Absolute Intense Wrestling got some bad news today, as former WCW and WWF Champion Sid let them know that he'd not be making his scheduled booking.
In an odd turn of events, Sid blamed Donald Trump's travel ban as the reason that he couldn't make the show. Sid was in the United States, so the travel ban wouldn't have actually affected him.
Below is the statement released by AIW.
We have some bad news to report. Our greatest fears have come true, Sid did not board his flight this morning. After several phone calls he finally answered when we used Swoggle’s phone to call.
Sid claimed Donald Trump’s travel ban prevented him from boarding his flight to Cleveland this morning because of an unpaid speeding ticket and he claimed this is new government policy since he didn’t have his passport even though he was traveling within the United States and is a United States Citizen. We recorded his cancelation call just so there is proof of all this and we will do our best to play the audio tonight or on a future episode of our podcast.
We apologize to all of the fans who were excited to meet Sid tonight and unfortunately, this is something 100% out of our control. We invested quite a bit of money in this appearance and we have now lost out on close to $1,000 we will never get back on airline tickets, hotels, and merchandise we had made for Sid.
We are going to try and do our best to find a replacement and plan on spending the rest of the day making phone calls and trying to get somebody there to replace Sid.
The Ohio-based promotion posted a photo of them on the line with Sid, as well.
Fortunately, rushing to the rescue was Hornswoggle, who has replaced Sid. It's worth noting that Sid has never been WWE Cruiserweight Champion, and Hornswoggle has.
Now known as "Swoggle," he was in town for a comedy show on Thursday night. It didn't end there, as former TNA World Champion EC3 appeared at the event, dressed as Sid.
He even signed Sid merchandise, though he made sure to include that he was not, in fact, Sid Vicious:
You can hear the full video of AIW promoter John Thorne talk to Sid Vicious about the booking situation below:
