Rey Mysterio: Save Your Legacy, I've Created Your Retirement Plan

You never want to overstay your welcome. Rey Mysterio, it's time to retire.

I could have written this column last August when he was out rehabbing an injury. I'm writing it now since the recent suspension due to his second wellness policy violation has him back on everybody's mind.

Retirement is the best decision based on the situation. If he retires, we would no longer see him in the ring. We hardly see him in the ring now; at least this would be on his own terms.

If he stays as an active member of the roster, he is open to injury and, apparently, suspension. Based on his past, injuries seem to be at a higher probability for him. One more suspension, he gets fired per the three-strikes-out rule of WWE's wellness policy.

He can only go backwards. Right now, he will go down as the greatest little man in the business. He is never going to get a WWE title again. I felt that way before his injury last summer and before this 60-day suspension. He was a good hand for the company. A solid face, he sold merchandise, but he hasn't played the role of a serious contender to WWE brass to be a title holder in a long time.

What is left for him to do? The only answer is WWE's dream match of Rey Mysterio versus Sin Cara. Both guys have had injuries and suspensions in the past nine months. Mysterio will be able to be back in a WWE ring by June 26, 2012.

Bring him back, let him make his speech about how he's had good days, bad days, but has always loved the fans. He gets the cheap pop and he says, I just have one thing left to do. Have him call out Sin Cara and make the match between the two for SummerSlam 2012 in Los Angeles, Calif.

The match will draw because it's the two Mexican stars' first match against each other and because it will be promoted as Mysterio's last match ever. It has the “first time, last time, only time” kind of hook to it. WWE loves those promotional tags (see Survivor Series 2011).

Mysterio has his legacy which can only be harmed; there is no opportunity left for him to excel as an active wrestler in WWE. I don't know what he took which caused him to fail the wellness policy. It's very possible he wasn't trying to cheat the system but accidentally took something in a rehab process which caused him to test positive. Morally, he would have done nothing wrong, but still failed the test again.

Accomplished competitor and iconic name in Mexican wrestling history. Go out on your own terms. Don't go out on the terms of injury and drug policy.

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