I haven’t done one of these in a while but with my extra time these days and the fact that I recently got back into pro-wrestling, I figured it might be a good reason to write up a review of the latest Dark Side of the Ring entitled “Plane Ride from Hell.” This episode talks about an infamous case where various WWF stars returned from a European trip and created a big commotion. While not as heinous sounding compared to say the double murder-suicide of Chris Benoit and his family, the producers described this episode as being quite dark in its own right.
The basic premise is that in 2002 the WWF held a PPV in England with a tour in Europe. While the voyage to Europe was fine, the return back is what lent itself this infamous scenario. A storm caused the return flight a long delay, in which the wrestlers ended up imbibing too much alcohol for their own good amongst other issues which supposedly instigated the events.
Tired, worn out and ready to return home, the wrestlers ended up downing three carts worth of liquor, where the crew (one stewardess) claimed they had never experienced this situation before. On top of that, the plane was a private type of craft used for high profile guests, mostly sports players. Effectively, this was first class accommodations as you might expect around 2002 with the WWF at its peak.
The idea of “boys will be boys” broke down as wrestlers descended into the usual antics of ribs (pranks) that lead to brawls and other issues, including drugging other wrestlers’ drinks, cutting Michael Hayes’ ponytail, Dustin Rhodes doing karaoke in a depressed state with the cabin microphone and worst of all Ric Flair harassing the attendants (the old helicopter as a few wrestlers described it).
Vince McMahon was amongst the people onboard along with JR (who commented on this show). At the time, JR was head of talent relations and was responsible for maintaining order. In short, he was the papa figure for these immature men and in the end had to make a few brash but needed calls in getting rid of the top trouble makers.
Of course, the situation wasn’t so simple for the flight attendants, especially the one interviewed here. She ended up taking a settlement but was sworn to not publicly talk about it apparently as part of the deal. The company effectively told her about their policies as they would deal with powerful and rich clients and said this was a common thing to them privately.
Besides, JR and the attendant, other speakers here were Rob Van Dam, referee Mike Chioda, Terry Runnels, Justin Credible and Tommy Dreamer. X-Pac and Scott Hall had a few sound bites included with Scott Hall deflecting his issue onto the now deceased Curt Hennig as drugging his drink. However, both Hennig and Hall would be targets in JR’s firings while Ric Flair ended up “getting a pass” as JR would say (which means that Vince covered for Flair).
In Terry Runnels’ case, she sounded too jaded in that industry. She said on several occasions she would “no sell” other wrestlers’ bad behavior towards her and even claimed that she probably had been harassed so many times that she could make a career of lawsuits. Instead, she just left the situation alone.
Tommy Dreamer did a lot to cover up Ric Flair’s behavior. A lot of people on reddit are now hating on him for protecting one of the boys. It’s hard to say whether cancel culture will affect Dreamer in Impact at this point but it certainly won’t do him any near term favors.
I think what this boils down to is a tiny glimpse of the wrestling industry as one wrestler (can’t remember which one) mentioned. But from a larger viewpoint, it’s basically the alpha male persona at its worst. Supposedly after that incident, the WWF would go onto clean up the behavior backstage but I’m certain it still persists to a degree.
But if you take Ric Flair as the worst offender in that group, it’s because of the era that he grew up in which justified it. Take a look at old NWA shows from the 80s and see the number of women in the audience compared to today. There’s the whole idea of the ring rat that no longer is applicable because of how lawsuits can easily be waiting (although certainly this type of thing probably exist to a much quieter extent). But also take a look at the amount of money the wrestling industry was making at the WWF’s peak. It was pure decadence mixed in with these characters who thought they were Greek gods.
However, that lifestyle has a tragic ending in other ways for the wrestlers themselves. They mentioned how after Hennig’s firing he would half a year later be found dead. Scott Hall had continued to battle his demons for years. Dustin was forced to get clean while many others from those days have been dying left to right from their vices.
Of course, there’s the other sad part which is the effect on the flight attendants themselves. One thing I thought when I listened to the main flight attendant being interviewed was that she was very well spoken and was a victim of circumstance. She did not behave like some lawsuit crazy nut, just someone who was trying to do her job and left with no options at the end. So I felt the worst for her because she didn’t deserve that type of treatment and generally it’s the people at the bottom who get crushed by these powerful elite who protect each other.
Overall, I didn’t find this episode as dark as people were talking about. I was expecting worse horror stories than a helicopter Ric Flair. Like hearing what Snuka did to his girlfriend, the findings from the Benoit case, Flyin’ Brian’s descent especially with how his wife Rochelle was treated. I think for this generation of people, the behavior of people like Flair, etc. seems gratuitous and slimy but in earlier times, it might have been considered the norm.
The real question people are asking is what AEW will do now that this episode had aired. Supposedly, there have been big rumors flying around that Ric Flair would be another acquisition while people are saying that this episode might put a stop to that situation. With the big Arthur Ashe Stadium event coming up next week, this episode might be one of the worst timed situations for Ric Flair and AEW if they do decide to sign him.
Other people who might not get a pass are JR, Dustin Rhodes and Tommy Dreamer after this episode. There’s a lot of condemnation going out on reddit after this episode aired with all three taking a lot of the brunt. In the episode, JR does try to own up to the situation but a lot of people aren’t buying.
That said, one thing I feel in JR accepting the responsibility by doing this episode is that it’s almost confessional. He admits that “if I never hear about the plane ride from hell again, I’ll be happy.” So I imagine that part of him agreeing to do this at all is trying to apologize for what happened by making the situation more public. It’s obvious he was uncomfortable about doing it as well as hinting that it wasn’t exactly all him (i.e. McMahon). However, having some of the truth come to light I think is what these Dark Sides do in serving as a way for people inside the business to publicly as best as they can without damaging too much admit to some of the wrongs.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.