JBL Shoots Down Long-Standing Rumor About The Infamous WWE ‘Plane Ride From Hell'

Yahoo

27-03-2025

Photo Credit: TNA
One of the most popular wrestling stories outside the squared circle is the infamous 'Plane Ride From Hell.' It has been discussed by fans for years, and it was more recently the subject of an episode of Dark Side of the Ring.
Recently, WWE Hall of Famer JBL opened up about the plane ride. While speaking on the Something to Wrestle podcast with Conrad Thompson, JBL shared that some details from the Plane Ride From Hell story have been conflated a lot.
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'They do [some of the stories about the Plane Ride From Hell get conflated]. I think it has been brought out that Vince [McMahon] and Linda [McMahon] were not on the plane. That they were not. And I think in the Dark Side they said they were. They conflated the stories. What they did was that they had conflated some stories. We've had some crazy plane rides. That was not the worst by the way. And it was pretty close. But it wasn't.
'We've had some that were much worse than that. And not bragging about that. That's just a fact of life that things were wild back then. It was like, you talk about the 80's and 90's, the Rock and Roll and sports. Things were different back then. Look at North Dallas 40 as compared now to the NFL. That's the same progression you see in wrestling. Vince and Linda weren't on the flight. And people had brought that up.
'People had brought up the fact, a lot of stuff… Vince and Curt [Hennig] had gotten into a wrestling match. I don't know if they had it on Dark Side of The Ring. I didn't watch the whole thing, I watched most of it… On a different flight. They conflated a lot of different flights.'
JBL reveals what sparked up the 'Plane Ride From Hell'
JBL says the 'fight' between Brock Lesnar and Curt Hennig started over Curt pranking a sleeping Brock by putting shaving cream in his hand. Bradshaw also said he was right near the pair when they started fighting. One element of the story implied Brock and Curt almost knocked the emergency door open, but JBL says that was not the case.
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'Brock obviously handled him pretty well. Curt's a tough guy but Brock's a different level. And Curt said, 'Okay, you're the toughest guy in wrestling. I'm the second toughest.' And Curt had boots on, Brock was barefoot, and Curt stomped him with his heel on Brock's barefoot and Brock goes… And throws him over his head. But my opinion, there was never a concern about them going through the emergency exit. Never. Not one. I was standing right beside it.
'The Captain didn't come back, 'Oh my god! You are going to go out the emergency exit.' None of that happened. If people had watched it and they have a different view of that and they thought there was a chance they're going through, I can't read minds. But I was standing right there. And as far as the group that I was standing with, nobody was concerned they were going to go through the exit or anything like that. They were just wrestling. They were playing.'
Curt Hennig was ultimately released by WWE due to his role in the Plane Ride From Hell. He went on to use his takedown of Lesnar as bragging rights in promos, referring to himself as 'the guy who took down Brock Lesnar at 35,000 feet' on multiple occasions.
JBL is convinced the only reason the Plane Ride From Hell is famous is because it was stooged
'It was stooged. It was the only one that was stooged. I've been on some… I'm telling you, Mr. Brisco and I told a story about when we went to Europe. He had to pay for us not to be thrown off the plane. He literally had to pay cash to bribe a pilot to not throw us off the plane. There was a knife stuck in one of the walls of the lavatory. People got into a food fight, it was a disaster. It was a commercial flight.
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'I've been on private flights that were, brother there were Colombian Cartels that had fewer illegal things in it than those flights had. And again, I'm not bragging. That was life back then. It was wild. And the plane ride over was, I thought wilder than the one coming back. The difference was, this one got stooged. So, we went through customs and went… Did all the stuff we do. Michael Hayes did get his haircut. I punched Michael. Did not knock Michael out.'
JBL went on to detail the fight between himself and Hayes, reiterating that the only reason it got attention is because someone 'stooged' it to the media.
Dark Side of the Ring co-creator Evan Husney spoke with WrestleZone about another infamous event in WWE history, the Hell In A Cell match between Mick Foley and The Undertaker. The match is the subject of a season six episode of the show, and Husney also believes the match is worthy of its own WWE Hall of Fame induction.
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