• “Go tell the pilot to f**k himself. I’ll buy the f***ing plane” – Vince McMahon During The Plane Ride From Hell
On an episode of his podcast in 2021, WWE Hall Of Famer Kurt Angle talked about the infamous 2002 ‘Plane Ride From Hell’ incident (which took place 20 years ago today), including WWF promoter Vince McMahon constantly trying to wrestle him on the plane during a flight back home from an overseas event in Europe (Insurrextion 2002).
Here’s what the Olympic Hero had to say about what happened during the flight:
“Oh God, it was the longest night of my life.
The thing was, I was on the plane and Vince had a few wines in him. A few glasses of wine and he was feeling frisky and thought, ‘if I’m gonna wrestle someone that’s the best, might as well wrestle an Olympic Gold Medalist. I’m going to try him out.’
You have to understand, Vince is the type of guy that would say to Mike Tyson, ‘Knock me out. Go ahead, hit me in the face. I want to feel what it’s like.’
He wants to feel what it’s like to be with the best person at what they do. I totally get it, but Vince is crazy.
So, he was jumping on me, and then he would have somebody come get me and say they wanted to talk to me in the back of the plane. I’d get up and he’d jump me from behind, and we’d wrestle, we did it for 5 hours.
We’d wrestle for a few minutes, and I’d hold him down and say, ‘Are you good?’ He’d say, ‘Yeah, yeah, we’re good.’
I’d go back and lay down, and he would jump on me again or he would have someone call me up and we’d go to the back of the plane, he’d jump me again.
It went on for 5 hours, and it just became very irritating.
The crazy thing, we were on the plane and there was wine stains all over the floor, there’s this flawless white carpet and there’s wine stains everywhere.
Vince and I were wrestling near the door, and there’s the latch. You open the latch and the door is open and you fly out of the plane.
We kept hitting the latch while we were wrestling, so the flight attendant came and said, ‘Hey! The pilot said if you don’t sit down and stop, he’s gonna land this plane right now.’ Vince says, ‘Go tell the pilot to f**k himself. I’ll buy the f***ing plane.’
I was like, ‘Oh my God!’ So, here we are, wrestling on the plane and we’re getting ready to land, and they finally get Vince to calm down.
We’re getting ready to hit the ground and Jericho is sitting in front of me. He looks back at me and says, ‘hey, look who’s coming up the aisle.’ And while we’re hitting the ground landing, Vince is army crawling up the aisle to jump on me again.
I’m like, ‘Holy shit, this is the night that will never end.’ It was a freakin’ nightmare.”
You can read about the other things that happened during the Plane Ride From Hell by tapping here.
WATCH: Vince McMahon Kisses Candice Michelle (Part 1):
• ON THIS DAY IN WWF HISTORY (May 5, 1997) – WWF Monday Night RAW
On this day in 1997, the World Wrestling Federation aired another episode of their weekly TV show ‘WWF Monday Night RAW’.
It was broadcasted from the Brown County Expo in Green Bay, Wisconsin and featured matches, interviews & storyline segments on the road to the ‘WWF In Your House 15: A Cold Day in Hell’ PPV.
Here’s the card:
1. Rockabilly vs. Ahmed Johnson
2. Vader vs. Goldust
3. Doug Furnas & Phil Lafon vs. The Legion of Doom
4. Steve Austin vs. Davey Boy Smith
