[VIDEO] The Plane Ride From Hell

[enviousdominous]

I feel like a horrible person, because I find the circumstances of the plane ride from hell to be hilarious even to this day. Jerry Lawler's commentary in the vid that was posted by Shoot Interviews is my favorite, in that he relates how Jim Ross had become intoxicated very quickly when it was up to him to keep the wrestlers in line.

I wish there was video. I don't wish that I was a fly on the wall, because I probably would have been smashed against Curt Hennig's body while Brock was apparently trying to breach the hull of the plane with it. I imagine that people were trying not to be bothered by the screaming and loud bangs of bodies hitting walls and the floor (possibly even the ceiling).

A lot of other things happen, but my guiltiest pleasure is hearing about how Brock went all HULK SMASH because Curt hurt his feelings, in a fucking airplane. If that plane went down, the black box would have been nothing but Brock shrieking obscenities.

Hearing that Barry Windham almost peed on Linda McMahon is also hilarious for all the wrong reasons. Men take a lot of pride in how they can drink and therefore truly appreciate ridiculous amounts of alcohol, and they're not usually beset by a snafu like almost peeing on the woman who -- to my knowledge -- owned the company that they work for.

 

[Dave]

This is amazing...

I've never heard these stories but a peek behind the curtain in these circumstances is one of my favourite guilty pleasures in wrestling. I'm just wondering, what were the circumstances behind them flying to London? Just for a show over here or what?

Either way, that sounds horrendous. Funny to those that listen to the sorry but I bet it was terrifying for those on board when Lesnar and Perfect are slamming into the exit door at 30,000 feet. Pac can say all he wants about it opening but it'd frighten the life out of me for sure.

Excellent story, I just wonder why I hadn't heard of it before.

 

[enviousdominous]

This is amazing...

I've never heard these stories but a peek behind the curtain in these circumstances is one of my favourite guilty pleasures in wrestling. I'm just wondering, what were the circumstances behind them flying to London? Just for a show over here or what?

Either way, that sounds horrendous. Funny to those that listen to the sorry but I bet it was terrifying for those on board when Lesnar and Perfect are slamming into the exit door at 30,000 feet. Pac can say all he wants about it opening but it'd frighten the life out of me for sure.

Excellent story, I just wonder why I hadn't heard of it before.

It was a very strange time to be an avid prowrestling fan.

The incident occurred in 2002 when the WWE was still doing to occasional Insurrextion (that's how they spelled it) and Rebellion PPV specials in England. They were so fat, dumb and happy at the time. Vince had just recently bought WCW for a paltry $6 million. They had a massive amount of talent that they could play with, and massive amounts of money to spend on whatever. I honestly think that things got so out of hand because the powers that be felt invincible, and that attitude radiated to the talent. If I remember correctly, Vince had only just hired Hogan back and brought the nWo to the WWE.

I remember that when it happened, the dirt sheets only had bits of information. The first thing that I heard was that Goldust was in trouble for singing to his ex-wife Terri during the flight. Then another tidbit came out that Scott Hall got very drunk, and people were mad at him for being drunk on the flight.

I remember thinking "It's news that Scott Hall got drunk?" and "Why does it matter if it happened on a plane and not at a show?"

Then more details started to trickle in. X-Pac cutting off Michael Hayes' ponytail, Jim Ross being incapacitated, drunk Ric Flair strutting around wearing only his robes trying to get the terrified stewardesses to touch his junk.

The last detail that I remember coming in was the bit about Brock and Curt almost killing everyone.

 

[Makaveli31]

This happened right before the days of camera phones and other video recording devices so this is probably of the last incidents of "wrestling debauchery lore" that we can only envision through the stories of people who were there. Justin Credible and X-Pac tell the best stories about it. It was basically a flying party bus. Wrestler's were fighting is the aisle, people were drunk, high, stoned. Scott Hall (according to Justin Credible) had to wheelchaired off the plane and through security past a number of papparazzi. I believed both Hall and Hennig were released shortly after.
I believe a bunch of lawsuits brought by the stewardesses resulted in a number of out of court settlements and the WWE stopped flying private jets.