Former 205 Live wrestler Mustafa Ali has been a superstar on a steady rise since he joined the Smackdown Live roster. Since he pinned WWE Champion Daniel Bryan in his first match as an official member of the blue brand, Ali has been regularly featured on the show, competed in the Royal Rumble, and was recently added to the Elimination Chamber match for the WWE Championship along with Daniel Bryan, Randy Orton, AJ Styles, Jeff Hardy, and Samoa Joe.
However, according to Fightful, Ali has been working through injuries for a while now, and one sustained on a house show on Sunday has resulted in him not being cleared to wrestle this week and being pulled from the upcoming Elimination Chamber match. WWE reportedly plans to blame Randy Orton, who Ali wrestled last week in a match in which he acquired a shoot black eye, for the injury in kayfabe. The February 17 match would have been Ali’s first shot at the WWE Championship, but if his main roster career continues as it has been, it doesn’t seem like it will be the last.
Who would you like to see replace Ali in the Elimination Chamber? With only the Raw Women’s Championship match, women’s tag title match, Tozawa vs. Murphy for the Cruiserweight Championship, and Smackdown Tag Team Championship match announced for the PPV so far, several of the men of the blue brand are still available.
