Rey Mysterio, arguably the greatest masked wrestler of all time, will be immortalized by the world's biggest professional wrestling promotion.
Mysterio will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame this spring, the promotion announced Friday during its SmackDown broadcast. Mysterio, a San Diego area native who helped popularize the Mexican lucha libre style of wrestling in the United States, is the most recognized masked wrestler of all time and one of the greatest junior heavyweight performers in the history of the business.
The 2023 WWE induction ceremony is scheduled for March 30 in Los Angeles, one day before WrestleMania 39.
BREAKING NEWS: @reymysterio is the 1st inductee for the 2023 #WWEHOF! pic.twitter.com/hvT9xARFa4
— WWE (@WWE) March 11, 2023
Mysterio, whose real name is Oscar Gutierrez, has been a professional wrestler since 1989 when he was 14 years old. He has had 23 championship reigns between WWE and WCW and was also a winner of the WWE Royal Rumble in 2006.
Mysterio, 48, is a former WWE champion and two-time former world heavyweight champion. He is a WWE "grand slam" champion, meaning he has won all the significant titles in the promotion. Mysterio, who is billed at just 5-foot-6 and 175 pounds, first made his name in the United States back in the 1990s, winning the WCW cruiserweight title five times. He is a three-time WWE cruiserweight champion.
The legendary Mexican-American high-flier comes from a wrestling family. His uncle, the original Rey Misterio, was his first trainer in Tijuana and passed down his mask and lineage, a tradition in lucha libre. Mysterio's son, Dominick, is currently a WWE wrestler, and the two are involved in a storyline against each other leading into WrestleMania 39, which takes place over two days on April 1 and 2.
