WWE: Rey Mysterio Expected To Recommit To WWE Long Term

Apparently, WWE has offered Rey Mysterio such a sweet new deal that he’s expected to recommit to the company long term and not just work out the dates left on his existing contract, which expires next spring.

In what is quite the turnaround, it looks like Rey Mysterio has kissed and made up with WWE and is ready to recommit himself to the company long term.

The two sides have been locked in a messy contractual dispute for much of this year, ever since Vince McMahon used a clause in Mysterio’s expiring WWE contract to extend the deal for another year due to all the time he had been out of action through injury during the duration of his old agreement. The move was unexpected and made Mysterio determined to leave WWE, having already been frustrated over the years with his creative direction and pay.

So much so, Mysterio reportedly stopped cashing in WWE’s checks as a likely precursor to making a legal move to get out of his WWE contract, and he even appeared via videotape at the end of AAA’s TripleMania pay-per-view in August telling fans about how much he hoped to return to the Mexican promotion soon.

No action was taken by WWE for his unsanctioned AAA appearance, similar to Alberto Del Rio, who was also heavily featured on the TripleMania show whilst WWE was still attempting to enforce Del Rio’s no-compete clause after releasing him from his WWE contract earlier that month over slapping a social media executive for a racial remark at his expense. This was likely due to a fear that both Del Rio and Mysterio would speak out publicly over their issues with the company, which had the potential to be tremendously damaging to WWE, like CM Punk’s explosive tell-all interview was last week.

However, with Alberto Del Rio happy to be gone from WWE for good, Rey Mysterio’s value to the company significantly increased, partly because they had no major Hispanic stars left on their roster and partly because they desperately need a Mexican goodwill ambassador to repair the damage done in that market over AAA’s allegations that WWE were a racist promotion.

Early last month, he had a face to face meeting with Vince McMahon to hash out their differences, and although early reports suggested that their conversation together solved nothing, after a few weeks went by, Mysterio had presumably agreed to come back to work shortly, as WWE expected him back soon. So what changed?

On today’s Figure Four Daily, lucha expert Steve Sims had the scoop on Mysterio’s change of heart. According to Sims, Vince McMahon’s recognition that they have no draws left for the lucrative Mexican market caused him to loosen up his purse strings and give was on other sticking points to get Mysterio back into the WWE fold.

One of those issues was WWE’s road schedule given Mysterio’s broken down body, and apparently there’s a plan of action in place so that he spends less time in the ring when he returns, but the details of whether that involves being used more as a special attraction than a full time wrestler or being given a babyface authority figure or manager role or being used mainly as an ambassador for the company remains to be seen.

Sims called the deal Mysterio has on the table from WWE “the best of all the economic offers he’s ever going to get for the rest of his life” and that it would be “hard to pass up“, which must mean he’s been given a really sweet deal by WWE as he could make very good money working for AAA, Lucha Underground and major independents next year.

The value in Mysterio at this stage of his career is that he can help get over a young Hispanic athlete by being their tag team partner and mentor, who can be groomed to replace Mysterio as their top Latino babyface. The likely candidate for this role is NXT’s Kalisto, so don’t be surprised if a WWE call-up is in his future to coincide with Rey Mysterio’s expected return.