10 Best Years Of Rey Mysterio's Career, Ranked

The wrestling career of Rey Mysterio has been going for thirty years now. Mysterio made a name in Mexico working for AAA in his teenage years before making the jump to the United States. An introduction in ECW and a bigger role in WCW would see Rey start to break out. Fans loved witnessing the fun wrestling style of the beloved underdog character.

WWE signed Mysterio shortly after WCW ended and his career would make bigger strides forward. Mysterio made his legacy quite stronger by becoming one of the most successful stars in company history. The career of Rey is still going strong after the recent return to WWE. We will rank his best overall years in the industry. Find out which ones stand out for the positive reasons. These are the ten best individual years of Rey Mysterio’s career.

10 2011: First WWE Championship win

Rey Mysterio was transitioning into a veteran role for WWE in 2011. However, there was one major accomplishment from Mysterio for the first time in his career. Rey won a tournament to become the new WWE Champion after the title was vacated.

Sadly, the title reign only lasted a few hours as John Cena defeated him to win the title later in the night. Mysterio was still having strong matches in 2011 involved in mid-card feuds with Cody Rhodes, The Miz, Alberto Del Rio and other talented names.

9 1996: Changing the game

WCW signed Rey Mysterio in 1996 to become part of the cruiserweight division. Mysterio was among the smallest wrestler fans had ever seen. Many wrestlers had no interest in working with someone of that smaller size until he showcased his skills.

Mysterio had classic matches against Psychosis, Dean Malenko, Eddie Guerrero, and many others. Fans fell in love with the underdog story of Mysterio and his unique wrestling style. Rey proved to the world that he could find success in a major promotion.

8 2010: Taking down the Straight Edge Society

One of the best rivals of Rey Mysterio’s WWE career came in 2010 against CM Punk. The heel character of Punk was leading the Straight Edge Society faction and targeted Mysterio as his enemy. Punk made Rey’s daughter cry as the two had a handful of PPV matches.

Mysterio won the war over Punk in a mask vs hair match with Punk getting his head shaved. Another huge accomplishment saw Rey win the World Championship from Jack Swagger and have his best major title reign in WWE. 2010 was a strong year for the legacy of Mysterio.

7 2018: Career resurgence

The time away from WWE for Rey Mysterio would see him have a resurgence around 2018. Mysterio had a couple of standout matches against young talents on independent shows. This led to Rey getting more appearances with NJPW and AAA.

Mysterio was involved in the huge All In main event teaming with Rey Fenix and Bandido against the Young Bucks and Kota Ibushi. WWE would even find success with Mysterio at the start and end of 2018. Rey’s surprise appearance in the 2018 Royal Rumble created huge social media numbers. WWE signed him back at the end of the year to come back to the company on a full-time basis.

6 2019: "You still got it"

Rey Mysterio proved he was still one of the top performers in the wrestling business for most of 2019. The outstanding matches against Andrade on television in the early months of the year showed his in-ring skills were still at a high level.

WWE eventually started pushing Mysterio in a main event role during a feud with Brock Lesnar. The great chemistry allowed Rey to have a WWE Championship match against Brock at Survivor Series. Mysterio would end the year in grand fashion winning the United States Championship with noteworthy matches against top stars AJ Styles and Seth Rollins.

5 2005: Working with Eddie

Rey Mysterio spent most of 2005 working with one of his best friends. The tag team of Mysterio and Eddie Guerrero won the WWE Tag Team Championship to start 2005. WWE utilized their close relationship as part of their tag team run together.

The tag partners had a singles match opening WrestleMania 21 to great results. Guerrero’s inability to defeat Mysterio saw him turn on his best friend. Mysterio and Eddie had a few classic matches against each other. The storyline introduced Dominic Mysterio to WWE audiences as well with Rey defending the honor of his family.

4 2006: World Champion

The first World Championship win of Rey Mysterio came in 2006 at WrestleMania 22. Mysterio started the year off by winning the Royal Rumble match after coming out as the second entrant having to last the entire match to win it.

Eddie Guerrero passing away in late 2005 saw Mysterio dedicate his Rumble and World Championship wins to his fallen friend. Mysterio’s title reign received lackluster booking, but he did have noteworthy matches with Sabu, JBL, and Booker T.

3 1997: Leading the cruiserweight revolution

1997 was the year WCW realized just how much success Rey Mysterio could bring to the cruiserweight division. Mysterio had outstanding matches any time he was given the chance on PPV. Eddie Guerrero and Mysterio had their legendary Halloween Havoc 1997 match as arguably the best in company history.

Other standout matches against Chris Jericho, Dean Malenko, and others made Mysterio a huge star. WCW made Rey the face of the division as the audience loved seeing the new talent. Mysterio started carving out his legacy as a future legend.

2 2009: Outstanding Intercontinental Championship run

Rey Mysterio’s most underrated year of his career came in 2009. The Intercontinental Championship would find new relevance with Mysterio’s outstanding reign. It started in entertaining fashion when Rey defeated JBL in just 21 seconds at WrestleMania 25.

Mysterio moved into a must-see series of matches with Chris Jericho for the title. Both men brought their A-game to make their angle one of the top things on WWE television. Mysterio even had a great losing effort when putting over John Morrison as the new IC Champion.

1 2002: WWE success

The biggest year of Rey Mysterio’s career came in 2002 when he finally made his debut in WWE. Both parties let his prior WCW/AOL Time Warner contract expire before agreeing to a deal to bring him in. Mysterio instantly found success on Smackdown with the brand split needing new stars.

WWE found huge success with Rey selling merchandise and gaining strong ratings numbers. Mysterio had a classic Summerslam match against Kurt Angle that basically cemented him as a relevant WWE player moving forward. The tag team of Edge and Rey would find even more success as two members of the “Smackdown six” that made the show pass Raw.

NEXT: Every Time Rey Mysterio Dressed Up As A Comic Book Character, Ranked