Rey Mysterio has suffered a knee injury at Tuesday's Smackdown Tapings in Ontario, California, according to Daily Wrestling News. The former World Champion appeared to hurt the long troubled knee as he fell and landed badly. The star then immediately rolled out of the ring in visible pain. At ringside he pulled up his trouser leg and removed his knee brace that supports his left knee, reacting with a lot of pain. He had been competing in a fatal four way alongside Jack Swagger, Kofi Kingston and Mark Henry. It's possible that Mysterio was fine after getting backstage, but given his long history of knee problems, you would expect this to be serious. Mysterio has been out injured for much of the last few years due to his knees, basically lacking the fundamental structure and cartilage needed to hold the area together in a high impact environment. Mysterio told WWE.com in 2011 "the inner part of my knee had no more cartilage. So, the inner part of my left knee is bone on bone, arthritic." WWE and Mysterio had hoped surgery could correct this in the past, but along with repeated ACL surgery and failure to regrow cartilage, Mysterio is a shadow of his former self. Which in some ways is a good thing the high flying style that was so thrilling (see the West Coast Pop) is exactly what ruined his knees to begin with. The Rey of 2014 is slow and limits himself in the ring to a few methodical moves, leading to many fans these days choosing to boo him. The past few years have seen him struggle to even string a few months of active competition together, which has been greatly frustrating to the WWE, who have already encouraged him to think about retirement. Why doesn't he retire? Probably because the money is so good. Mysterio has a reputation as being a very big spender, so he may still genuinely need the cash despite over 15 years of top money in WWE and WCW. This latest knee injury will surely make Mysterio and WWE think again about the star competing in the ring. If you take a look at Mysterio's active ring time in the last few years, the only conclusion that can be made is that it's time to call it a day.
