WWE Saudi Flight Updates: Plane Finally Takes Off, Some Wrestlers Land, NXT Travel Issues

A flight with the WWE wrestlers and staff who were stranded in Saudi Arabia finally took off to return to the United States at around 10 PM ET tonight (Friday).

The flight is currently scheduled to land at JFK Airport in New York City at 10 AM ET Saturday. It took off at around 5 AM local Saudi time.

A separate plane that was arranged as a backup and flew out of Saudi Arabia last night appears to have landed in the US after SmackDown began, but before it went off the air. The flight reportedly included 12 wrestlers and eight other WWE staff/crew members. Kofi Kingston was apparently on that plane and at 9:39 PM ET, tweeted that he’s back in the US.

Other wrestlers tweeted about the Saudi debacle this morning…

NXT

WWE brought in several NXT wrestlers to tonight’s SmackDown instead and reportedly cut it very close getting them there on time.

Post Wrestling’s John Pollock explained: