So, I got thinking about Rey Mysterio without his mask the other day. It’s funny, that whole mystique, right? For years, seeing the guy fly around, you just kinda accepted the mask was part of him. But curiosity gets you, doesn’t it?
I remember way back, probably late 90s or early 2000s, trying to actually find pictures of him unmasked. It wasn’t like now where you just type it into Google. Nah, this was digging through old wrestling forums, clicking links on Geocities pages that probably gave my computer a dozen viruses. Spent hours doing that sometimes.
- Dial-up connection screaming away.
- Downloading grainy pics that took forever.
- Half the time it wasn’t even him, just some random dude.
- Lots of dead ends and frustration.
Why I Really Dug Deep
Looking back, I think I was so fixated on it because of what was going on in my own life. This was around the time the plant I worked at for nearly 15 years did that big ‘restructure’. Which was just a nice word for kicking a bunch of us to the curb with barely a handshake.
Suddenly, everything felt hidden. You couldn’t get straight answers from management. One day you had security, the next you were packing your toolbox. It felt like everyone was wearing a mask, pretending things were fine while they were pulling the rug out from under you.
It was brutal. Had a mortgage, two kids just starting school. The wife was working part-time, but it wasn’t enough. So, while I was supposed to be job hunting, I’d end up down these rabbit holes online, searching for stuff like Rey Mysterio’s face. Sounds dumb, I know. But maybe I was just looking for some kind of truth, something hidden to be revealed, because I wasn’t getting any in my real life.
Finding an actual, clear picture of Rey unmasked back then felt like a small victory against all the secrets and unknowns I was dealing with. Like, okay, maybe things can be revealed. Maybe there are answers somewhere, even if it’s just about a wrestler’s face.
Eventually, yeah, pictures surfaced. He’s just a regular looking guy, you know? Oscar Gutiérrez. Seeing the actual face kinda ruined the magic a bit, but finding it felt like I’d accomplished something during a time when I felt pretty powerless. It didn’t pay the bills, but it was a distraction, a weird little quest I finished.
