Rey Mysterio On Why He’s Still Wrestling, The Toughest Era Of His Life, Struggles Of Immigration

WWE Superstar Rey Mysterio was today’s guest on Chasing Glory with Lilian Garcia and opened up about his storied professional wrestling career. Highlights appear below.

Rey Mysterio On What’s Left For Him & Why He’s Still Wrestling At 43 Years Old:

When they ask you, ‘Rey, what do you have left to do in you career? You’ve pretty much done a little bit of everything or you could say you’ve done it all,’ but for me I would say that my final dream come true as a wrestler and as a father is to be able to perform in there with my son, so I could say, ‘Now, I’ve done it all. Now, this is it.’ And, it’s gonna happen, God willing.

On The Toughest Era Of His Life:

If I have to point out a tough era in my life, I would have to say, as a kid, I had plenty of time to enjoy my childhood. I played out in the streets ‘til night. We did trick or treating at nighttime and we just had so much fun. Living in San Diego at a very young age and having to move to Tijuana, Mexico at probably about the age of 11 or 12, I’d have to say that my toughest years as a kid is having to learn the sport of wrestling at such a young age and being literally the only kid in the class, just because I had a bit of a hall pass because my uncle was the coach or the trainer, so he would let me stick around, but you wouldn’t see kids my age training at that time. Of course, the youngest kid after me was probably 18 years old. You had an 11-12 year old kid in there, who is literally a kid and the next person after that is a teenager, so I went through a lot of beat downs and phases in my life. I didn’t really understand that this sport was gonna be this hard. Sometimes I would just leave the ring crying waiting to get some kind of attention from my uncle and I would be in the gym or the class with everybody there. If I would get hit too hard and get the wind knocked out of me, just like any other kid, you start crying and kinda pull aside. I do recall this and waiting for my uncle to come and say, ‘Hey, are you OK? Come back in the ring. That’s alright. It’s OK,’ but I would never get that type of attention and that just made me tougher mentally much much tougher and physically much tougher. It did [make me grow up faster].

On Having To Grow Up Faster Than Others:

Being with older people at a very young age, you learn much faster. You see things that you’re not accustomed to seeing. Did it take away from my childhood? No, not really because I had two separate lives. I went to school in San Diego and I crossed the border every morning to go to school, so I enjoyed that part of my childhood there and then while other kids were playing football, or going to soccer or baseball practice after school, I went home to Tijuana. I had to take a trolley or the bus or my mom would pick me up. I would do my homework and do what I had to do and I had to go to wrestling school. Wrestling school was usually between 7PM ‘til about 10PM, so I had two separate lives at a very young age.

On Crossing The Border & Waiting In Long Lines:

We’d leave the house sometimes earlier than 5AM, but 5AM was our call time and we would sit at the border for an hour, an hour and a half, two hours, sometimes three and that’s because every kid that went to school in San Diego that lived in Tijuana was crossing that border at that time. [Lines could get so long, Mysterio would sometimes have to walk from Tijuana to San Diego]. Most of the time when there was traffic, I would get in the back seat and try to pick up on my sleep. I would train from 7-10PM. Sometimes I wouldn’t get home [until] 11 or 11:30PM.

On Being Born In The U.S., Immigration, & The Current Immigration System Under President Trump:

Three of my brothers were born in Tijuana. Me being the last sibling of the family, at the time, was when the parenting saw the benefits of having children in the U.S., so I was that last child that was born in Chula Vista, California. Based off of that, my parents and brothers were able to become U.S. citizens because of my parent’s struggle to have me in the U.S. which is pretty much what is happening now, from my lifetime that I was born 43 years ago up until this day. With all the issues that have been going on with President Trump and the struggle of Hispanic families coming into the U.S. and having their kids here, it’s actually a struggle. It’s really really a struggle. Maybe it’s more of a struggle now, than it was back then. Back then, the struggle was to get across; now the struggle is those that are here are being pushed out. I’m terrible at following the political side of the U.S. and what happens because it really saddens me seeing young kids, young children pulled away from their parents. I can’t even imagine, if I ever got pulled away from my parents or if my kids were pulled away from me at a very young age. I would go fricking crazy and to be completely useless because there is nothing you can do. It just really breaks my heart that we see such a bad time with Hispanic families in this lifetime. It breaks my heart. It really does break my heart with everything that’s going on. Right here in Tijuana with border crossing into San Diego, they’ve closed the border this week maybe two or three times. Families can’t get in and I don’t know, if they’ve closed it going out, but I know they’ve closed it coming in, so it’s getting more serious every time. I don’t know what’s going to happen with that.

On The Current State Of Mexico:

No [the conditions are not so bad]. It has it’s stages, but for people to be saying that Mexico is horrible or bad, no. I go in and out at least once a month, so it all depends where you’re at and who you hang out with. I grew up in Tijuana. I lived in Mexico City. I traveled all around the Republic of Mexico, so there’s territories that are bad, but it’s always been like that and there are places here in the U.S. that are pretty bad. It’s like anywhere else in the world. You have certain areas. Yes, the government in Mexico is pretty bad, but it’s always been up and down, so it’s not like it’s shocking to all of us because we’ve had that around the world, not just in Mexico and not just in the U.S. Things happen in the political side of the world.

On Why People Are Leaving Mexico:

I don’t know if it’s [running from the Mexican government]. I don’t know if it’s them coming into being closer to their families. I don’t know if it’s a situation like my parent’s situation where they are Mexicans and they had children in the U.S. and they’re trying to come back, so at one point, maybe they don’t get pushed away for good and at one point they can’t ever come back into the U.S., so I’m sure every family is different and they have their own reasons on why they want to come back into the U.S.

On Looking Back & Having No Regrets:

I think everything that I’ve done throughout my life has taught me some lessons in life. Everybody is different, but for me, I don’t regret – or I should say, I have never said, ‘Man, I wish I would have gone there and done that.’ Everything has been a learning experience for me and it’s helped me move forward and be the person that I am today, being a strong minded person and knowing what direction I want to go and what direction I want to guide my kids to.

On Why He Continues To Work So Hard:

We tend to say that we work hard so our families don’t have to work hard and you can do good or you can do bad because you can spoil them and then they won’t have any sense of direction or sense of obligation or commitment to do anything or they can understand that they’re living this great lifestyle because both you and your wife, as parents, are doing this for your kids, so they don’t have to struggle with what we had to go through. They don’t have to see that struggle, but hopefully they’re smart enough to understand and not take advantage of it.

On His Struggles Being A Blessing:

Most definitely [my struggles were a blessing]. I wouldn’t want it any different. I enjoyed everything that I went through and even the days that I didn’t enjoy it, I most definitely enjoy now speaking about it because it made me the person who I am now.

(Transcription Credit: Michael McClead, WrestleZone)

Rey Mysterio also talks about what it means to be an inspiration to Zelina Vega and others, as well at what he is doing to keep in premiere physical condition. Readers may listen to Lilian Garcia‘s interview with Rey Mysterio below.

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