RVD was supposed to spend his Saturday meeting fans at Illinois Comic Con, but his trip never even got off the ground. What he initially blamed on the FAA turned out to be part of a much more serious situation in Peoria.
Rob Van Dam took to Twitter on November 14 to announce that he wouldn’t be appearing at Illinois Comic Con that day after his flight plans fell apart. At the time, RVD appeared to believe the nationwide FAA travel problems were responsible.
“I won’t be at the Illinois Comic Con today. You know what the FAA did to my flight. 😕🤷🏻♂️”
RVD then learned that Illinois Comic Con itself had been canceled for Saturday because of an ongoing bomb threat situation in Peoria. After apparently getting confirmation through Alexa, RVD returned to Twitter with a much different update.
“Alexa just confirmed it. Holy crap. A bomb threat, apparently. This just wasn’t meant to happen today. It looks like tomorrow, Sunday, is still on for the con, but I don’t know when I will be back in the area at this time. Have a Vantastic weekend‼️🤘”
According to the Peoria Journal Star, Illinois Comic Con had been scheduled to begin at 10 AM Saturday at the Peoria Civic Center, but organizers canceled the entire first day as authorities continued dealing with the bomb threat situation. The same situation had already forced Friday night’s Jon Pardi concert at the Civic Center to be canceled.
“Illinois Comic Con was scheduled to start 10 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 14 at the Peoria Civic Center, but the ongoing bomb threat situation in Peoria caused the event to be canceled.”
Comic Con organizers explained that they initially waited for an update from authorities before making the call. Once they learned that the search connected to the threat was still underway, they decided there was no way they were opening the doors unless the venue was deemed completely safe.
“Comic Con is canceled for Saturday, November 14th. We were asked to wait until the update from the press conference to have all the info on making decisions for this weekend. Once we learned that the search is still ongoing, we made the decision to cancel Saturday.”
The situation also left Sunday’s portion of the convention up in the air. Organizers stressed that guests, vendors and artists were already on site and wanted the show to happen, but safety would determine whether anyone actually gets through the doors.
“Sunday is still in limbo and will be determined once there are updates to the search. Guests, vendors, artists, and others are on site and are wanting to do the show, but we will only open if it is deemed 100% safe to do so.”
Refunds are being offered for unused Saturday tickets, while organizers said Saturday tickets could be transferred to Sunday if the convention is allowed to reopen. If Sunday is canceled as well, those tickets will also be refunded.
The timing made things especially messy because organizers were already fielding questions Friday about the separate nationwide FAA ground stop. At that point, they were still preparing to move ahead with the convention because they hadn’t been instructed otherwise. The ongoing bomb threat ultimately changed that plan.
So RVD ended up getting hit by two completely separate headaches on the same trip — his flight was disrupted amid the FAA mess, and the event he was trying to reach wound up being canceled anyway. Sometimes the universe really does just tell you to stay home.
Do you think RVD will be able to make another Illinois Comic Con appearance after this weekend’s cancellation? Let us know what you think in the comments.
