Last week’s Crown Jewel pay-per-view is one of the most infamous WWE pay-per-views of all time, but not because of the show itself. The event is now infamous due to the travel issues which left talents stranded in Saudi Arabia for 24 plus hours after the show.
There were a lot of rumors going around regarding the delays, but WWE issued a statement claiming that the delays were caused by mechanical issues with the plane.
Prior to Raw, Vince McMahon held a meeting backstage, and WWE Hall of Famer Jerry “The King” Lawler recently opened up about what Vince said during an episode of The Jerry Lawler Show.
“Vince said, ‘guys, we’ve all been in this business for awhile, we’ve all experienced some travel issues in the past, but I can honestly say that in all of the years that I’ve been in the business, I’ve never seen this many travel issues happen at one time with a plane.'”
McMahon went on to say that the first problem was with the tug that was supposed to pull the plane, then the second problem had to do with the manifest, and the weight of the plane due to all of the people on board.
The pilots then timed out, and due to the weight the plane needed extra fuel. When the fuel tanks were filled up, a sensor then went off indicating there was an issue with a piece of equipment that could transfer fuel from one engine to the other if one went out. A piece of equipment then had to be flown in from Germany, a six hour flight, before the plane could take off.
“Vince said to everybody, ‘Guys, I’ve never seen anything like it, I’m sure you’ve never seen anything like it and hopefully we’ll never experience anything like that again. We’ll always have the travel people [stay with talent], they’ll be the last people to leave. We’ll always take care of this’. Vince and those guys got out on his jet thinking that all of the talent was going to be right behind him, so they didn’t have a clue that all of this was going on.”
Vince also addressed the rumors that issues between WWE and the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia caused the delays. McMahon apparently said, “nothing like that happened, there could be nothing further from the truth. He said that as a matter of fact, our relationship with the Saudi government and the Prince is at an all time high.”
As noted, WWE issued the following statement on the delays:
H/T Wrestling Inc.
