Despite an 83-week stint of Monday Nitro beating RAW in the ratings, WCW eventually folded and was scooped up by then-WWE Chairman Vince McMahon.
He acquired the company's tape library and the contracts of several wrestlers; however, like DDP, Booker T, and Lance Storm, Rey Mysterio wasn't signed by WWE until mid-2002 (despite competing on the final episode of Nitro the previous March).
Talking on Insight, the WWE Hall of Famer finally shared the story behind why it took so long for him to make his WWE debut.
"I think at the time, I was probably making a little too much in WCW money-wise and the contract was still running when the company was bought out," he explained. "The conversation at the time was, 'Sit back, enjoy your pay for the rest of the year that's in your contract, and once it's expired we'll sit down and we'll negotiate.'"
"At the time, I thought it was a way for them to say, 'We're not really interested,'" Mysterio added. "That's what I thought because I had always heard that [I am] too small. Definitely too small for WWE, and that it wasn't going to happen."
He'd later explain that seeing other WCW stars find success in WWE inspired him to keep pushing and, as promised, the call from Jim Ross eventually came. "JR kept his word," Mysterio recalled. "Once my contract expired, we sat down, we negotiated and I kicked off the first year."
"As soon as I came to WWE everything just started happening. Funny thing is that when I got signed by WWE, I remember going to OVW training a week prior to my debut. Somebody came up and asked me, 'Rey, they’re asking what outfit are you planning to use on your debut?' I said, 'I was thinking of using this right here,' and they were like, 'What about the mask?'"
"I said, 'I’m not wearing a mask, I don’t wear a mask anymore.' They go, 'No no, no. Vince wants you to come back with the mask.'"
Mysterio had stopped wearing the mask at the end of his WCW run, explaining why, as a luchador, he initially believed it would remain in his past. McMahon made the right decision by bringing it back, though, and the Master of the 619 wears it to this very day.
However, as his in-ring career winds down, the expectation is that Rey will eventually pass it to his son, Dominik Mysterio, in a final match he's said could be "Hair vs. Mask."