Rey Mysterio Almost Lost His Mask in 1997

MLW Radio recently had Rey Mysterio on their show. The biggest story Mysterio brought up was the mask vs. title match he had at WCW Halloween Havoc 1997. His opponent was the late great Eddie Guerrero.

According to Mysterio, that match caused some controversy with Eric Bischoff. The full interview can be found right here. Below are some of the highlights:

 

On approaching Bischoff:

I remember getting in there a day or two early before the pay-per-view and we saw Eric [Bischoff] at the Betty Boop Bar, at the MGM Grand [Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada], which is right there at the entrance and I remember I wanted to talk to him. And it was very brief, but I told him that I wasn’t comfortable doing that match, especially, well, I wasn’t comfortable losing my mask. And he was like, ‘Rey, you have to do what you’re told [because] you’re under contract or else you’ll be in breach of contract’, so he was really getting at me that day. That whole week was a nightmare, man.

On Gurrero backing him up and the decision change

“Eddie [Guerrero] did tell me, ‘if you don’t want to do this, we don’t have to,’ so he was backing me up 100%. I said, ‘naw, lets just go with it. Lets just do it.’ I want to say a match before ours, the decision was changed, and, again, they were just messing with me.”