WCW's roster outside of the cruiserweight division, wrestling is much poorer for. But given that the division was capable of cranking out stuff like this, it's hard to be too sad. It took a tragedy for WWE to put a world championship on Mysterio, and the tragedy of WCW was, more than anything else, shortsightedness.
Enough about the perpetual sadness surrounding defunct wrestling promotions. Let's get down to MASTERLIST business, then close WCW Month down with another bittersweet triumph.
Up Next: Bill Goldberg. Diamond Dallas Page. Halloween Havoc 1998. One of the all-time WCW matches, featuring two of the all-time WCW guys. Maybe you've heard of it? Or, shit, maybe you haven't? Either way, it's a goddamn classic and I can't wait to dig into it for the third time this year.
Colette Arrand
Joseph Montecillo
In our off-page chats about WCW month, you've brought up the idea that you were worried this would be a bummer month for me which is quite funny. It's not like I've panned anything we've covered so far! But this was really such a great shot in the arm and a match that feels a lot more indicative of where WCW was in the mid-90s onwards, which is the period of their existence I'm the least knowledgeable about. There were many, many, many potential options for a 90s cruiserweight bout for us to sample for the EGG and I'm curious why this particular one is what drew your eye.
Joseph Montecillo
Colette Arrand
You haven't panned anything, that's true, but I went into this month wanting to fill in some gaps in your knowledge of the promotion and had hoped you'd be dazzled by a really sentimental WarGames, if nothing else! So far as this Cruiserweight Championship match goes, Eddie vs. Rey from Halloween Havoc '97 is probably the more obvious pick just in terms of sheer fame, but that's what makes it less interesting. I picked this match because it might be, at least for my taste, the first truly great Rey Mysterio match in the US.
Colette Arrand