On July 28, Rey Mysterio suffered an injury while competing against Santos Escobar on WWE SmackDown. Escobar was named the winner after the referee stopped the match due to Mysterio hitting his head on the aisle after an Escobar dive. WWE announced that Mysterio suffered “severe whiplash,” and when Escobar was asked about the injury, he said that Mysterio had a concussion.ย
“The show that you got was the show that it was going to be,” Escobar said, on Ten Count (per Fightful). “I believe that it is important to present a good show and I believe that was the case that night. Rey and I went hard, that’s what we agreed upon. We have a long relationship, we have a bond. When you have that, you go hard. That’s what happens when you go hard. He had a small, mild concussion, but he came back and you know what happened.”
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Mysterio returned to action two weeks later and defeated Austin Theory to win the United States Championship. Per Comicbook.com, the plan was always to have Escobar beat Mysterio only for Mysterio to win the title. Mysterio is now one of the few WWE Superstars to win titles in four different decades.ย
And it looks like Mysterio’s son, Dominik Mysterio, is on his way to greatness as he’s currently the NXT North American Champion. The elder Mysterio talked about his son on The Bump and said he’s willing to take the North American title from him. “The fact that he’s succeeding and becoming his own person, he’s already his own person. You don’t know how many times I would have loved to call him up and say, ‘Congratulations, son, you’re really killing it.’ But it hurts,” Mysterio said. “Unfortunately, I can’t do it, and that really hurts. I wish things would be different. But as a father, despite our differences. I’m extremely proud of what he’s doing and what he’s conquering. He just better not step in the ring with me because I will take that North American Title.”
Mysterio, 48, has been with WWE since 2002 and is a member of the WWE Hall of Fame. Along with being a three-time winner of the United States Championship, Mysterio has won the Intercontinental Championship twice, the Tag Team Championship five times, the Cruiserweight Championship three times, the World Heavyweight Championship twice and the WWE Championship.ย