WWE Elimination Chamber 2019: 3 Possible Replacements For Mustafa Ali

Rey Mysterio

Thanks to Samoa Joe, the apparent blow-off match between Rey Mysterio and Andrade – a brilliant two-out-of-three falls match on SmackDown Live – ended in a draw, so there’s plenty of unfinished business between “legend” and “idol”. That’s likely why neither of them were placed in this WWE Championship match at Elimination Chamber, and they could easily have a WrestleMania 35 feud.

Mysterio would be an interesting option to this match. He’s been a standout in the Elimination Chamber before, memorably being thrown into the pod by Edge on one occasion. The man has shown no signs of slowing down even at the age of 44, and while he could compete in this match as an experienced option, perhaps WWE would prefer to leave him out of a brutal match.

But the other wrestlers inside the Elimination Chamber – Randy Orton, AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, Daniel Bryan, and Jeff Hardy – are safe, experienced workers. Just like Mysterio, they are legends of the business who have either been in WWE Elimination Chamber matches or in similar matches with other promotions (thinking of Joe here).

Of course, Rey is the definition of a crowd favorite and used to be one of WWE’s biggest underdogs, so he’d be a natural replacement for Mustafa Ali from a size and crowd support perspective. And even though he’s a known commodity, he wouldn’t be a boring replacement either, given his abilities inside the ring and the respect he has from the WWE Universe.

Elimination Chamber matches are brutal, but if Mysterio is game and WWE protects him from taking the savage EC bumps he took earlier in his career, Rey is a name to watch as an Ali replacement ahead of SmackDown Live on Tuesday night.