At WWE Crown Jewel, Rey Mysterio lost the United States Championship to Logan Paul, with an assist to his entourage and a pair of brass knuckles. On SmackDown a week later, Mysterio found himself on the receiving end of a beatdown by Santos Escobar. The attack came after fellow LWO member Carlito had accused Escobar of failing to help Mysterio retain his title at the premium live event. Mysterio has not been seen on WWE TV since.
Haus of Wrestling reported shortly after Mysterio got surgery that he had been dealing with a torn meniscus for about three months heading into his match against Paul. He agreed to the title defense and subsequent beatdown by Escobar as a way to leave WWE storylines and get real-life surgery. We noted he would be out for six to eight weeks.
On the latest episode of K100, Mysterio was asked about his knees and how they had gotten so banged up to the point he needed surgery.
“Just wear and tear,” he said. “This time, it was my right knee. I’ve never had any injuries on my right knee for the past; what? Since ’97? When I had my first surgery in WCW. My left knee kept on breaking down every other year. Sometimes, I would go a little bit longer, but numerous ACL tears. The last big surgery I had on my left knee was in 2011.
“As a matter of fact, I was just watching that match the other day with my boy Daniel. We were flying back from Mexico, and I told him the last time I tore my ACL, my MCL. I said my knee was pretty much hanging by a thread. I said that was a match I had against Alberto El Patron in San Diego, as a matter of fact. It was a Raw main event, TV; for the for the Heavyweight title, and I remember I felt something snapped.”
“We have a fifteen-minute match, and I felt right away, I was like, ‘Oh, my knee.’ And the ref was like, ‘Let’s just take it home.’ I said, ‘No, no, no, hold on. Let me see what I can do.’ I don’t remember the match until I watched it over again. I went through the whole fifteen minutes, and I was jumping with one leg. My right leg was doing all the work for the left one.
“But I’m sure I might have had a partial tear, and because I stayed in there for so long, I just thrashed my knee completely. So that was my that was my biggest surgery. The last biggest surgery I’ve had. This time, you put in all the years that I’ve been favoring the right knee for the left one, and, finally, I tore my meniscus on my right knee.”
Mysterio was then pressed about his recovery timeline, which he confirmed was “anywhere from six to eight weeks.” He added that he is in week four of his rehab, which could lead to him returning to WWE early next year, just in time for the Royal Rumble.
If you use any quotes from this article, please give a h/t to Haus of Wrestling and credit K100