AJ Styles Details Saudi Arabia Experience, Plane Issues Following WWE Crown Jewel
"The Phenomenal One" shares his experience...
So many questions remain about what exactly went down in Saudi Arabia before WWE Crown Jewel, and in its aftermath. A stranded crew, wrestler irritability shared on social media, rumors of financial disputes, and so forth have been discussed, but there's still so much that remains unclear.
AJ Styles, who was part of the cadre of wrestlers left behind in Saudi Arabia for roughly a 24 hour period, due to "mechanical issues" with the plane, spoke on his Mixer stream Sunday about his recollections of the experience.
Said Styles, "We got to the airport, they weren't letting us board. What was the problem? Not real sure. I heard there was a fuel truck in the way and the guy who drove the fuel truck had left to go home. I know, this makes no sense. Why would he leave if he knows he has a plane that's leaving?
"Then there were some paperwork issues. Finally, after four or five hours, we get on the plane. Then the 'fuel something or another' was broken. People can say, 'It wasn't broken.' But I talked to the pilot and he said, 'Listen, there was a problem. That's a real thing.' The problem was, we spent all that time, from 1 o'clock to 6 or 8 in the morning, waiting to get on the plane and them telling us we can't go anywhere because the pilots had timed out. The pilots can only go so long before they're not able to fly because they're not able to go 24 hours at a time.
"They had to go to a hotel, we had to find a hotel. Were there guns and people like 'EVERYBODY OFF THE PLANE!' No, that never happened. Nobody threatened to kill us. Nobody was gonna get murdered."
Styles talked about the speculation of an issue between Vince McMahon and Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, saying, "That's not my job to say anything. Was I pretty angry about not getting home because I missed my son's wrestling match? You have no idea. This was out of our hands and out of the pilot's hands. There's no point in getting mad about something I have no control of.
"We'll find out as we go along why things happened. Or we won't. I don't know what's going to happen going forward. I'll deal with it when I need to. But I'm not gonna throw WWE under the bus either. It's not gonna do me any good to throw anybody under the bus.
"Until I know more, I'm not gonna say anymore or say anything negative. If I did find out and I was offended, I would go to the source."
(Transcription courtesy of Fightful)
AJ Styles, who was part of the cadre of wrestlers left behind in Saudi Arabia for roughly a 24 hour period, due to "mechanical issues" with the plane, spoke on his Mixer stream Sunday about his recollections of the experience.
Said Styles, "We got to the airport, they weren't letting us board. What was the problem? Not real sure. I heard there was a fuel truck in the way and the guy who drove the fuel truck had left to go home. I know, this makes no sense. Why would he leave if he knows he has a plane that's leaving?
"Then there were some paperwork issues. Finally, after four or five hours, we get on the plane. Then the 'fuel something or another' was broken. People can say, 'It wasn't broken.' But I talked to the pilot and he said, 'Listen, there was a problem. That's a real thing.' The problem was, we spent all that time, from 1 o'clock to 6 or 8 in the morning, waiting to get on the plane and them telling us we can't go anywhere because the pilots had timed out. The pilots can only go so long before they're not able to fly because they're not able to go 24 hours at a time.
"They had to go to a hotel, we had to find a hotel. Were there guns and people like 'EVERYBODY OFF THE PLANE!' No, that never happened. Nobody threatened to kill us. Nobody was gonna get murdered."
Styles talked about the speculation of an issue between Vince McMahon and Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, saying, "That's not my job to say anything. Was I pretty angry about not getting home because I missed my son's wrestling match? You have no idea. This was out of our hands and out of the pilot's hands. There's no point in getting mad about something I have no control of.
"We'll find out as we go along why things happened. Or we won't. I don't know what's going to happen going forward. I'll deal with it when I need to. But I'm not gonna throw WWE under the bus either. It's not gonna do me any good to throw anybody under the bus.
"Until I know more, I'm not gonna say anymore or say anything negative. If I did find out and I was offended, I would go to the source."
(Transcription courtesy of Fightful)
Written by Justin Henry
In addition to writing lists and commentaries for Cultaholic, Justin is also a features writer and interviewer for Fighting Spirit Magazine, and is co-author of the WWE-related book Titan Screwed: Lost Smiles, Stunners, and Screwjobs.