“Dirty” Dominik Mysterio recently appeared as a guest on INSIGHT with Chris Van Vliet for an in-depth interview covering all things pro wrestling and WWE.
During the discussion, The Judgment Day member spoke about his empty-arena WWE debut against Seth “Freakin’” Rollins, being CM Punk’s return opponent in WWE, being relentlessly booed everywhere he goes by fans, teaming with John Cena in the past and what his wife thinks of all the chaos involving himself, Rhea Ripley and Liv Morgan.
Featured below are some of the highlights from the interview sent to us by Chris Van Vliet himself, which includes “Dirty” Dom touching on these topics with his thoughts.
On having his debut match against Seth Rollins: “It’s definitely different than everyone else. I’m super thankful for the opportunities because something like that doesn’t come very often. I remember specifically my dad telling me he didn’t think I was ready. I don’t know if it was because he just had never seen me in the ring, I don’t know what it was, but I knew that I wasn’t going to get presented with another opportunity, at least like this. So I jumped on it right away. I knew what I could do and I’m a good listener, so I knew I could attempt to hold my own with one of the best.”
On there being no fans for his debut match: “I don’t think it was difficult because I didn’t know anything else. I never really did the indys. When I was training, whether it was at Lance’s or back home I didn’t have a crowd or anything. It was just the students there. So I didn’t really know. Then before that, when I did have a crowd I was eight years old, doing it with Eddie. Even before that, I was 11 when I did the stuff with CM Punk. So I didn’t know anything different.”
On being CM Punk’s return opponent: “Yeah, kind of crazy. I didn’t expect it to be me, just because we have so much great talent right now, especially the roster we have today, Raw and SmackDown. But the fact that they trusted me to go in there with him on his first match back, like you said after 10 years, I’m glad I was able to give him his first punch.”
On what the match meant to him: “It was special because I knew the company trusted me with things like that. I wasn’t aware of it until I kind of got pulled aside and was like, Hey, how do you feel about working CM Punk for the live events tour? I was like, Bring it on, let’s go. I was excited. I was ready for it because I knew it was another opportunity and another challenge for me, so I was excited to cross another one off the list.”
On being booed by the fans: “Sometimes I just give up on the promos because I can’t just sit there for two minutes and try and talk when they’re not letting me. So it’s just we have to move on. Whether it’s to Finn or JD or Liv, I just got to look at them and be like you guys say something because they really don’t let me talk.”
On John Cena: “I’ve actually wrestled John in a dark match for SmackDown. But I would love to get my hands on Cena again. Yeah, I have some history there that I’d like to touch back with.”
On teaming with John Cena: “I’m trying to find the right word for it. It was a surreal moment, because I grew up watching him, had his album, signed and everything. Again, big Cena guy too growing up. Then, not only that but when he came back the first time, when did the summer of Cena against Roman, I was along for the ride on that one. All the live events. I was tagging with my deadbeat and Cena against Roman and The Usos. It was me, John Cena, Rey Mysterio, against Roman and The Usos. So him being okay with me [being in the match], I shouldn’t have been in that [or] in any of those matches leading into SummerSlam. In no way, shape or form should I have been in that ring with any of those guys, maybe my dad. But him being able to do that for me and just giving me his advice, going through 30 plus days of every week just something different, and then flipping it around to where he’s still in the same spot but now I’m the bad guy, and we got to work that one time. So I would definitely love to get back in the ring with him and mix it up.”
On what his wife thinks of all the chaos: “She’s cool with it surprisingly, yeah she has honestly been super cool. She’s my ride-or-die. We’ve been together since we were 14. So as long as I let her know hey, this is what’s going to go down. She’s like alright, cool. She honestly never gives me a hard time. I’ve said it before, but when Rhea licked me that one time, and even after the kiss with Liv, because I always text her after a match or anything like, ‘Hey honey, just finished. All good, all safe.’ Just so she knows. Usually she’ll always text me back ‘Oh okay, good, see you soon. Love you.’ But when that stuff happened it was like, so now that we are out here in Vegas she’s like ‘Dude, I found a tarantula in the garage.’ I’m like, Well, did you kill it? She doesn’t worry about stuff like that, and she’s been with me for so long, she’s my rock, she makes me a better person. So the fact that she’s able to still put up with all of this and deal with the craziness of all of what I do, I’m truly a blessed man.”
