Bryan Alvarez and Dave Meltzer shone new light in their January 31st subscribers only Wrestling Observer radio show on WWE's recent decisions to sign Mistico from CMLL and make Alberto Del Rio the winner of the 2011 Royal Rumble last night. Maybe it was in part to send yet another message to their wounded top Mexican draw Rey Mysterio who WWE is frustrated again with:

Bryan Alvarez: There is unhappiness with Rey, there've actually been a lot of changes with him, apparently he's ... no longer flying in first class, and they've had a lot of problems with him in terms of scheduling and him wanting time off... Dave Meltzer: ... They've made a deal where he would do very few, like maybe one weekend a month on the road only, I mean he would do all the TVs and he hasn't done ... any house shows in weeks.... He's got the bad shoulder,... Dr Andrews told him to take time off and ... they didn't want him taking time off and he wanted time off and they made the agreement that he would work PPVs and TVs and that's kind of where they're at right now. But there is the frustration and they know that there's a good chance that Mysterio won't be around for a long time and they really want a Mysterio character because the Hispanic market is so strong for them and they think they feel that they need that Hispanic babyface.

It sounds like WWE is mad at Rey Mysterio for negotiating himself a remarkably light house show schedule and then not even being able to fulfil those limited dates due to him working through a catalogue of injuries. Indeed, Mysterio supposedly needed major knee surgery 14 months ago, yet never received it. What makes this particularly callous behaviour by WWE is that they're ignoring the advice of their favoured emergency orthopaedic surgeon with a wrestler that needed rehab for a pain pill addiction in 2008.

This is the latest down swing in WWE's love hate relationship with the super popular and he knows it Rey Mysterio. Mysterio first irked management in late spring of 2009 when he complained about his pay. A compromise was reached where WWE promised him a lengthy run with the Intercontinental title. That only caused more headaches on both sides, as WWE attempted to renege on that promise almost as soon as they made it by booking Mysterio to drop the title to Dolph Ziggler, possibly on multiple occasions, only for Mysterio to politely refuse. The end result of this tense political stand off was WWE suspiciously announcing that Mysterio was suspended for one month for a Wellness policy violation on August 27th, 2009. I don't doubt the legitimacy of the violation, but one suspects that it would have been quietly swept under the carpet if WWE was on good terms with Mysterio and didn't feel the need to vengefully punish him for his behaviour, especially as Wellness policy suspensions have dried up since then, even token ones to no names like Harry Smith. Though Mysterio was initially furious with WWE for publicly announcing his suspension and upset the company even more when he claimed in an unauthorised interview with Mexican newspaper Record that he was unfairly suspended on a technicality, cooler heads prevailed and Mysterio returned to work with his push unaffected a month later. However, Vince McMahon has a long memory and I wouldn't be surprised if the Alberto Del Rio character and mega push was partially inspired by lingering resentment towards their Mexican American prima donna named Rey Mysterio.