After winning tag titles with and then spending time feuding with his dad, the legendary Rey Mysterio, "Dirty" Dom has stepped into his own spotlight and has become wildly popular. He won the WWE Men's Intercontinental Championship at WrestleMania 41 when he defeated champion Bron Breakker, Penta, and Judgment Day stablemate, Finn Balor in a Fatal 4-Way. As we head into SummerSlam, he has surpassed 100 days as champion.
One of his biggest tests as champion will come on Night Two when he takes on the "Phenomenal" AJ Styles. Styles has been chasing Mysterio for weeks in order to get the match. He has posed as a valet, a janitor, and even a medical official in an attempt to get Mysterio to sign the contract to make the match official. They are 1-1 in singles competition going into the rubber match.
Ahead of "The Biggest Party of the Summer", I had a chance to talk to "Dirty" Dom.
Mysterio made his SummerSlam debut 20 years ago when he was involved in the infamous angle between Rey Mysterio and the late Eddie Guerrero over who would receive custody of the then eight-year-old boy. Mysterio would debut at SummerSlam as a wrestler against Seth Rollins in 2020.
He is working with Chase Freedom all weekend long. On Thursday, Chase Freedom sponsored the SummerSlam kickoff event featuring Mysterio at Brooklyn Paramount. This weekend, Chase Freedom is sponsoring a fan fest with fun events such as DJ sets, look-a-like contests, giveaways, and photo moments where fans can live out their dreams of being a WWE Superstar. For fans attending the show, Chase Freedom cardmembers get a fast lane entrance to enter MetLife Stadium.
“Chase Freedom has given me the opportunity to do whatever I want, which is very dangerous. The room service bill has been through the roof.” It has also been allowing Mysterio to indulge in his favorite: chicken tenders. Although he enjoyed his very nice hotel thanks to Chase Freedom, the tenders were lacking, although he was saved by ranch dressing. As a West Coast kid, being in New Jersey, he was expecting the tenders to be “dog!”
Although his güerita, Liv Morgan is injured, he’s been able to send chocolates and sweets to where she’s rehabbing using his Chase Freedom card.
What SummerSlam means to Mysterio
On Sunday, Mysterio will compete at SummerSlam once again. “Being able to compete at SummerSlam is a blessing in itself. The fact that it’s my 20 year anniversary and I’m going in as a champion against AJ Styles, I feel like it has a big match feel. I hope AJ is ready because I am fully prepared and I don’t think he knows what’s coming. I’ve been well rested. I’ve been being taken care of by Chase with my Freedom Unlimited card. They got me at this really nice hotel; decent tenders. But I’m excited, I’m ready.”
Despite Styles’ tenacity in trying to get a match with Mysterio, he won’t approach the match any differently. “It doesn’t affect me much. It gives me real insight of what AJ should be doing instead of wrestling. He should be a janitor. He should be a valet guy because clearly wrestling is not it. But the old man has been doing it for 20 plus years now, so you gotta give him credit where credit is due, right?”
“At the end of the day, AJ is no Mysterio and I am here to solidify myself as the greatest Mysterio of all time. 20 year veteran in this business. I’m ready. I’m young, I’m hungry. I got the IC title with me. I want more gold. I want my güerita back. There’s just a lot going into this and I don’t think AJ’s ready. Plus, he’s alone. I have the entire Judgment Day.”
Changes in the Judgment Day
Two more members of the Judgment Day will be defending their titles this weekend. Raquel Rodriguez and Roxanne Perez will be defending their Women’s Tag Titles against Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss. Mysterio has been known to assist his stablemates when needed. Although he has a busy weekend of his own, he will be around this weekend. “We always have the Clubhouse. Very select few get to come inside the Judgment Day clubhouse. We’re actually looking into getting a neon LED sign that says Judgment Day, courtesy of Chase Freedom Unlimited. So we’re looking into that.”
“But to be honest, I was told they want to do this on their own. They want to do it themselves. But I’m gonna be there. I’ll be at the show. If they need me, I’m going to be there. Maybe hiding under the ring, just in case. Raquel told me they’ve got it handled. She wants to continue to prove why she’s the best tag team champion of all time. So, I’m going to let Raquel and the other one do their thing.”
Perez is still pretty new to the group and wormed her way into Judgment Day by enticing Mysterio with his beloved chicken tenders. When Morgan was injured during a match, Perez stepped in and took her place as the other half of the tag team champions. When asked about the dynamic she brings to the group, Mysterio said she adds “the missing person we were needing because obviously with Liv being hurt and out, we were down a person. And you know for us, it’s always been a numbers game with Judgment Day.”
“The fact that we lost one of our members, not only our members, but one of our bigger assets when it comes to Liv, champion, former world champion – greatest Women’s World Champion of all time – so she’s a huge part of the Judgment Day. So you can bring in Roxanne, I don’t want to say fill those shoes or fill that void, but be that extra body that we needed is perfect. She was NXT Women’s Champion, and she’s holding it down with Raquel.”
With every member of Judgment Day holding gold, it puts a target on their back. In order to deal with having those targets, Mysterio joked, “we buy really good security with our Freedom Unlimited cards.” He said they all have each other’s backs. “It’s like the buddy system to the bathroom. You never walk alone. We’re always with each other. There’s always someone around. We’re never gonna get blind sided because like I said, we’ve got a buddy system. We watch each other’s backs and we have a good thing going.”
“At the end of the day, if you really think about it, other than the Samoans, no one has us outnumbered. If you want to put in the numbers, we got some Latinos in there.” He believes he can recruit them because he speaks Spanish, has Chase Freedom Unlimited cards for them and can supply them with chicken tenders.
Making a statement in AAA
¡Dominik Mysterio (@DomMysterio35) ha llegado a AAA!
— Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide (@luchalibreaaa) July 26, 2025
📍 CDMX.
📺 EN VIVO en @canalspace y @StreamMaxLA.#AlianzasAAA 💫 #NochesDeLuchaLibreAAA pic.twitter.com/ETJi2ATJ7l
A week prior to our conversation, Mysterio appeared in AAA where he attacked Vikingo from behind. When he revealed his identity, he got a raucous response from the crowd. “It was super surreal. Being able to go down to Mexico and AAA and kind of cement myself in the history books, being a third-generation Mysterio, my great uncle working down there, my deadbeat dad going down there, but no one in the Mysterio family has done what I’ve done, and that is compete for the AAA Mega Campeon. So like I said, I’m here to make history. I’m here to proclaim myself as the Greatest Mysterio of All Time, the greatest living Mysterio of all time. So for me, it was just another stepping stone that I had to get to to not only prove myself, but to shove it in my dad’s face that I’m only five years in, but I’m already better than he ever was.”
As a champion who now gets to compete in two companies, he has high visibility as a Latino. “It’s really cool, especially the fact that a lot of people don’t know, but I am English second language. I didn’t start speaking English until I was about in third or fourth grade. So for me to be able to dominate both languages is very, very special because coming home from school, we didn’t really speak much English. And back home, Mama didn’t speak English so we spoke Spanish. So we had to mix and match it, going to school speaking English, coming home speaking Spanish. So the fact that I was able to dominate both of those languages has now helped me a lot.”
“There are so many messages that I can come across and get through to be people, whether it's Spanish or different parts of the world where Spanish is very similar, you can still understand kind of what I’m saying because you can pick up certain words or dialects. So for me, it’s huge to have that representation for the culture and for the people being Latino and constantly being able to do what I can for the culture.”
Should WWE have a PLE in Mexico City, Mysterio would love to main event either against his dad or Penta. “It would have to be for their mask because I’m not doing it any other way. Because obviously all of these luchadors are insanely ugly and that’s why they wear masks. I’ve said it before, I’m a good looking guy, I don’t need to cover my face. So the fact that I can go into Mexico and unmask these guys and show their true faces, that would be huge for me. That would be another stepping stone and claim myself as the Greatest Mysterio of All Time.”