Why several AEW stars reportedly missed last night’s Dynamite

The Aug. 30 episode of Dynamite was always going to be hectic one, seeing as how it was set smack dab in the middle of two PPVs on the schedule. The lingering drama from a backstage issue at the first of those events — CM Punk’s scuffle with Jack Perry before last Sunday’s All In at Wembley Stadium in London — may have presented additional challenges. But as Tony Khan explained in a tweet prior to last night’s show, the big factors forcing changes to the All Out go home edition of Dynamite were weather and illness.

On the latest Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer offered some details about who was unavailable for Wednesday’s show in Chicago, which he called “thrown together” as it was “redone at the last minute”:

• A segment or segments were planned to build to Kenny Omega’s match against Konosuke Takeshita this weekend, but Omega was unable to fly out of Florida due to hurricane/tropical storm Idalia.

• There were also concerns Chris Jericho wouldn’t make it for the same reason, but he was able to get to Illinois for his scene with Sammy Guevara.

• Saraya & Swerve Strickland were “pulled from the show for illness reasons”. The nature of their illness isn’t known, but Saraya has been booked for match with Toni Storm & Ruby Soho against Dr. Britt Baker, Hikaru Shida & TBS champion Kris Statlander on Collision this Saturday night. Nothing’s been announced for Strickland, but he may have been set for a few days off after being shut in a coffin by Sting & Darby Allin at Wembley.

Here’s hoping everyone feels better and gets to Chicago safely by this weekend.