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John Pollock of POSTWrestling reported today that when Jim Ross was interviewed for third season of ViceTV's Dark Side of Ring, one of the topics of conversation was the infamous WWE Plane Ride from Hell that resulted in several WWE releases.
On May 5, 2002 a number of WWE wrestlers and management members flew from Great Britain to the United States following the end of a European tour, which concluded with a British PPV event. On the now-infamous flight, there were a number of incidents involving WWE management and wrestlers that were later attributed to the heavy drinking on the flight, partially because the flight was delayed for an hour before takeoff.
Among the incidents included the late Curt Hennig goading Brock Lesnar into a mid-flight wrestling match after ribbing him about who was a better amateur wrestler. Hennig and Lesnar scuffled in the aisle of the plane with Lesnar taking down Hennig and Hennig being unable to return the favor. Eventually, several others on the flight, including Dave Finley, Triple H, and Paul Heyman had to separate the pair. WWE announced that Hennig was released from the company shortly thereafter, There was no heat on Lesnar at the time as the blame was placed on Hennig's end.
The wrestling was tame compared to some of the other antics on the flight. Dustin Runnels was allegedly serenading his ex-wife Terri Runnels until being told to stop by WWE Vice President of Talent Relations Jim Ross. Dustin Runnels was in the doghouse for a long time and was publicly dropped by WWE in late 2003 with a WWE.com statement announcing his contract would not be renewed when it expired in January 2004.
Road Agent Michael Hayes was also involved in an physical incident with Bradshaw after heavily drinking, allegedly punching him. Hayes' actions led to someone (later believed to be Sean Waltman) cutting off his mullet while he was sleeping. There were also stories of Ric Flair disrobing, with the possible exception of his ring robe, and parading around on the flight.
Jim Ross, in his now-defunct Ross Report on WWE.com, stated the following about the flight in his first column after the tour: "The flight was about seven hours in length and at times was low-lighted by a handful of people who consumed med too much alcohol and consequently acted like children whose parents were away and left the liquor cabinet unlocked. The conduct of this inebriated minority was unacceptable and will not be tolerated. Procedures have been put in place to ensure such conduct does not occur in the future. The bottom line is this: yours truly is the person in charge of the talent roster and the buck stops with me. We will do all we humanly can to solve the problem."
In the same column, Ross noted that Scott Hall (who said to have been asleep during the flight) was not involved with any incident. Hall was soon gone from WWE as his released was announced several days after the UK tour.
A lawsuit was later filed against WWE and Ric Flair by several Sportjet flight attendants, but was later settled.
As we have previously reported, material has also been shot for the following planned episodes for Season Three, which will debut later this year:
*The late Brian Pillman.
*XPW.
*The WCW-New Japan event in North Korea.
*The Smith family - Grizzly Smith and his children, Jake Roberts, Sam Houston and Rockin' Robin.
*The late Dynamite Kid.
*Nick Gage.
*FMW in Japan.
*The late Bruiser Bedlam.
*The late Chris Kanyon.
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