every time I try and enter the nether on version 3.4 I get a Fatal crash I tried 3 different times 2x in survival, 1x in creative with watchdog set to -1 to see if it was just taking too long to load. after the 3rd attempt with watchdog set to -1 the server crashed and stopped responding resulting in me having to force close.

crash log
https://pastebin.com/Hs2PP78H

Ty for the response but as stated in OP I set the watchdog/max tick to disabled (-1) which all the server did was hard lock causing me to force close and reboot the Linux server. Today I deleted the DIM-1 for the nether and retried with no luck. the server just crashes.

Try upping the ram at least temporarily to see if that gets you in or let's you crash to get a crash log.

bumped the ram from 5gb to 15gb and still crashes.
sorry forgot crash report
https://pastebin.com/FvGUK8uK

In the server properties change max tick time to -1. Go to the nether again and wait out the lag to see if it resolves itself.

That crash report is showing you didn't change max tick time to -1