Former WWE Star Matt Hardy Recalls Fallout From Plane Ride From Hell

It has gone down as one of the most infamous non-wrestling moments in WWE history to the point where documentaries have been made about it; the Plane Ride From Hell. Following their spring tour of the United Kingdom and Germany in 2002, members of the WWE locker room pushed the limits of what was socially acceptable on an airplane beyond any and all boundaries, resulting in suspensions, lawsuits, and firings. Matt Hardy was on board the flight, and discussed the fallout of it during his "Extreme Life" podcast, stating that he wrestled Curt "Mr. Perfect" Hennig two days after the journey in what would be Hennig's final match for WWE as he was fired due to his behavior on the flight.

"I'm very proud that I got to work that one-on-one match with him, that was cool. Mr. Perfect was one of my guys, I thought he was absolutely incredible, and lo and behold that was his last match in WWE." Hennig had gotten into physical altercation with Brock Lesnar on the flight, which may have started as friendly competition, but nearly ended up with the two men breaking the emergency exit of the Boeing 757 tens of thousands of feet above the ground.

Hardy went on to say that he was asleep for some of the incidents that involved blood, drugs, and events that would lead to sexual assault lawsuits, but as far as the flight itself, Hardy claimed that for WWE locker room, the Plane Ride From Hell wasn't nearly as bad as people make it out to be. "To a wrestling locker room in that time, during the wild wild west, it was another overnight Saturday night flight in some ways, but it was chaotic," Hardy said. "A normal, regular, everyday person would think this was an insane asylum in the air."

Please credit "The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy" when using quotes from this article, and give a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.