AEW had something planned for Samoa Joe at AEW Full Gear on November 14 2026, but the nationwide flight disaster ended up ruining those plans. Joe was originally supposed to make a surprise appearance during Jack Perry’s match against The Beast Mortos, but he never made it to Phoenix, forcing AEW to move forward without him.
Speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio on November 15, Dave Meltzer revealed that Joe was among the wrestlers who couldn’t reach the show because of the travel problems. He confirmed that Joe was originally scheduled to get involved in Perry’s match during the Full Gear Tailgate Brawl pre-show.
“There were others too, but Samoa Joe didn’t make it either.”
When Bryan Alvarez pointed out that Joe wasn’t advertised for a match, Meltzer explained that the former AEW World Champion was actually supposed to make an appearance as part of Perry’s ongoing storyline.
“No, no, no, no, no. But he was, he was supposed to be. He was supposed to do a run in with Jack Perry.”
The revelation comes after AEW spent the weekend scrambling to get wrestlers to Full Gear. The FAA grounded flights nationwide on November 13 because of a telecommunications outage, leaving thousands of passengers dealing with cancellations and delays. Even after flights resumed, airlines were still struggling to clear the backlog. Alvarez explained just how bad things got, revealing that AEW needed three private jets to transport stranded talent to Phoenix.
“All right, we got Destination X tomorrow, which because of this transportation issue the airlines were shut down for about, I think it was about six hours, but it backed up everything for the entire weekend. There were thousands of delayed canceled flights and three jets to get everybody to the AW pay per view.”
Meltzer confirmed that the company went to considerable lengths to retrieve its wrestlers, with multiple aircraft traveling to different locations.
“Three private jets flown all over the place to get these.”
Alvarez also explained that AEW had an advantage because many wrestlers traveled directly to Phoenix following the November 11 Dynamite and Collision tapings. Those who had already arrived weren’t affected, but several others were still trying to reach the city when the shutdown happened.
As Ringside News previously covered, Tony Khan confirmed before the show that everyone needed for the advertised main pay-per-view card had arrived. However, the Tailgate Brawl pre-show wasn’t so lucky, with Khan acknowledging that travel delays forced him to change his original plans.
Adam Copeland was another wrestler caught in the travel nightmare. His commercial flights kept getting canceled, prompting Khan to send a private plane to get him to Phoenix for his International Championship match against Kazuchika Okada. Unfortunately for Joe, things didn’t work out the same way.
Joe’s planned appearance would have made sense considering his ongoing issues with Perry. During the November 11 episode of AEW Dynamite and Collision, Perry called out Joe and made it clear that he still wanted another match against him. At Full Gear, Perry defeated Mortos using Joe’s own Muscle Buster finishing move, adding another shot at his rival despite Joe being absent.
AEW managed to save its main pay-per-view lineup, but Samoa Joe’s missed appearance shows that the flight chaos still forced the company to scrap some of its plans. With Perry continuing to target Joe and the two scheduled to face each other on Dynamite, the rivalry isn’t going away. The only difference is that fans missed out on what AEW originally had planned for Full Gear.
What do you think AEW originally had planned for Samoa Joe’s involvement in Jack Perry’s match, and would his surprise appearance have made the Full Gear pre-show better? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
