On a recent edition of ‘The Bill Simmons Podcast,’ WWE CEO Nick Khan compared Dominik Mysterio’s heel turn to that of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On Dominik’s progress: “When I started with WWE … height of COVID, Dominik — young wrestler, Rey’s son, seen as Rey’s son, nice young man — but it wasn’t really working. I think the patience that Vince and Paul Levesque, Triple H, show with the talent, you saw it with Roman, where people were not buying him as the monster face, if you will. And then, all the sudden during COVID, he came back to the Florida facility when we were taping down there, came back as a heel and boom! Roman Reigns takes off. Dominik Mysterio — ‘Hey, I’m the good son of Rey Mysterio.’ It was great, they stuck with it … turned him into a heel, amazing!”
On letting talent develop: “I think sticking with it and really giving people a shot to be the best versions of themselves on the mic… I think sticking with what you think can work is probably a good plan.”
On other stars who took time to develop: “When The Rock came in as Rocky Maivia … boos throughout — even worse than boos, no response. He sort of lit it up and The Rock took fire…. There tends to be that moment where all of a sudden it catches fire.”
