Chaos In AEW As Star Not Cleared To Compete

One AEW star was not cleared to compete on Dynamite leading to a raft of huge last-minute changes having to take place.

The January 29 edition of Dynamite was meant to see a battle of the behemoths with Powerhouse Hobbs slated to face Big Bill. Both men had been part of a huge 12-man tag team match on a previous edition of Collision that pitted Hobbs, Rated FTR, and The Outrunners against the Death Riders and the Learning Tree. Hobbs won that match for his side but it didn’t come without a cost.

Instead of Hobbs facing Big Bill, the former TNT Champion was relegated to a pre-taped promo saying that he was not cleared to travel to the show. However, that turned out not to be the case.

Powerhouse Hobbs Not Cleared For AEW Match

Fightful Select has reported that Powerhouse Hobbs was indeed at the building for AEW Dynamite and despite being willing to get in the ring, he was not medically cleared due to stitches that had not yet healed.

Hobbs was said to be “heavily factored” into creative for the show and his absence meant significant changes to the show.

Speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, Bryan Alvarez delved deeper into the changes that AEW was forced into due to Hobbs’ absence:

What essentially happened was, on Collision they had that big brawl with Big Bill and Hobbs. So on Dynamite, they were going to follow up with a brawl with Hobbs and Big Bill and that was going to lead to a street fight type match as the main event of Collision. That match didn’t happen nor was there a segment with Bill and Hobbs and the reason was Hobbs showed up at the building and the doctor would not clear him.

They ended up shooting that brief interview with him and because of that, they didn’t have an entire segment for the show which is why they added all those video packages at the end [of the show]. The main event of Collision which ended up being Jon Moxley & Wheeler Yuta against FTR in a Mid-South Street Fight. So they came up with that on the day of the show. Wheeler ended up having to work twice in place of the Big Bill and Hobbs match.

The full spoilers for the February 1 edition of AEW Collision have been revealed.

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