Dominik Mysterio chats his heel turn and more.
Back at SummerSlam 2020, Dominik Mysterio had his first sanctioned match in pro wrestling when he took on Seth Rollins in a Street Fight.
Mysterio was on the losing end of the match and while guest appearing on episode #341 of K100 w/ Konnan & Disco, he revealed that he was not under contract at the time. Dominik was being paid on a per show basis and that continued through the Payback pay-per-view on August 30th of that year.
Actually, it was before I went on contract (was the payday that took me by surprise the most), because I was getting paid per show… I did SummerSlam without being on contract. So I got paid for that pay-per-view… We were in the middle of negotiations so it was all kind of being handled at the time. But in good faith, I was like, ‘Yeah dude, I’ll do it.’ This is an opportunity of a lifetime so I jumped on it but after that SummerSlam and that following — because I did SummerSlam and then Monday Night Raw and then that following week, we did Payback when I tagged with my dad for the first time, like back-to-back, so I got two pay-per-view checks and a couple TV checks in one sitting and that’s when I was like, oh sh*t. This is pretty crazy.
Since Clash at the Castle, Dominik has been in the heel role. He expressed that he feels more comfortable in his current position because when he was a babyface, it felt like an exaggerated version of himself.
I think so (I feel more comfortable being a heel than a babyface). I think for me… when I first started with my dad, it just seemed like an overexaggerated version of me because I’m very laid back and very calm and I just feel like I had to match my dad’s energy. So it was always smiling, because they were like, ‘Dude, you got a good smile. Smile bro.’
I felt like I just had more options and more variety to play with as a heel and stuff and I did feel a lot more comfortable and plus, when I was training before I debuted, when I would do matches, I would always be the bad guy and I would always be the heel working the babyface in training so it kind of just came a little bit more natural and comfortable for me.
Mysterio is a member of The Judgment Day with Finn Balor, Rhea Ripley and Damian Priest. When it comes to presenting ideas, he said it’s a collective effort between the group and the writers.
It was kind of all a collective team effort (as far as The Judgment Day). I feel like the writers put in a lot of effort and kind of pitch us their ideas and we were with it and whether it’s Finn [Balor] or [Damian] Priest or Rhea [Ripley] that kind of have their options or kind of different take on what’s being presented to us, they’ll talk to ‘em and they’re very open to what changes we wanna do and whatnot.
And plus, if there are things that are wanted a certain way, I feel like 99 percent of the time, it fits what we’re doing anyways, so there’s not much really for us to change or kind of put in our way because they’re kind of forming it and writing it to us and it works.
Elsewhere in the conversation, he was asked if there’s a difference in how Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque wants things done versus how Vince McMahon wanted things done.
Dominik stated that when it comes to himself, there’s not much of a difference of what was being asked of him but said the environment is different. He mentioned Levesque always being around but with McMahon, he would always be in his office.
Not really (if there’s a difference in how Vince McMahon wanted things done from Dominik versus how Paul Levesque wants things done)… It’s all very different environment from when Vince wanted a certain thing to with Hunter, and he’s out and if you have a question, he’s out walking around and you can go up to him. It was very rare when you saw Vince because he was always in his office. But it kind of just depends on how you look at it. For me, it’s all the same. I just show up to have some fun.
On the topic of communicating with higher ups in WWE, Dominik said he’s never been scolded by them but has been ‘gotten on’ because of his reputation for missing flights.
I don’t think so (been scolded by higher ups in WWE). But, they have gotten on me because I’ve gotten a reputation for missing some flights.
This past Monday on Raw, Dominik had to fill in for an ‘injured’ Finn Balor in a Tag Team Turmoil match. Mysterio and Priest went on to win and secured an opportunity at the Raw Tag Team Championships.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit K100 w/ Konnan & Disco with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
