John Cena Joins Long List of Wrestlers Praising Dominik Mysterio: 'He Reminds Me a Lot of Me…and A Lot of the Mistakes I Made'

When John Cena hit the stage for Raw’s Netflix debut to talk about his final bow from wrestling, it’s safe to say no one would have guessed the man who would have been given some of the most opportunities to be in the ring with Cena would be…Dominik Mysterio. But when all is said and done, Cena and Mysterio will have wrestled two singles matches and one multi-man match over the course of this 30+ date tour (18 matches). Mysterio has technically been in the ring with Cena four times including the Royal Rumble, which is one more than CM Punk, two more than R-Truth, three more than Randy Orton and one more than Cody Rhodes. The only wrestler who will have been in the ring with Cena more, which is also a shocking name, is Logan Paul, who will have taken part in five of the 18 matches Cena wrestled in his final year.

Mysterio’s role in the retirement tour is in part due to circumstance as he was in possession of the one title Cena never won. It seemed clear these two were headed on a collision course. But in all, Mysterio will be responsible for three of Cena’s final four matches: Cena’s final two Raws (11/10 and 11/17) and Cena’s final PLE, Survivor Series 2025. It’s hard to chalk all of that up to convenience especially when with each week that goes by, another top wrestler is seemingly praising Mysterio and his work.

The latest to join this list was Cena himself, who appeared on Raw Recap on Tuesday and expressed his gratitude for having to gotten to work with Mysterio before his retirement. Noting his respect and admiration for Mysterio, Cena told Raw Recap that the young rising star reminds him of himself and reminds him of the mistakes he made when he was coming up in WWE.

“I can see all of the mistakes that are about to happen with him, and I want to shake him and be like, ‘You’re going to do this,’ but I want him to learn for himself. He is authentic. He’s reliable. He works hard, and he’s passionate about the business. He’ll learn. He’ll figure the rest out.”

It’s a quite a ringing endorsement for the man who will be responsible for giving Cena three of his final four matches.

The Rise of Dominik Mysterio

Mysterio’s rise has been well-chronicled. He may call himself a 20-year veteran (it’s part of what makes him such a great character) but in actuality, Mysterio has only been an active wrestler for parts of five years and each year, he’s gotten better and his developed his gimmick more effectively. Mysterio was given a tough task, debuting against one of the company’s best in Seth Rollins at SummerSlam in 2020. And while the match wasn’t perfect, Mysterio showcased incredible potential, potential he’s gotten closer and closer to fully achieving. The match was solid if unspectacular but it kickstarted Mysterio’s journey on a positive note. Mysterio has continued to improve his craft since then, most notably turning heel and becoming one of the company’s best. His prison entrance for his WrestleMania match against his dad and his ‘Prison Dom’ gimmick where he spoke about doing hard time was fantastic. As was his character transformation as part of Judgment Day when he went from, in Rey Mysterio’s own words, “Rey Mysterio’s baby boy to Eddie Guerrero’s demon boy.”

As Rey penned in a recent Player’s Tribune article commemorating the anniversary of Guerrero’s death, Dom would have made his pseudo-dad so proud as his current character is “a love letter to so many of the things that made [Eddie] so special” including his “innate ability to play off different people.”

Rey Mysterio is just one of a growing list of future of current Hall of Famers who have come out to praise Dominik Mysterio as of late. And while his words should be taken with a grain of salt as he may be a bit of a biased proud papa, the same can’t be said for Cody Rhodes, Booker T, Shawn Michaels, Randy Orton, AJ Styles, Finn Balor, and Matt Hardy to name a few.

Future and Current Hall of Famers Praise Dirty Dom

“To me, Dominik Mysterio [is the] MVP of WWE this year…Every time he comes here [to ‘NXT’], I look at him and I [say], ‘Hardest working man in show business.’ He has just been an iron man for us…I can’t speak to what he does on the main roster, but he has just done everything we have asked of him. He’s done it professionally, he’s done it admirably, done it to the best of his ability…He has been a stud for us. Again, I think from a company standpoint, everybody would agree with me, he got a lot put on him early, and I think he’s grown a lot in this last year. I think he’s become a hell of a performer as well, when everything is said and done. It’s hard for me not to admire the young man who’s worked so hard for us.”

– Shawn Michaels, Cheap Heat podcast with Peter Rosenberg in 2023

When Randy Orton was preparing to make his injury return following an 18-month hiatus between May 2022 – November 2023, WWE called on Dominik Mysterio to be his first singles opponent in addition to one of his first opponents period through the War Games match that pitted Orton’s team against Judgment Day. Orton was quick to praise his opponent, telling the Bump, “that kid has got a hell of a future in store…we haven’t seen anything from him yet and he’s already done so much.”

Mysterio’s bright future was at the crux of Cody Rhodes’ praise as well with the current world champion stating on the All the Smoke podcast a few weeks ago, “He’s somebody that’s often cited internally – I don’t think I’m giving anything away here – as somebody who’s gonna be the future of WWE…He’s one of the ones that when it’s said, I believe it. I think I’m gonna come to a WWE show in 15 years and pay money to see and it will probably be Dom Mysterio on the top of the card, because he’s figuring out how to do it…Dom is special.”

From Rey Mysterio’s son to Judgment Day’s breakout star, Dominik Mysterio has grown and evolved in his five years in WWE and both his contemporaries and wrestling legends have noticed. Booker T recently praised Dom saying”this guy’s on a trajectory like I’ve never seen before in this business…Dominik is in his own lane, nobody can do what he does.” Matt Hardy echoed that sentiment after Mysterio’s match with Cena stating the title match, “elevated Dom. Dom went out there and had such great composure. He came off as a massive star.” AJ Styles, before he even worked with Mysterio in his IC title program called him the company’s top heel, noting, “you can’t get heat like he can but to see where he was when he first came, that is so cool.”

Mysterio’s transformation can’t be understated. His go-away heat has been legendary, so much so that when he won the Intercontinental Championship at WrestleMania 41 and fans actually cheered him, actually stopped booing long enough to hear what he had to say, the moment was next level. It was five years in the making but Mysterio hasn’t let up. He has embraced his villain era, retaining his Intercontinental Championship for over 200 days by hook or by crook.

Now, Dominik Mysterio is no longer a WWE champ (he still holds the AAA Championship) but it seems certain he won’t be without a title for long. Who knows, perhaps a world championship is in his near future against his off-screen rival, CM Punk. Punk and Mysterio have traded social media barbs, interview jabs, and house show matches though the two have yet to bring their tongue-in-cheek rivalry and growing mutual beef to TV. That said, one of those house shows gave Mysterio another feather in his cap that is a testament to WWE’s belief in him – he was Punk’s first opponent back in a WWE ring. Since that match in 2023, Punk and Mysterio have taken every opportunity to taunt the other in the media. It would be a great feud if these two can bring all of that animosity and promo battles to TV soon.