6. Chris Jericho And Rey Mysterio Lobbied To Get Him Into WWE
Chris Jericho was not the only one who got a job in North America thanks to a little help from Ultimo Dragon. Rey Mysterio first got noticed by American fans when he performed at the 1995 Super J Cup. He was there at the request of Ultimo Dragon, who got a lot of heat because of Rey's small size. Once Rey had stolen the show with Psicosis, they were calling him a genius. Then at the NJPW/WCW World Wrestling Peace Festival in LA on June 1st 1996, Eric Bischoff saw Rey perform in person and knew he needed him for his cruiserweight division. Rey's partner that night? Ulimo Dragon, of course. Both Rey and Jericho were not oblivious to Dragon's help and they actually lobbied for Dragon to get signed by WWE in 2003. There was a lot of doubt about Dragon in spring 2003: he'd been out of the ring for years, was 36-years-old and WWE already had one masked sensation in Mysterio. Was Smackdown big enough for the both of them? Rey, Jericho and road agent Dean Malenko thought so and helped convince management that he was worth taking a chance on.
