Reason why multiple former champions were absent from this week's AEW Dynamite reportedly disclosed
The February 8th, 2023 edition of AEW Dynamite is in the books, and the results of the show have got the wrestling world talking. However, a number of top stars were forced to miss the show.
Dynamite took place in El Paso, Texas, marking the first time the company has held an event there. The audience had a large Hispanic presence given how close El Paso is to the border between the United States and Mexico.
With that in mind, fans may have expected some of AEW's top Mexican stars to feature on the show. But outside of Rush facing Bryan Danielson, there wasn't much of a Mexican influence.
Bryan Danielson vs RUSH
one of danielsons best matches in AEW
one of the best dynamite matches of ALL TIME
danielson is on the run of his life right now
RUSH is one of AEW’s best signings ever
a potential 5 star match
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Speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer commented on why the likes of The Lucha Brothers and Bandido missed the event in El Paso, with the reason being cited as more visa issues for AEW.
"A lot of people brought up, what happened with Pentagon, Fenix and Bandido? There’s visa issues and it’s all through wrestling right now. WWE’s finally cleared it up. They had (Ilja) Dragunov back and (Meiko) Satomura’s coming back. But so many of these people have had issues coming in, and right now… here you are in El Paso, Texas, and Bandido, Fenix and Pentagon would have been over like crazy on this show, and they were not even on the show." (H/T WrestlePurists)
Meltzer went on to say that while he knew none of the aforementioned names were going to make it to the show, it was a real shame, as they would have been some of the most over talents that night, especially Penta El Zero Miedo.
"They weren’t on Dark ‘Elevation’, I knew they weren’t gonna be on Dynamite, but they weren’t on Rampage either. They probably would have been the most over guys on the entire show, actually. I would think Pentagon would have been the most over guy on the show, had he been available for the show." (H/T WrestlePurists)
Visa issues almost prevented Kenny Omega from competing in a recent AEW Dynamite main event
One of the biggest stories coming into 2023 for AEW was who was going to win the highly competitive best-of-seven series between The Elite and Death Triangle for the AEW Trios Championships.
The series concluded with an Escalera De La Muerte on the January 11th edition of AEW Dynamite, but the match almost had to be canceled due to Kenny Omega having visa issues.
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Kenny's visa prevented him from being at the January 18th and 25th editions of the show. However, it has all been sorted out, and "The Cleaner" is back to featuring regularly on AEW Dynamite.
Who would you have liked to have seen on AEW Dynamite this week? Let us know in the comments section down below!