Why Swerve Strickland And Others Did Not Appear On 9/28 AEW Dynamite

This week's live episode of "AEW Dynamite" in Philadelphia was "heavily affected" by the ongoing Hurricane Ian, per a new report. 

According to Fightful Select, Swerve Strickland and Samoa Joe were both scheduled to appear on the show, but couldn't travel from Florida to Pennsylvania owing to the hurricane. 

Due to the change in plans, Strickland's tag team partner, Keith Lee, was forced to work solo in a backstage segment with The Acclaimed. Just as Anthony Bowens & Max Caster celebrated their AEW World Tag Team Titles victory, Lee walked up to them in the backstage area and undermined their title win by saying, "You boys got carried, good luck." Lee was making a reference to Billy Gunn hitting a Famouser on Strickland the previous week, which allowed The Acclaimed to beat Swerve In Our Glory for the AEW World Tag Team Titles at Arthur Ashe Stadium in Queens, New York.

As for Joe, while Fightful didn't specify the plans AEW had for the veteran wrestler, it's worth noting that ROH was prominently featured on Wednesday's "Dynamite" since the show was held in ROH's old stomping grounds of Philadelphia. As such, Joe, the reigning ROH World TV Champion, would have likely made an appearance to address the future of his title, and his recent rivalry with the "Smart" Mark Sterling-led stable of Tony Nese & Josh Woods. On last week's "Rampage: Grand Slam," Joe & TNT Champion Wardlow destroyed Nese & Woods in a squash match, and AEW teased the possibility of a new tag team called WarJOE across social media. 

Prior to Wednesday's show, AEW President Tony Khan made it known publicly that AEW talents and employees affected by Hurricane Ian were not required to travel to TV this week, urging anyone affected by the natural calamity to "take care of business at home."