Rey Mysterio's WWE comeback may be delayed until 2014

If you thought that Rey Mysterio's recent house show tag team matches in Guadalajara on Oct. 17th and Mexico City on Oct. 18th and appearance at Hell In A Cell to do guest Spanish language announcing for the event was a sign that he'll imminently be back in the ring full time on television, then think again. His comeback may be delayed until 2014.

According to an interview Mysterio recently gave to Scott Fishman of the Miami Herald, he personally asked for the tune up bout to test out his knee and despite it going well, doesn't want to risk re-injury by rushing his return before his rehab is fully completed:

"It was more of a let’s see how my body reacts and my knee reacts to being back in the ring. Overall I felt good but still feel I need a bit more therapy, just from the damage I’ve done through the years to my knee. We are back to therapy and strengthening up that quad and hamstring, just making sure there are no mistakes this next time."

However, this contradicts the account by Dave Meltzer in the Oct. 28th Wrestling Observer Newsletter that it was WWE management who asked him to return to the ring on the tour after Alberto Del Rio's singles match with Sin Cara on the first night of the Mexican tour got over really badly:

"He had been scheduled to return on this tour as of a few weeks ago, but when he hadn’t recovered all the way, the idea was for him to start back in a few weeks and just do run-ins. But since he was there, they asked him to wrestle. They did the Del Rio vs. Sin Cara match and tranisitioned into the tag match also in Mexico City, but not in Monterrey on the final night of the tour. Mysterio said that his doctor told him that he needed to get his quad stronger to give added support to his bad knee and right now his quad isn’t strong enough and he was really worried about blowing it out and being back to square one."

Indeed, the word according to Meltzer in this week's newsletter about Mysterio was that "until the quadriceps of his bad leg strengthens, he's risking an injury doing anything physical".

Thus, it may still be well over two months until Mysterio makes his way back into a WWE ring again, something he readily admitted to Scott Fishman in his recent interview:

"I think if I don’t do it by the end of the year, then next year. I would hate to push myself instead of taking my time. I want to make a good return, and not being absent shortly after my return. It’s something I’m still debating. I’m going to listen to my body."

Some may have seen his ultra low key return to WWE at their last pay-per-view as some kind of weird punishment for him constantly postponing his wrestling comeback, but Mysterio apparently didn't see it that way, highly enjoying the time he spent in the Spanish commentary booth:

"We were first supposed to do a half hour of commentating with the Spanish team. I think it worked out well that I was able to stick around, and I enjoyed it. I enjoyed the show very much. It was definitely a different side compared to being in the ring. It was awesome…Being that close to the ring, but not wrestling was breathtaking. For a while I would forget I was commentating and be really into the match. The matches were incredible. I thought the pay-per-view was incredible. The fans make the matches and make the show, so the fans were incredible as well."

Hopefully his knee is fully recovered in time so he can make a surprise appearance in the 2014 Royal Rumble match and be featured heavily in the build up to WrestleMania XXX, but nothing is guaranteed with the state Rey's body is in sadly.