How Hurricane Ian Messed Up AEW's Dynamite Plans This Week
Latest on how Hurricane Ian impacted this week's episode of AEW Dynamite.
Hurricane Ian has had an understandably detrimental impact on professional wrestling this week, with Wednesday's episode of AEW Dynamite the first major show to be affected.
Fightful reported earlier this week that Swerve Strickland and Samoa Joe were both unable to make the show in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This came in the wake of AEW founder and CEO Tony Khan granting any wrestlers who needed it the week off ahead of the storm making landfall on Wednesday.
Now, in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer that Jake Hager was also scheduled to be at the show but needed to stay in Florida as Hurricane Ian hit the state. Hager would have been involved in the Jericho Appreciation Society's show-opening in-ring promo. But even though Jake wasn't at Dynamite, he still impacted the broadcast by suggesting his stable come out clad head-to-toe in purple.
Meltzer added that AEW intended on kickstarting a program between Swerve in our Glory and the newly-formed Wardlow/Samoa Joe tandem on Dynamite. With Strickland unable to get to Philly, Keith Lee was instead involved in a backstage segment with The Acclaimed.
Hurricane Ian made landfall as a category 4 storm on Wednesday, leaving upwards of 2 million homes and businesses without power.