Report on why Rey Mysterio wasn’t in the 2023 men’s WWE Royal Rumble match

Rey Mysterio was the 17th entrant in the 2023 men’s WWE Royal Rumble match but did not make an appearance. Instead, Dominik showed up as the 18th entrant and was wearing Rey’s mask with the implication being that Dominik attacked Rey backstage. During Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer of F4WOnline.com noted the following…

“Rey Mysterio was injured last night [Friday] 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.” (quote courtesy of WrestlingNews.co)

Mike Johnson of PWInsider.com noted that Mysterio was pulled from his scheduled meet & greet on Saturday with the idea being that he could get some rest prior to the Rumble match.