Going down with a legitimately nasty injury on last week's episode of Smackdown, Rusev was ruled out of the Intercontinental Title Elimination Chamber match, and WWE didn't bother to announce his replacement until the bout was just about ready to go. Emerging from the shadows, Mark Henry was installed as the quick fix to ease the literal pain of the Bulgarian's leg injury. It's hard to imagine that Rusev would have suffered the same fate as Henry in the match, never really being taken seriously as the guy who was going to walk away with the Intercontinental Title over his shoulder, but at least his entrance did provoke a reaction from the fans in attendance. In all likelihood, WWE would have much preferred Rusev to be fit, healthy and able to compete, but his ankle was in such a state that the company weren't prepared to take any risks. Rusev could have hobbled to the ring and been eliminated early, with his injury as an excuse, but WWE have bigger plans for him than that, and thus Henry was an ideal replacement in the short term, even if it mucked up the storyline thread between Lana, Rusev and Dolph Ziggler a little.