Over the years there have been a fair few instances of outside WWE talent appearing at the Royal Rumble, whether they be former stars, returning legends, representing other promotions or in this case all three. At 1997's event from the Alamodome in San Antonio Texas, lucha legend Mil Mascaras would enter the match. Mil is of the most accomplished luchadors certainly of his generation, maybe ever. Much like some of his peers including Blue Demon and El Santo, Mil entered pop culture even appearing in films bearing his name.
As well as working in both Mexico and Japan, Mil Mascaras wrestled for WWE in the 70's and 80's, even being the first masked wrestler to ever compete at Madison Square Garden due to a pre-existing citywide ban against masks of any kind in public in New York, which even included wrestlers until 1972 when an exception was made. It's even believed that the reason for this change was that Vince McMahon Sr. lobbied for it because he was so keen to book Mascaras in the Garden.
Mil Mascaras was fifty-four years old and thirty-three years into his wrestling career at the time of his Rumble entry. At the time this would have made him the second oldest entrant ever behind Dory Funk Jr, who entered the year before a few months older than Mil, but this record has since been surpassed many times since. A few but not everyone who have entered older than him include Ric Flair and Booker T aged fifty-seven, DDP and Jim Duggan aged fifty-eight, Jerry Lawler who was sixty-two and Ivory who was sixty years old when she entered at the 2022 event. Bet there's a name you weren't expecting. The oldest if you're wondering to date is Jimmy Snuka, who was sixty four in his 2008 appearance. May that record never be broken, unless Finlay wants to give it a go this year, I'd be okay with that, he could probably still swing his shillelagh well enough.
Mil would enter the rumble at number eleven and would stay in for nearly seven and a half minutes, being one of four wrestlers representing Triple A in the match. As he entered, Pierroth was in the ring, and later Cybernetico and Latin Lover would also enter, all thanks to the location of the event, but Mil's run was the most eventful as I'll get to in a minute. With San Antonio being not far from Mexico, clearly WWE felt some Lucha influence would help liven the sixty thousand in attendance up, which by the way is still in 2024 the largest Royal Rumble attendance ever, all there to see their man Shawn Michaels regain the WWE title from Psycho Sid.
As Mil entered the ring he would be faced with an interesting field. the British Bulldog, Pierroth, the eventual winner of the match Stone Cold Steve Austin, and the Sultan, who would later go on to be known as Rikishi. Right after Mil would be Hunter Hearst Helmsley, and it's a bit weird seeing Mascaras tangle with the leader of the free w- I mean wrestling world in 2024.
Since I have no idea when I'll get to talk about Mil Mascaras again, the main thing I know him for is his reputation for being difficult to work with, being unwilling to put anyone else over, or even sell moves for other wrestlers. Bruce Prichard even made a meme of this coining the term "No Yob". This can even be seen in this Royal Rumble, where the Sultan slams him to the mat, and after a few seconds, Mil just gets right back up as if nothing happened.
To fans Mil has been highly regarded for decades, but his fellow wrestlers not so much, largely for his unwillingness to sell. As best I can tell, Mascaras' last US appearance for a major promotion before the '97 Rumble would have been at WCW's Clash of the Champions 10 in February 1990. This would become an infamous match against Cactus Jack, where Foley would shock people with a scary looking bump to the outside, sometimes called the NesTea plunge in reference to the 1970's ad campaign.
Mil's elimination comes with a fair bit of controversy, as he throws Peirroth out of the ring, goes through the middle ropes and climbs to the top turnbuckle. He dives onto Peirroth on the outside, and re-enters the ring, only for referees to declare the he eliminated himself. I'm not so sure about that, given he never actually went over the top rope. The speculation around this is that Mil did it on purpose knowing he wasn't winning, to make sure nobody would could throw him out, but this has no concrete proof to it. As Dave Mentzer would write in his report in the Observer, Mil had been in more than enough battle royals to have a firm enough grasp of the rules. I'm putting it a bit more politely than he did...
Despite his mixed reputation there is no denying Mil's legend. To fans of a certain age he might still be one of the most recognisable and enduring luchadors ever. He's also been credited as being light as a feather to work with, meaning he rarely if ever hurt anyone. Mil last wrestled two matches in 2019 at the age of seventy-seven, in one of which teaming with current WWE star Dragon Lee. Inducted by his nephew Alberto Del Rio, Mil would enter the WWE Hall of Fame in 2012, and if you're wondering yes, his self-elimination is included in his highlight reel.
Sources:
NY mask ban: https://ringthedamnbell.wordpress.com/2014/03/06/a-moment-in-time-the-ban-on-masked-wrestlers-at-msg-is-lifted/
Wrestling Observer January 27th 1997: https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/jan-27-1997-wrestling-observer-newsletter-more-ufc-controversy-wwe
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