June 18, 2002

Rey Mysterio Jr. made his WWE debut on Saturday, June 15, at a house show in Anaheim, followed by a second house show in Fresno the next day.
I was fortunate enough to be on hand for Sacramento Smackdown tapings this Tuesday, with decent tickets to boot. 15 minutes into the event, the 'dark match' portion (non-televised matches) of the show was under way. After WWF's token jobber Funaki made his entrance, a new entrance theme hit the speakers. It had a distinct hip hop feeling too it, while sounding refreshingly bizarre. As soon as a Mexican rapper was added to the mix, there was no questioning that Rey Mysterio Jr was here. 

When he came through the Smackdown curtains, wearing his old school mask and baggy vinyl pants, he got a surprisingly loud ovation from the Sacramento crowd. The rookie ring announcer did a nice job of pronouncing his name in Spanish as he entered the ring and posed on the turnbuckles. By this time, the people who didn't know who he was had realized he was facing Funaki, and started cheering Rey by default. 
As the match started, the two wrestlers hit some quick highspots that got the crowd going. Funaki quickly got the advantage, tossing Rey around and taking advantage of his small size advantage. I was totally into the match, but I could feel the audience quiet down around me. Just as they began to lose interest, Rey reversed an electric chair drop into a hurricanrana pin that popped the crowd. He then set Funaki up for his signature 'spin-between-the-top-and-middle-rope' spot, kicking him in the face. The crowd exploded, delighted that they had just seen a 'new' move. The finish came when Rey reversed a super death valley driver into vicious reverse frankensteiner and got the pin. As his music hit again, everybody in the Arco Arena was a Rey Mysterio Jr fan.