WWE Smackdown Live: The 10 for February 12, 2019

4. Ali out, Kofi in

As reported on Monday, Mustafa Ali is battling through a number of injuries, most notably a concussion suffered at a weekend Live Event, that has left him not medically cleared to compete in Sunday’s men’s Elimination Chamber match for Daniel Bryan’s WWE World Championship. That also meant that he could not participate in Tuesday night’s gauntlet match between the six men involved, the winner of which would be the last to be released from their pods and into the Chamber.

An understandably emotional Ali vowed he would be back soon and that it would take more than a beating from Samoa Joe, Randy Orton and Rowan to keep him down. Said beating from last week’s SmackDown is the storyline that the WWE is going with regarding Ali’s injury.

But that revelation left the gauntlet match one man short. The WWE opted to choose The New Day as the sixth man, and then left it up to the trio which member would be participating, not just on Tuesday night but also as part of Elimination Chamber proper.

The choice: Kofi Kingston, who would go on to have perhaps the most iconic night of his career. More on that, later.