Report: Mustafa Ali out of championship match at WWE Elimination Chamber

Some bad news has befallen one of WWE’s fastest-rising young talents.

The past two months have been huge for WWE Superstar Mustafa Ali. Upon being called up to the SmackDown Live roster from the cruiserweight crew at 205 Live, he managed to pin WWE Champion Daniel Bryan in a non-title bout and been the target of jealousy-fueled beatdowns at the hands of Samoa Joe and Randy Orton. He has also been inserted into the title picture, with his first big shot initially set for Sunday’s Elimination Chamber pay-per-view.

However, according to an exclusive report by Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp, Ali has been pulled from the six-way battle for the championship.

The culprit is injury. Ali was stomped in the eye by Orton on last week’s episode of SmackDown, which left him looking like this:

Fightful also reports that, “Ali had been working through an injured tailbone,” which was further aggravated at last month’s Royal Rumble pay-per-view and that his current eye injury was made worse during this weekend’s live events. It is expected that Orton will be blamed for the injuries and Ali having to pull out of Sunday’s bout, which would certainly set the table for a prolonged feud between the two.

No replacement for Ali has been announced, but it should come on Tuesday’s episode of SmackDown, with Elimination Chamber mere days away. The new addition will join Bryan, Orton, Joe, A.J. Styles and Jeff Hardy in the pods to do battle for Bryan’s championship.