10 Wrestling Legends WCW Buried
3. Rey Mysterio
One of the most influential wrestlers of the 21st century, Rey Mysterio found his first major mainstream exposure in WCW. A speciality act in the cruiserweight division, Mysterio stunned crowds with his groundbreaking, imaginative take on the lucha libre style. Classic feuds with the likes of Dean Malenko, Eddie Guerrero and Psicosis were among several key reasons Nitro dominated RAW in the ratings for 83 weeks.
It went without saying to just about everyone bar Kevin Nash that the mask was an essential component of the Mysterio character's allure. Determined to get more heat (and go over everyone on the roster thanks to his dreadful creative control), Nash caused the unmasking of Mysterio to occur at Superbrawl IX. With the option of it either being the mask or his job, Mysterio begrudgingly went along with the angle. A brief flirtation with moving Mysterio up the card gave him surprise giant killer wins over the likes of Nash, Bam Bam Bigelow and Scott Norton. Sadly, the heavyweight angle did little to replenish Mysterio's ailing stock and he eventually fell further.
His WWE debut in 2002 lead to a total reboot of the character with the company all but pretending the unmasking never happened. A wise decision and one that's served the living legend well ever since.