So, real quick story here. I went to Monday Night Raw in St Louis yesterday, and I was sitting next to a lady who was there with her grandkids. I’m not good at guessing ages, but I’ll say she was in her mid-to-late 60s. Anyway, she was incredibly nice and gave some applause to Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn when they started the show. She was semi-engaged for the next hour or so and talked to her grandkids in a way that made it clear she’s up on at least the major plotlines of what’s going on in WWE. I pretty much assumed that’s how the rest of the night would go but then Dominik Mysterio walked out.
The second Dominik Mysterio’s music hit and he appeared, something changed in this sweet older lady. She started booing like she just found out Hulk Hogan was the third man at Bash At The Beach ‘96. In the matter of about three minutes, she told me: 1) she hates how he looks, 2) he has no respect for his family, 3) she doesn’t understand why Rhea Ripley hangs out with him and 4) she can’t take it watching him win matches anymore.
Needless to say, she was furious when he beat Johnny Gargano and loudly sighed repeatedly during his post-match promo. You would have thought Dominik Mysterio personally slashed all four of this woman’s tires in the parking garage. At one point, I felt the need to say, “It’s OK. Rey Mysterio will beat him at WrestleMania” and without missing a beat, she responded and said, “I’ll go down there and beat his ass myself if his daddy won’t.”
After Dominik Mysterio’s segment was over and he went to the back with Damian Priest, the lady next to me sat down and went back to consuming the show without a ton of emotion. In fact, apart from some claps for Rhea Ripley, she didn’t get up from her seat again until Roman Reigns came out and she screamed “cheater” several times at a high volume. She told me she hates how he has The Usos interfere in his matches and also doesn’t like how he treated Sami Zayn.
So, to recap, this lady watched three hours of Monday Night Raw and the most emotion she showed during the entire show was for Roman Reigns and Dominik Mysterio. And it’s not like she was some anecdotal outlier at Raw. The boos were loud and they were aggressive throughout the entire arena. My CinemaBlend co-worker Philip Sledge was in a different section than I was, and he said the heat was intense around him too, with one guy full-on dressed as Roman Reigns standing up and talking shit during Dom's entire match.
Last month, I went to a Smackdown taping in Evansville, Indiana and it was the same thing. Dominik Mysterio got booed like a late 80s Bobby Heenan. Some guy a couple seats down from me muttered “I hate this little shit” and people were turning on Rey Mysterio for not hitting him and rolling out of the ring. They wanted blood.
The point of wrestling is to make people feel something, positive or negative. The worst thing you can get is indifference, and Dominik Mysterio has tapped into something special here. He’s getting main event levels of heat wherever he goes, and the more he’s making nice old ladies lose their shit, the more he’s going to keep rising up the card, which is great because Judgment Day has all the potential to be an all-time great stable.
Rey Mysterio and Dominik Mysterio hasn't been officially confirmed for the WrestleMania 39 card yet, but it's obviously coming. If these recent crowd reactions are any indication, it'll likely get the loudest non-Bloodline pop of the entire night. You can watch it free with a Peacock subscription on April 1st and April 2nd.
