At WrestleMania 22 in 2006, Rey Mysterio reached the pinnacle of WWE by beating Kurt Angle and Randy Orton in a triple threat match to win the World Heavyweight Championship. It was an emotional night for Mysterio, and an emotional time in general the big win came less than five months after the tragic passing of Eddie Guerrero in November 2005. Mysterio was a recent guest on the "No-ContestWrestling" podcast, where he was asked about winning the World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania 22, and while he enjoyed the moment, he admitted that none of it would have happened had Guerrero not died.
"I truly believe in my heart that that moment wouldn't have happened if Eddie hadn't passed away," Mysterio said. "The connection that Eddie and I had, even though we were feuding at the endmy last match against Eddie was SummerSlam [2005] for the custody of Dominik [Mysterio], which I wish Eddie would have beat me and he would have kept Dominik looking back. But that connection that we had, everything that we did together was so unique, was so real, so organic that when Eddie passed. I believe Pat Patterson was the one that mentioned to Vince at the time 'you've got to put the title on him,' and that took me to obviously winning the Royal Rumble, then moving on to winning the world title."
Mysterio rounded off by saying that a lot of people wanted to be at WrestleMania 22 to celebrate with him and his family. However, once he got back to his hotel room and finally got to unwind, the magic of the moment was gone and it was simply just another day at work, a feeling that Mysterio says makes him appreciate the special moments even more.
Please credit "No-Contest Wrestling" when using quotes from this article, and give a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
