JBL shares little-known WWE Royal Rumble backstage heat story
John Bradshaw Layfield (JBL) was relatively new to WWE when the 1997 Royal Rumble took place in San Antonio, Texas. The Hall of Famer recently recalled how a fight almost broke out that day between Barry Windham and Mexican wrestling legend Mil Mascaras.
Windham, Bo Dallas, and the late Bray Wyatt's uncle, was JBL's tag team partner at the time. He allegedly had issues with Mascaras, who made a cameo appearance in the Royal Rumble as part of a WWE agreement with Mexican promotion AAA.
On the Something to Wrestle podcast, JBL said the problems dated back to Mascaras' days working with Windham's father Blackjack Mulligan. Blackjack Lanza, Mulligan's former tag team partner, was a WWE producer in 1997 and helped calm the situation down.
"There was almost a fight that day with Mil Mascaras and Barry Windham," JBL stated. "Lanza, obviously, one of the Blackjacks, apparently Mulligan had some heat with Mil Mascaras. I don't know exactly what it was, but they worked together a lot and Mascaras had said something that got to Barry Windham, and Lanza had to step in and stop Barry Windham from going to his dressing room. It was pretty heated." [17:10 – 17:38]
Mascaras, the uncle of former WWE star Alberto Del Rio, was the 11th entrant in the 1997 Royal Rumble. He lasted seven minutes before famously eliminating himself.
JBL explains how Mil Mascaras' maintained his main-event spot
In 2012, Mil Mascaras' contributions to the wrestling business were recognized with a WWE Hall of Fame induction.
JBL once worked with former WCW star Vampiro at a show in Monterrey, Mexico. According to Vampiro, Mascaras used to deliberately arrive late to arenas to ensure his match would go on last:
"Vampiro accused him, and I think he was accurate, Mil was driving around in a taxi, showing up late on purpose so he had to go on main event, so he could say he drew the house," Layfield said. "Yeah, there's a lot of competition and a lot of things going on down there. But, hey, Mil's one of the greatest drawing guys of all time, and sometimes those guys take care of themselves in very unique ways!" [20:35 – 20:59]
In the same episode, Layfield gave his take on what happened when Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels had a real-life fight in 1997.
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