Rudo

What does Rey Mysterio have left to accomplish in World Wrestling Entertainment? He’s worked with every notable opponent. He’s been a regular on both RAW and SmackDown. He’s won world championships. He’s wrestled at WrestleMania. Everything of note, he’s done.

With the exception of being a heel.

That’s what I think needs to be done to freshen him up. A heel turn would add a new dynamic to his matches, give a much needed alteration to the character he’s been playing for years, and allow the about-to-debut Sin Cara to take the spotlight for a while.

In fact, the debut of Sin Cara is the perfect way to switch Rey to the dark side. The two men could believably be booked as friends and peers upon Sin Cara’s debut. Once Sin Cara has a few singles wins under his belt, over enhancement talent who don’t really matter, the two could start as an occasional tag team, which could lead to a friendly rivalry of one-upmanship, before Rey is consumed by jealousy and attacks Sin Cara after one fancy move too many from the new boy.

Mysterio’s promo style is already whiney, it would take only a few minor tweaks and a shift in focus for him to be hated by the predominant, and vocal, portion of WWE’s live events: adult males. Change his brightly coloured outfits to black and white affairs, maybe with skull and bone motifs, and get him to start blowing mist as a finisher or as a setup for the 619, and he’d become a very effective heel.

I’m not proposing this be a long term switch, just six months or so would be enough. After that length of time Rey could return to the forces of good sufficiently revitalised and with fans willing to embrace him again.

Yes, with his size and wrestling style the man is a natural babyface, and yes, he’s second only to John Cena when it comes to merchandise sales, but a short term heel run would be for the greater good. The turn wouldn’t just benefit Mysterio, it would benefit WWE and Sin Cara too: as a heel, Rey could work a slower, less high risk style, giving his permanently injured body a break. If he were booked only against smaller opponents or larger men who know how to work with a smaller heel, such as Edge or Daniel Bryan, his stature wouldn’t be an issue. Meanwhile, Sin Cara’s merchandise sales, while they may not immediately be as strong as Rey’s, would sell in greater volume if they weren’t competing against the more established man’s sales. That’s going to help Sin Cara be accepted more quickly and so, in the long run, provide WWE with another strong source of merchandise sales.

Giving up six months of merchandise sales in return for a reinvigorated act in Rey Mysterio, a bigger spotlight for hot prospect Sin Cara (who’s going to need all the help he can get when it comes to gaining acceptance from an audience conditioned to accept Rey as the best masked wrestler around), and the chance to give one of their few main event talents a lighter schedule without losing him from TV, pay-per-view or house shows seems like a bargain to me. Will it ever happen? Probably not. But it would be best for all involved if it did.