Rey Mysterio doesn’t forget where lucha libre’s cruiserweight boom started. According to Dave Meltzer, Mysterio is the reason WWE just quietly covered a hip replacement for one of the wrestlers who helped build the style he brought to American television.
Dionicio “Nicho” Castellanos, known to wrestling fans as the original Psicosis, needed the surgery, and Mysterio pushed the company to pick up the cost. Per Meltzer’s report, Nick Khan signed off on it personally. “WWE, through a decision by Nick Khan, paid for Dionicio ‘Nicho’ Castellanos (the original Psicosis) hip replacement,” Meltzer wrote, putting the total at roughly $44,000. “Rey Mysterio spearheaded this,” he added.
Who Is the Original Psicosis
Castellanos made his name as a two-time WCW Cruiserweight Champion in the late 1990s, trading signature high-flying matches with Mysterio, Juventud Guerrera, and Eddie Guerrero during cruiserweight wrestling’s biggest American boom. He later worked a run in ECW and returned to WWE in the 2000s, eventually settling into a Legends contract with the company.
He was more recently honored with the 2026 Lucha Libre Award at the Cauliflower Alley Club reunion, where he needed a cane to get around, a visible reminder of how much the decades of high-flying offense had taken on his body.
A Quiet Assist
There’s no press release here and no ceremony, just a wrestler who helped shape a generation of cruiserweights getting his medical bills handled because one of those cruiserweights, now one of the biggest stars in wrestling history, made a call on his behalf. It’s a small story by headline standards, but it’s the kind of behind-the-scenes gesture that says a lot about how Mysterio treats the wrestlers who came before him.
