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Shane McMahon was announced as the King Of the Ring tournament replacement for Elias during tonight’s broadcast of SmackDown Live.
According to PWInsider, at one point during the afternoon a battle royal was pitched after word broke that Elias could no longer compete due to an ankle injury. Vince McMahon shot down the battle royal idea, and was behind the decision to replace Elias with Shane McMahon.
Kevin Owens is scheduled to be the special guest referee in the match, which is penciled in to close the show.
It was noted during SmackDown that Elias has a broken ankle, this news falls in line with an earlier report from Fightful Select, which one source backstage in WWE described as “he broke something”.