Rey and Dominik Mysterio were guests on the After The Bell podcast. They talked about their historic tag team championship victory at WrestleMania Backlash. They also talk Dominik getting into the business and some of the challenges he faced and more. The most notable quotes can be found below:

On becoming father and son tag team champions:

“[Rey] Man I’m on cloud 9. This was something that kind of organically as created from day one when my son wanted to break into the business and started training. Once he was getting the rhythm of things, we talked about it a couple of times, and then that happens. Then we get an opportunity at the titles, and then that happens. But you never lose focus, it means so much more on a different scale than what I have done in the past, such as becoming World Heavyweight Champion. There’s so many highlights of my career that I can enjoy hearing fans talk about. But this right here, it surpasses everything on a totally different level. I’m very excited and to have that stamp that we were the very first ones. It’s so awesome to see this first hand.”

On the first conversation Dominik had talking to his dad about becoming a wrestler

[Dominik] “I remember that. I had just gotten out of school, I walked straight into his room and wanted to talk to them. I remember dad looking at me a little off, I sat down and said ‘Dad I want to try and wrestle.’ He didn’t believe it at first, he was shook. He was like lets do it, nom thinking about it.”

On whether Rey had any hesitations to his son getting into the business:

[Rey] No hesitation, but I wasn’t expecting it. He was already 19 years old, played a lot of football in high school, that was his passion. He loved being around wrestling, we went to all the events and travelled with me. Never did I think he wanted to start training. I also said that I would be the first to let him know if he’s got what it takes or not. When we stepped in that ring, it was all go after that. Dominik started his journey in Tampa with Jay Lethal. He started his training there and working. In the midst of him doing his training, I had a chance to speak to Chris Jericho. Chris told me to send him to Lance Storm’s school. Right away we signed him up and Lance greeted him with open arms. that was where Dominik really picked up the fundamentals to get to the point where he is right now.”

On training at Lance Storm’s school:

[Dominik] “I loved training under Lance. It was completely different to what I was used to training with Jay. It was a whole different environment, it was this giant school and we had the whole program. It was very Lance, very regimented [laughs]. I was already nervous because I was 2 weeks late because of my grandparents 50th anniversary. the next day we drove from California to Calgary.”

On whether he thought he had made a mistake trying to become a wrestler:

[Dominik] “There were times I was training in Tampa where I would try to think of an excuse and psych myself out. I was freaking out and having a small anxiety attack after my first training match with Jay. I was shook and had to lay down in the bathroom. Same thing at lance’s. I’m a California kid, waking up to 6 feet of snow is not normal to me. I had a match in Canada and called my dad after because it didn’t go how I wanted it to. It was definitely tough but there was a lot of growing and mental toughness I had to develop.”

On whether trying to live up to his father’s legacy has been a help or hindrance:

[Dominik] I would say it’s a little bit of both. Everyone I have talked to has told me I’ve got some big shoes to fill and they will be looking at you in a certain way and expecting something big. But at the same time, my loved ones have looked out for me. I know I have a giant bullseye because of who my dad is. I just try to work hard and try to earn the respect of people.”

On deciding a character for Dominik:

[Dominik] “It kind of just happened, it was so weird. We never expected anything, opportunities were just presented and I ran with them. One day I showed up to tapings and it said Dominik Mysterio on the screen. It threw me off, there was music, I’m like is this for me. Rey said ‘There’s no one else called Dominik Mysterio here.’ When Rey told me they wanted me to have a match against Seth Rollins at Summerslam, I thought he was kidding. Never in a million years I would debut against one of the biggest names. We had no idea who Dominik was, whether I was going to come out with a mask etc. It all happened so fast that we just ran with it.”

[Rey] “We had the idea to carry on the legacy, but we never had time to sit down and plan it out. Now in retrospect, it’s not late to plan things out. But he has to earn the mask now.”

Featured image: Metro