Subscriber exclusive: Dave Meltzer on the life & times of Rey Misterio Sr.
Subscribers can now read Dave Meltzer’s obituary on Rey Misterio Sr. from the upcoming Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
The uncle of WWE star Rey Mysterio Jr. passed away last week.
Here’s an excerpt:
“You could arrive at 3 p.m., get front row tickets for less than $10, because in those days, nobody bought tickets in advance. You’d think this show is going to bomb when you could get front row the day of the show. You’d come back five hours later and see a giant line for tickets. By 8:30 p.m., when the show started, there would be a packed house of 5,000 fans drinking and screaming their lungs out in seeing the precursor of a style that would change the look of wrestling worldwide. The building looked run down back then, but even today, some 30 years later, it’s still around, and may be the only place left in the world where independent shows can still regularly draw 3,000 to 5,000 fans.
This was all built on the foundation of the original Rey Misterio and promoter Benjamin Mora and later wrestlers and promoters who followed in their footsteps, many of whom owed their business roots to Rey Misterio.
The promotion of the shows in the 70s and into the 80s, with no wrestling on television, was mainly through newspapers and large murals around the city with the names and drawings of the headliners for the weekly shows. People would see the show murals and posters. In many cases, they didn’t even know the promotion or the promoter. It wasn’t at all about brand loyalty. It was the name value of the guys in the main event.
The key figure who led to so much of this happening, Miguel Lopez, the original Rey Misterio (or Rey Sr. after his nephew became a huge star as Rey Jr.), passed away on 12/20 at the age of 66.”