WWE Star Reveals Their Cancelled Independent Wrestling Plans

By Liam Crowley

The path to WWE is much different today than it was just five years ago. For multiple decades, WWE scouted the independent circuit for its talent, sending backstage personnel like William Regal to promotions across the globe to look for promising prospects. The company even inked partnership deals with smaller promotions like EVOLVE and PROGRESS, allowing their contracted talent to appear on non-WWE shows which consequently led to even stronger exposure for WWE hopefuls. Today, WWE has shifted its recruiting strategy to universities, signing dozens of collegiate athletes to WWE NIL deals.

While it was more rare for WWE to sign inexperienced talent before WWE NIL deals, the company mostly made the exception for multi-generation talent. Stars like Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton, the sons of WWE Hall of Famers Dusty Rhodes and "Cowboy" Bob Orton, were signed to then-WWE developmental territory Ohio Valley Wrestling as soon as they embarked on their in-ring careers. Today, that example extends to Dominik Mysterio.

The son of WWE Hall of Famer Rey Mysterio had made sporadic on-camera appearances since 2003. Dominik made his wrestling debut in 2020, wrestling Seth Rollins at WWE SummerSlam. This meant that Dominik had bypassed not just the independent scene but NXT as well. According to The Judgment Day bad boy, his accelerated WWE arrival was not the original plan.

"We had plans for me to go independently and had a scheduled debut independently and go through the whole process of doing indie wrestling and hopefully get a tryout with WWE," Dominik told G-Moniy. "But I was very blessed and very fortunate to be in the position I'm in and be given these opportunities."

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Dominik added that he felt the responsibility of his last name upon his debut but he does his best to focus on himself.

"Living up to the Mysterio name, there is definitely some pressure that comes with it, but I'm out there having fun and doing what I can. I can't get too caught up on the pressure and having to live up to the name because he's done so much for the business and the Mysterio name, taking from Mexico, my uncle Rey Mysterio Sr. to making Rey Mysterio a worldwide name," Dominik continued. "Being able to take Dominik Mysterio and continue the legacy is a blessing. I'm very happy to be a part of it, and hopefully, I continue to do the name justice and slowly start erasing the name Rey Mysterio and keeping Dom Mysterio."

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