Mike Johnson of PWInsider.com is reporting that the WWE charter flight scheduled to travel from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia to Buffalo, NY for Smackdown was delayed for several hours. There were reportedly mechanical issue with the fuel line of the plane and perhaps other issues as well.
WWE stars were apparently sitting on the plane for hours and now some of them are back at their hotels in Riyadh.
PWInsider reports that the “majority” of talents will likely not be able to make tonight’s show with Johnson noting the following:
“WWE has made arrangements to try to get those ‘absolutely necessary’ for Smackdown to the taping, we are told.
There are a LOT of people within WWE upset about the situation, going as far up the ladder as you can imagine.”
Dave Meltzer of F4WOnline.com noted the following overnight:
“Some notes since nobody can say anything. WWE had a problem in Saudi Arabia. Talent was not allowed to leave on their flight and most are still there. 20 people, 12 of which were talent, have left but the rest are still there. It’s a 14 hour flight, Smackdown starts in 17 hours. The last we heard the rest of the talent wasn’t going to be able to leave for a lot longer than three hours.”
