Bray Wyatt May Replace Rusev In IC Title Match At WWE Elimination Chamber
The "Bulgarian Brute" Rusev has an ankle injury likely forcing him out of Sunday's PPV.
Rusev hurt his ankle during a match with Ryback at the Smackdown tapings on Tuesday and was spotted at the airport in a wheelchair because he had trouble putting weight on it. Since Rusev may not be able to wrestle in the Intercontinental Title match at WWE Elimination Chamber, the likely replacement is going to be Bray Wyatt. The injury has been acknowledged on WWE.com as a lower leg injury with no further details. The Wrestling Observer reports that WWE officials didn't know what the situation was with Rusev's ankle. Two other people in the company said that Rusev was trying to downplay the injury and that he'd be okay for Sunday. Another source in the company figured that Rusev wouldn't be able to compete, so that's why Wyatt was talked about as a replacement. Putting Wyatt in the match makes a lot of sense because he's in the upper midcard right now without a feud. His last feud was with Ryback, who Wyatt beat, yet Ryback is getting a title match. Odd booking, right? He could easily take part in the match and he'd be believable because he's got a lot of credibility with the fans. Wyatt's also never a held a title while in WWE, so it would be interesting to see if WWE actually books him to get the win. Ankle injuries are tough to gauge sometimes. Wyatt actually hurt his ankle prior to his match with The Undertaker at WrestleMania this year and there was some doubt if he could compete. He was able to get through it. Athletes can play through ankle injuries while at other times, if it's something like a high ankle sprain, they may be out for a month or longer. Every person and situation is different, so there's no definite way to know how much time Rusev might miss. They have four days to figure it out. Most likely Rusev wasn't going to win the match since Sheamus is considered the favorite while Rusev will continue feuding with Ziggler when he can. However, adding Wyatt to the match would make it pretty interesting just because he's one of the most mysterious performers in WWE. Perhaps this injury will lead to Rusev wearing boots when he wrestles. If you wrestle barefoot the chances are greater of spraining an ankle. Boots can help prevent that sort of thing from happening. Better to be safe than sorry.