Former WWE World Heavyweight Champion Rey Mysterio recently revealed what led to him leaving the WWE.
Mysterio spoke with Rolling Stone to promote this Sunday's AAA Triplemania pay-per-view event and he discussed what led him to leave Vince McMahon's company.
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"Family was the biggest reason," Mysterio said. "If anything, I'll probably do appearances. I'm not trying to stay busy. I'm trying to enjoy my time at home and be around my kids. I want to vacation. I'm a big family guy. I want to do more with them. That was the primary reason that I stepped away. Opportunities are starting to arise. After 15 years, I didn't know what was out there. I had been wrestling with WWE all that time and wasn't focusing on anything outside of that. I'm realizing that there's a lot of opportunities there. The question is just whether I want to take them."
Mysterio was involved in a controversial back-and-forth with the WWE as he looked to move on from the company while McMahon tried to keep him under contract.
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Mysterio missed a lot of time due to injury and there was a clause in his contract, and reportedly in all WWE pacts, that stated that the company could re-activate a deal once it expires if it feels a talent owes them time missed from different ailments.
There were reports that McMahon wanted to exercise the clause, but eventually both sides mutually parted ways on good terms.
Mysterio has since been working for AAA and he said he has no regrets about how things ended with the WWE.
"I don't regret any steps that I take in life," Mysterio said. "This is something that I've been looking forward to for a while. I really wanted to have some time off, without feeling any sort of commitment to be on a certain schedule. Now, I'm doing things my way, under my terms. I'm dictating my pace towards retirement. I'm not on the grind."
Mysterio also said that he was proud of all he accomplished in the WWE, including winning the World Heavyweight Championship, and he was also glad he was able to wrestle such stars as The Undertaker.
Mysterio was notably involved in a match that led to the tragic death of El Hijo del Perro Aguayo in AAA back in March. Aguayo became unresponsive during a tag team match that also involved Mysterio and eventually passed away due to a freak accident in the ring.
While Mysterio has garnered his bumps and bruises along the way, he isn't sure when he'll hang up the wrestling boots for good.
"It's really hard for me to answer that. A year ago or so, I probably would have said that I didn't have more than three years left," he said. "After being at home for some time, and being able to train and rehab and strengthen my quads, I really feel rejuvenated. I feel great physically. I think that sometimes, you just have to give your body time to heal. Sometimes wrestlers are stubborn about doing that; we're on the road constantly. I think this rest has extended my career another couple years. At the pace I'm going right now, I'm not on the road four days a week, [and] that definitely helps heal all my injuries even more. I will leave my career up to God, but I definitely think I can go longer than I would've expected a couple years ago."
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