10 Things WWE Wants You To Forget About Ric Flair

7. He Was A Part Of The Infamous "Plane Ride From Hell"

The "Plane Ride From Hell" involved a flight full of WWE employees that included many wrestlers and executives. It took place on May 5, 2002 on plane that flew the WWE talent from Great Britain back to the United States. Vince McMahon wasn't on the plane, but other senior officials were. Some of the things that happened on the plane included Brock Lesnar wrestling amateur style with Curt Hennig, who thought he could take on Lesnar. Dustin Runnels sang to his ex-wife Terri Runnels in an embarrassing display. JBL, then known as Bradshaw, apparently punched Michael Hayes, which led to X-Pac cutting some of Hayes' hair off. Then there was Ric Flair. Apparently Flair, who was 53 years old at this point, decided the best thing he could do on this plane was to take off his clothes and walk around only in one of his trademark robes. He flashed his private parts to people on the plane, which was obviously a bad decision. A major story about Flair that appeared on Grantland.com in 2011 reported on Flair's behavior on the plane: He wore nothing but a jeweled cape, the flight attendants said, and "flashed his nakedness, spinning his penis around." He separately grabbed each woman's hand and placed it on his crotch, and then "forcibly detained and restrained" Doyle "from leaving the back of the galley of the airplane while he sexually assaulted her." Flair insisted he did nothing wrong on the plane. WWE ended up settling out of court likely due to the fact that they did not want further public embarrassment from the exploits of their talent on the plane. Jim Ross was VP of Talent Relations at that point and he was on that flight. He wrote about it on WWE.com: "The flight was about seven hours in length and at times was low-lighted by a handful of people who consumed 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." The story was a very embarrassing moment for WWE as a company and to their credit they have avoided a repeat of the Plane Ride From Hell.