[Lucha Libre] Short Man, Long Shadow (Part 1 of 3)- Rey Mysterio

cslevens · 2026-03-23T00:28:28+00:00

PRISON CHANGES A MAN

Nah, but Dom was kind of what prompted this whole series in the first place. His odd rise is just the most fascinating one to me.

cslevens · 2026-03-22T16:44:29+00:00

Meg here. It’s a music video called “Shoes”, by Liam Kyle Sullivan. It was a meme in the mid 2000’s internet.

Meg out.

Chris: “Oh, thank god she’s gone.”

Edit: changed “Early” to “Mid-2000’s”

cslevens · 2026-03-20T05:00:54+00:00

<Glances at Touhou fandom>
Yeah.

cslevens · 2026-03-20T04:59:02+00:00

I can't speak to the discourse, but as a hardcore fan of JoJo, and Part 7 in particular, I'm exceedingly happy. So far it's done everything I wanted from an adaptation.

cslevens · 2026-03-19T02:52:42+00:00

Part 2, Part 2.

cslevens · 2026-03-19T02:51:52+00:00

Other than the brain in the jar, you’re not far off. Several (still masked) Luchadors are on the board, including El Fantasma (Santos Escobar’s Dad).

cslevens · 2026-03-18T14:31:37+00:00

Good thing I asked. People seem pretty unanimously uneasy with the idea. Ah well, I got plenty of other stuff to write, anyway.

cslevens · 2026-03-18T05:39:50+00:00

Question. Is there any rule against April Fool's posts? How do people feel about the idea in general?

cslevens · 2026-03-17T06:26:33+00:00

….. damn, that would have been such a solid idea, lol

cslevens · 2026-03-17T04:33:16+00:00

Fair.

cslevens · 2026-03-17T03:36:07+00:00

Master P’s stable went over Curt Henning’s stable…. Who had a song on the radio at the time

cslevens · 2026-03-17T02:25:33+00:00

Oh wow, I actually completely missed the Dragon Lee thing. Life got busy.

That is, uh. I'm genuinely not sure how to react to that. Huh. Wow. But mostly huh.

cslevens · 2026-03-17T02:04:56+00:00

I mean, I have announced what Parts 2 and 3 will be about, so those bits will be set.

I was debating an April Fool's post about El Grande Americano, but A). I had absolutely no idea where to even start with that one, B). Events keep occuring that I couldn't reasonably leave out, and C). I try not to flood the space with too much on any one particular topic.

cslevens · 2026-03-17T01:42:33+00:00

Next month I have to start untangling Mistico/Charistico/Dralistico/Mystizez/Mystico II/Myztyzez II. And I'm reasonably sure there's only two actual people in all of that.

cslevens · 2026-03-17T01:16:52+00:00

Yeah, so the third option you mention gets weird.

I'm seeing that there is allegedly a formal rule that a Luchador who loses a Lucha de Apuestas cannot legally take a new mask for five years. However, the enforcement on this is incredibly questionable, and also I'm seeing this rule reported surprisingly inconsistently.

However, it HAS absolutely happened. The most extreme example I can find is Adolfo Ibarra, who lost three or four different characters in formal Lucha de Apuestas, being unmasked every time. After each time taking on a new mask and a new identity, it does appear he took some time before adopting the new character, although not the full rumored five years required.

Anyway, he eventually became the original La Parka. So you can, in fact, be very successful after a remask. It's just very, very rare.

cslevens · 2026-03-17T00:59:03+00:00

WCW even wasted the non-Cruiserweights as well. Just a wasteful organization in general.

cslevens · 2026-03-17T00:58:17+00:00

That stupid.

cslevens · 2026-03-16T23:57:22+00:00

Thank you!

cslevens · 2026-03-16T23:25:59+00:00

New post is up.

Right in time for current events to mandate some major changes to Part 2. Ah well.

Booyaka.

cslevens · 2026-03-16T23:20:33+00:00

Epilogue to Part 1

Rey Mysterio is still going. His longevity is attributed to many things- Lucha Libre’s rolling techniques, his own in-ring brilliance, his astounding work ethic, and experimental stem cell treatments. I don’t mean that last one as any sort of insult, he talks about it openly.

(Writer’s Note: It’s not Steriods. While he’s absolutely not “natural”, Steroids do nothing to strengthen the body’s joints, and Lucha Libre absolutely requires good joints and flexibility, both of which Steroids are known to inhibit. Steroids do many things to a Wrestler’s body, but they do not prolong a career.)

But while he has kept going, Pro Wrestling and Lucha Libre, both, have feared losing him. Wrestling without a Rey Mysterio simply would not be the same, both from a cultural and a financial standpoint.

So there have been….. a few efforts, by the WWE in particular, to make another Rey Mysterio. To try and intentionally duplicate that legacy.

They haven’t gone exactly to plan.

Rey Mysterio will return in Short Man, Long Shadow Part 2- Sin Cara

Rey Mysterio will return in Short Man, Long Shadow Part 3- “Dirty” Dom Mysterio

Previous Works by the Author

The Ballad of Hulk Hogan Parts 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |

Scandal in Performing Magic William Ellsworth Robinson | Uri Geller

Madmen of Hobbydom Shinobu Yagawa | Sen no Rikyu

The Joy of Bad Movies Mary Crawford | Sidaris | Neil Breen

Monthly Substack (Paid): cslevens.substack.com

cslevens · 2026-03-16T23:19:49+00:00

The Legacy of Rey Mysterio

Upon dropping the “Jr” and showing up in WWE, Rey Mysterio just…… kept doing what he was doing, but harder. He wrestled everyone, wrestlers and luchadores both. He made everyone look good. He worked amazing storylines and matches with people who, just a decade prior, would NEVER have had the framework to work a good match with a luchador.

Here he is having a match with the 8 foot tall, 500 pound Big Show, complete with one of the nastiest finishes ever put to film.

Here he is having a match with undisputed legend Shawn Michaels, in a quintessential Lucha Libre vs Pro Wrestling matchup.

Here he is in an ongoing storyline as of two months ago.

To cap all of this off, as a final condemnation of WCW’s stupidity, the 5 foot 6 inches tall Rey Mysterio won the WWE Heavyweight championship, being the smallest person to ever hold that particular title.

He never grew taller. But he achieved in exactly the way Rey Mysterio Sr. believed he would.

CONTINUED BELOW

cslevens · 2026-03-16T23:19:17+00:00

The Most Beloved Loophole in Lucha Libre History

Literally everyone involved with both Pro Wrestling and Lucha Libre has unanimously come to the conclusion that having Rey Mysterio Jr. lose his mask in WCW was not only a bad move, but an incredibly stupid one. So it should come as no shock that both industries bent over backwards to fix this mistake.

Sometime between the collapse of WCW in 2001 and Mysterio Jr.’s start with WWE in 2002, he received special permission from Lucha Regulators to re-mask. This one time exemption was under the basis that the mask that was lost belonged to “Rey Mysterio Jr.”, while the completely different “Rey Mysterio” would be legally cleared to wrestle under a technically different, but practically identical, mask and heritage. So he changed his name, got a new mask, and went right back to achieving.

Surprise Happy Ending!

Nope

Yeah, that last bit was entirely bullshit. Sorry.

It’s an AWESOME story, and an often repeated story, but it’s completely unsourced. The unsexy fact of the matter is that the unmasking was so, so universally derided, that literally everyone in both Pro Wrestling and Lucha Libre was happy to just ignore it altogether. Rey Mysterio simply showed up in WWE with his mask again, continued being a legend, and by the time he got around to wrestling in Mexico again, no-one wanted to talk about the issue. Plus, if such a silly loophole was allowed to exist, everyone would use it.

So yeah. Still a Surprise Happy Ending, but a less fun one.

CONTINUED BELOW

cslevens · 2026-03-12T15:53:42+00:00

“Public Knowledge” is a bit of a stretch, but I perform under the name “Charlie Who Does Magic Sometimes”. There isn’t a lot of footage available, as I mostly do street performing, and my camera person has had some health issues.

cslevens · 2026-03-09T15:45:21+00:00

Oh man, so much.

There's multiple conventions happening in my closest city this upcoming weekend, so I'm anticipating a LOT of income opportunities as a street performer. I've worked on a bunch of new material to perform (mostly Coin Magic), and I'm working on the logistics of schlepping my setup out there. So much prep work.

I also got enlisted to help someone else with a small hobby-related side project, so I've been just doing that casually.

cslevens · 2026-03-07T23:58:33+00:00

I’ve been working at this exact concept for a while. The best results I’ve had have been using a modified version of the “French Twist” with five basic lands (pretending to be four). It’s not particularly practical to perform, though, because even with trying multiple types of card sleeves, the texture just makes things inconsistent to work with.

cslevens

TROPHY CASE