It's a Thursday night in October. Rey Mysterio's new 3-disc DVD set, "The Biggest Little Man," is in stores everywhere. That means WWE's publicity machine has Mysterio in plug mode: 12-hour days pitching the product to anyone willing to spread the word.

Podcast: Episode 52

"I started my day at 4:30 in the morning," Mysterio said by phone while driving to an autograph signing. It was 6:30 p.m., a tiring day after a worrisome week which started when Mysterio voluntarily evacuated from his San Diego home. It was threatened by wildfires. "I spent about three hours at my house (Monday) just watching the hills on the mountains burn down. When I saw it was getting real close, I told my wife, 'You know what? Let's evacuate. Let's take our stuff because I don't want to risk it.' And that's what we did, Man. We evacuated. I got my family to safety."

That was Monday. On Tuesday, he flew to Kansas City to appear on "Smackdown!" By Wednesday, he said everything was OK.

"Everything was calm," Mysterio said. "The fires by my house were pretty much gone. We brought our stuff back in on Wednesday."

Podcast: Entire Rey Mysterio Interview

Then came Thursday, and the DVD media tour. Tiring work, but well worth it to this masked marvel -- a guy who says he will re-sign with Vince McMahon's WWE when his contract is up in mid-2008.

"I'm very happy with this company," Mysterio said. "They've treated me good for the past five years, so I don't see why I shouldn't re-sign."

Big Win
One of the biggest highlights for Mysterio was his WrestleMania 22 (2006) victory over Randy Orton and Kurt Angle in a triple-threat match to capture the World Heavyweight Championship. It was his first title run, but a reign some say was way too short.

"If some people think that I haven't gotten what I deserve, maybe in their eyes I haven't," he said. "But I think we saw what Rey Mysterio was capable of doing -- and the type of draw he was. So that really helped me out a lot. If they ever would decide to hand me the heavyweight title again, I would definitely do some things different.

"I feel satisfied with what I've accomplished, and I think that whatever years I have left in this business -- I just hope to do it in a safe way where my body can last so I can accomplish my last-minute dreams."

Khali? Ha!
Right now, Rey is scrapping with Fit Finlay on WWE's "Smackdown!" show. He's not in the championship tier, but at least he's still not grappling with giant slugs like The Great Khali.

"I prefer to work with Finlay," Mysterio said. "I can can do any of my moves to him and the people will respond to it. With Khali, I can only do so much that, after a while, it gets stale. Like, 'OK, where do we go from here?'"

Clothes Make Man
Another championship run would be nice. But until that happens, WWE fans seem pretty content to cheer for this high-flying luchador on almost any spot on the card. Why? The guy has charisma. He's small, flashy, fiesty and has a zillion masked looks. Well, not a zillion, but enough to keep his closets full. He says he has close to 300 masks and matching pants, with each outfit costing about $600 to make. Mysterio -- not WWE -- pays the tailoring bill.

"Hopefully … one day my son (will) be a wrestler, then he'll have outfits there he can use," Mysterio said. "Recently I've gotten into the Louis Vuitton and the Gucci prints. You would only see that in rap videos where a lot of the rappers would have their decked out cars with the Gucci print or the Louis Vuitton print. I took it to another level. I have it done in my outfits."

Gucci designs or not, is Rey Mysterio always Rey Mysterio? Not a chance. Rey Mysterio is really a 32-year-old San Diego man whose real name is Oscar Gutierrez. He has a wife and two kids and says Rey is only for the public, only for the arenas.

Rey's Rules
"Right before I walk into the building I put my mask on and it stays on," he said. "Only when I work, I'm Rey Mysterio. When I'm home, I'm a husband, I'm a father and I'm a family man. At home, nobody calls me Rey."

Will the world call Mysterio champion again? It's up to Vince McMahon, really. Right now McMahon seems to be stuck on behemoths like Dave Batista and The Undertaker for the "Smackdown!" championship mix. In the meantime, Mysterio says he's satisfied with reaching out to Hispanic audiences. With the sad death of his close friend Eddie Guerrero, Mysterio is now the most famous Hispanic grappler in the world -- perhaps in the history of sports entertainment.

"I know I've made history, becoming the World Heavyweight Champion at my size -- being a masked wrestler, with my heritage," he said. "I know (masked Hispanic legend) Mil Mascaras was here and he created his thing, but Rey Mysterio is at a different level."

(Professor Wrestling is a masked employee of Internet Broadcasting. He also has a weekly podcast called "Old School, New School." Download EPISODE 52 right here! You can also send an e-mail to the Professor right here. )