Who would have thought that the Greatest Mysterio of All-Time began his wrestling career at 8 years old? If you ask WWE Superstar Dirty Dom, it’s his “deadbeat dad”, Hall of Famer, Rey Mysterio Jr., who’s looking up to him these days.
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At 28, Dominik Mysterio has become WWE’s most reviled antagonist, drawing nuclear heat from coast to coast due to his snake-like antics and unrelenting arrogance. On Sunday (Aug. 3), Dirty Dom slithered his way to another win, outsmarting AJ Stylez in a cerebral SummerSlam showdown to retain his Intercontinental Championship.
“From the smartest guys to the biggest guys, if you’re smart in the ring, you’ll be able to outmaneuver and do whatever you want in there,” Mysterio told me the following day before Monday Night Raw from The Barclays Center. “I think I proved that by being a 20-year veteran in this business. AJ thought he was going to walk in there and mess with some kid, but he was messing with the Greatest Mysterio of all-time.”
Though Dirty Dom’s in-ring debut began in 2020, the pretentious son of Rey Mysterio Jr. inherited his slick ways from iconic WWE superstar Eddie Guerrero. Much like Latino Heat, the West Coast native fully embraces the art of lying, cheating, stealing — a philosophy that’s helped him climb to the top of the WWE food chain.
For Entry 010 of Mic Drops and Elbow Drops, Dirty Dom chops it up with Carl Lamarre about his Intercontinental Championship reign, who he thinks is the best heel in pro sports, and how he built the ruthless confidence that fuels his fire.
The Eddie Guerrero homage was alive and well during that match. From your perspective as someone who honors his legacy, what do you think was Eddie’s most underrated skill as a wrestler?
I believe his ring IQ. People see how good he was inside the ring, what he did and how he achieved those things [because] his moves were great, but the way he would put things together and how he could be able to manipulate feelings based off what he was doing with his movements, I think that was severely underrated. There’s not a person that doesn’t say that when they worked with Eddie Guerrero, that he wasn’t the best person to work with because of how he carried himself. He can go in there and if there’s things he needed to change off the fly, he was the man to do it. So I think his ring IQ is definitely his most underrated skill.
You’ve now passed 100 days as Intercontinental Champion. Has the thought of chasing Gunther’s historic 666-day reign crossed your mind?
Honestly, I’m a day-by-day kind of guy. I am a very chill, California kid from San Diego, if you catch my vibe. I’m a day-by-day, figuring it out [type of wrestler]. I know this is a working man’s title, but hell, if I don’t think anyone is good enough to challenge me, I might hold off for a year. I might not even challenge [anyone] for a year. Who knows? If you’re not worthy of it, why should I let you challenge for my title? I just beat AJ Styles — who’s beaten everybody — so I’ve technically beaten everybody. Forget Steiner Math, this is Dirty Dom Math.
Let’s stir the pot a little. If you had to serve as special guest referee for a triple threat between Rhea Ripley, Roxanne Perez and Liv Morgan, who’s walking out with the win and why?
Liv. Liv’s winning, 100%. Not even based off me being a biased referee or anything. It’s just based off of skill and achievement. Liv is the only person that’s beaten Rhea Ripley more than three times, correct? She retired Becky Lynch. She is the greatest woman’s world champion. She’s a four-time woman’s tag champion. She’s a Slammy Award winner. There’s levels to this, and I believe Liv is at the top of her level. Not even being a biased ref, I would count it straight down the middle and she’d win.
Your first SummerSlam match was against Seth Rollins. Five years later, you’re beating AJ Styles. From both an in-ring and confidence standpoint, what are you most proud of in your growth since then?
I’ve grown massively. I’ve been more confident in the ring and being able to move and do what I want in the ring as far as move-sets and how I act and do things. And being with The Judgment Day as well gave me a level of confidence I didn’t have to the point where I had guys like Finn [Balor], JD [McDonagh], and Damian [Priest] helping me out with all this stuff, telling me, “Nah, dude. This is where you’re at. This is where you’re gonna be.” Sure enough, they helped me build that confidence. Even Voldemort.
Voldemort from Harry Porter?
No, the other person from the Judgment Day that I don’t say the name of.
Who was the first heel you gravitated toward as a fan and idolized?
JBL.
Why JBL?
Because everything he did seemed so genuine and with hatred. He called himself “The Wrestling God” for a reason. Being a Latino Mexican myself, the skit of him going down by the border — and I know it might be a touchy subject right now — was crazy to me. As a heel, you’re pushing the button as much as possible. So to me, JBL was that dude, to where he can get away with everything and just do anything — because he’s also a 6’7′ cowboy of a heel that’ll knock your head off with a clothesline.
Which current WWE superstar do you think mastered the art of nuclear heat better than anyone?
Me. There’s no doubt about it. Also, the people around me have helped me so much because obviously these were uncharted territories that we were going into. It happened with Vicky [Guerrero] — but no disrespect to Vicky, she was never a wrestler. She was never bumping and going in there. I’m in there bumping, cutting promos, top of my game, Greatest Mysterio of All-Time — no one’s doing it like I am. Plus, I’m 28 years old. If I wanted to, I could step it up even more — and no one in the past, the present, coming up and even now would lay a finger on me.
Lastly, who’s the biggest heel in pro sports right now, and what makes them so good at it?
I mean, he’s loved by the city, but hated by everyone else — I’m gonna have to go with my boy Fernando Tatis Jr. Just ’cause the way he carries himself, he’s so swagged out. He’s a stud. He’s a stud in the outfield, he’s a stud at shortstop if they need him there and he’s a stud hitter. The dude could steal homers. He can do it all. People hate him for it, because what? He’s a baller? He’s getting paid millions and millions of dollars and he does this to your favorite teams. All the Dodgers hate him.
Mets fans hate him too.
Are you a Mets fan?
I’m on the right side of history.
I was gonna say y’all had a bad three-game sweep. And he embraces being a heel. You have to be OK with the boos, getting hated and you gotta be able to embrace it. I think he’s one of the few guys that embraces being the heel. He doesn’t mind getting booed, he’s OK with it.
