Dominik Mysterio On How Seth Rollins Helped His Career

Still riding the high of becoming the first-ever father-son WWE SmackDown Tag Team Champions in history, Rey and Dominik Mysterio appeared on WWE's The Bump recently to talk about their triumphant defeat over The Dirty Dawgs (Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode) at WrestleMania Backlash.

As they were jumping in, the panel showed a clip from Seth Rollins' interview last week on the show and how the "SmackDown Savior" mentioned that without his steadfast fixation to conquer the Mysterios last year, Dominik would not be the star that he is today. In essence, Rollins believes it was his doing that helped Dominik jumpstart his WWE career and forward his skills towards becoming a new champion. Dominik responded to Rollins' comments from last week by saying he can't fault the man for thinking that.

"I mean, he's not wrong," Dominik Mysterio responded. "He did kind of help me and guide me. At the end of the day, it is Seth Rollins. He's one of the best in this business and one of the best to ever do it. So, I have to give credit where credit is due."

With a strong alliance already intact as father and son, the panel asked Rey and Dominik if either of them has faced any challenges as tag team partners. Rey answered first.

"I haven't faced any challenges yet with him," Rey Mysterio mentioned. "We're still growing as a team and still getting to know each other. I'm used to being with Superstars that have been in the business for quite some time. It's normally me learning off of my team or my partner.

"In this case, I learn from Dom. But it's more of what Dom picks up from me, and I have to guide him. It's kind of cool for me to play the role of teaching my son how to run the ropes and to do certain things and compliment him when he does great. Other times, when he does something wrong, I make sure and point the finger at him. So, I'm probably his biggest critique."

Trying not to say the wrong thing, Dominik responded to the same question but tried not to laugh when he discussed his father's stubbornness as a tag team partner.

"It's pretty smooth sailing. He is very hard-headed. He's stubborn," Dominik noted with a laugh. "We don't bump heads, but, like, it's hard to get my point across sometimes when he's not getting it. Eventually, he gets it, and we work it out."

Since his arrival to WWE, Dominik has surprised fans watching worldwide by pulling out all the stops with his mat-based technicality and Lucha Libre style approach in the ring. Dominik shared that he and his father are spending time watching old matches of Rey's to attain an idea of where they want to take their in-ring strategy in the future. But he refused to share any more information than that.

"We've been watching a lot of film from back in the day with my dad and Eddie [Guerrero], my dad and Batista [and] my dad and [Chris] Benoit. So, we've been studying and picking up things here and there that we can do our way if that makes any sense? We're putting our own little twists and turns on it. We've got some things in the works," Dominik revealed.

Looking back at his tenure in this sport, Rey admits he takes great pride in becoming a focal point from his early beginnings in WCW to where he is now as the SmackDown Tag Team Champion. He promises fans will be star-struck when they get to see him and his son perform in front of them in a few months.

"I was truly blessed to be part of wrestling in the mid-'90s. Not only to be part of wrestling but to be one of the pioneers who revolutionized the sport in WCW in the Cruiserweight division alongside all my partners," Rey began. "But that was really cool to live that moment at the time. We really weren't understanding we were changing the sport for good.

"To see the new generation and how many of those Superstars have been inspired by what we did in the mid-'90's is incredible! I gotta stay on my toes, man. I gotta make sure that every time I deliver, I deliver something fresh. Being able to have Dominik by my side – who helps me out a lot because of his height – we have a lot of cool things planned to do together as tag team partners that, I think, we'll keep the fans on their toes epically when we go live in front of an audience."

You can watch Rey and Dominik Mysterio's full interview here. If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit WWE's The Bump with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.