Elias Pulled From King of the Ring Tournament Due to Injury

This week's episode of SmackDown was supposed to feature a King of the Ring tournament semifinals [...]

This week's episode of SmackDown was supposed to feature a King of the Ring tournament semifinals match between Elias and Chad Gable. But after WWE's latest news update, that no longer appears to be the case. WWE.com reported on Tuesday afternoon that Elias has been pulled from the match due to a reported ankle injury.

"Due to an injury, Elias will not compete in his scheduled King of the Ring semifinal match against Chad Gable," the story stated.

Multiple reports have since come out stating that the injury is legitimate and not part of any ongoing storyline.

It does not mention whether or not Gable gets a free pass to the finals as a result of the injury, though PWInsider's Mike Johnson reported minutes later that the "plan" is for Gable to still compete in a match at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday night.

Baron Corbin punched his ticket to the finals at Clash of Champions when he defeated both Ricochet and Samoa Joe on Monday Night Raw.

Gable spoke with ComicBook.com before the tournament began, saying he saw it as a perfect opportunity to prove himself as a singles wrestler.

"So when I found out, it was kind of an honor, because as it's no secret, I haven't been heavily featured on SmackDown since I got traded over there in the draft," Gable said. "So for me more than anything, this is like, 'Okay, now it's your chance kid,' because I've been waiting for this opportunity to just really break out and show people, even though some people say they already know what I'm capable of, and that I'm great, or this and that. But now it's my chance to prove it and maybe show it to the people that don't know that yet or maybe aren't believers."

Gable initially found success in NXT as one half of the tag team American Alpha alongside Jason Jordan. Gable said while he'd love to return to the Yellow Brand, he'd rather take a chance and prove himself on the main roster.

"In this company especially, any opportunity that presents itself you would take advantage of," he said. "But I do want to hammer home the fact that I want to take advantage of this opportunity on SmackDown as a singles guy, because like I said, on the main roster up to this point, I don't think that I've had that chance yet. And so before I had to go saying, 'Oh yeah, I want to go back to NXT,' I want to like really give the Smackdown main roster thing a shot as a singles guy and prove that I can do it."

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