WWE held their 2023 WWE Royal Rumble Premium Live Event last Saturday night from the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas, with the show featuring 5 massive matches and the 30-Man Royal Rumble Matchup kicking off the show. The match had a couple of surprise entrants such as two-time WWE Hall of Famer Booker T and social media Superstar Logan Paul, but one top WWE Superstar that the match didn’t feature is pro wrestling and Lucha Libre legend Rey Mysterio.
Rey Mysterio was revealed as entrant #17 during the match as his music played, but he did not make an appearance and it was believed that Rey’s son Dominik Mysterio attacked the Lucha Libre legend as the member of The Judgment Day was entrant #18 and he was wearing Rey’s mask while making his way down to the ring for the match. WWE did not even explain via commentary or social media why the pro wrestling legend wasn’t used in the match.
Dave Meltzer noted on a recent edition of the Wrestling Observer Radio Program that pro wrestling and Lucha Libre legend Rey Mysterio suffered an injury this past Friday night on WWE SmackDown during his match with Karrion Kross and even though Rey was still slated to be in the 30-Man Royal Rumble Match, things changed and instead Dominik Mysterio would make his way out. Meltzer also noted that there was supposed to be a spot in the Men’s Royal Rumble Match to set up Rey and Dominik Mysterio’s matchup at WrestleMania 39, but that didn’t happen due to Rey’s injury.
This is what Dave Meltzer said:
“Mysterio, the Rey Mysterio thing, Rey Mysterio was injured last night in Laredo at the SmackDown tapings in the match with Karrion Kross. He was supposed to be in the Rumble. That spot was changed, and then what happened was they did a spot where he’s supposed to come out, and he doesn’t come out, and Dominik comes out. I think they were supposed to do some teasers in the match to set up their WrestleMania match, but obviously, they couldn’t do it because Rey’s injured….Hopefully, Rey’s injury isn’t anything serious, but I guess it was serious enough where he couldn’t do what was planned in the match.”
H/T to WrestlingNews.co for transcribing the quotes.