10 Worst WWE Moments Of 2002
3. The Plane Ride From Hell
Sod being an innocent bystander on the infamous 'Plane Ride From Hell'.
WWE workers and staff were flying back from a European tour in May 2002, and it turned into an absolute nightmare for flight attendants aboard. Numerous unsavoury incidents on the boozed-up flight later led to the departures of veterans Scott Hall and Curt Hennig, and Jim Ross (as head of talent relations) had a lot of sorting out to do once he got back to the States.
That was just the start of this mess.
Realistically, you've got to feel sorry for poor airline staff who had to share that flight with a restless, childish roster of drunk wrestlers who were keen to cause chaos. VICE managed to produce a whole ‘Dark Side Of The Ring’ episode about this flight, and that really speaks volumes about how hair-raising it was. Hennig brawled with Brock Lesnar (coming dangerously close to the aircraft's emergency exit door), Ric Flair reportedly wandered around swinging his penis at terrified air hostesses (something he's since refuted), and it was just generally carnage from the moment the plane left a UK runway.
On 'Dark Side', JR revealed that several wrestlers were punished for their part in things, but Flair apparently wasn't one of them. Ross described him as a "made man", and said it was a "good question" when asked why he wasn't disciplined for his behaviour.
None of this happened on-screen, obviously, but it still ranks as one of the worst moments of WWE's 2002 for a reason. It should act as a reminder of just how lawless things could get when booze and drugs combined with a strung-out, knackered and restless roster of wrestlers from that era.