Flight Chaos Forces AEW to Fly Wrestlers to Phoenix on Private Planes for Full Gear

Nationwide flight cancellations across the United States threatened All Elite Wrestling's Full Gear, but the company dispatched private planes to make sure its talent and personnel made it to Phoenix for Saturday's pay-per-view, one of the company's top events of the year.

Fans were expected to pack the Mortgage Matchup Center in Phoenix. AEW owner Tony Khan said everyone on the Full Gear pay-per-view card arrived in Phoenix, after he sent private planes to three hub locations to bring the wrestlers and other personnel in.

In a video posted to social media, Khan said it had been an incredibly challenging few days for a lot of people and offered his sympathies to everybody affected by the flight cancellations and delays. He said that on Friday all flights — private and public — were grounded, and that AEW, like everyone else, was not trying to break any rules. While everybody was grounded, they started formulating a plan that came together really well, he said.

Khan said that without the private planes sent to the three hub locations, it would have been virtually impossible for everybody to make it given how many flights had been canceled, and there probably would have been changes to the main card. The only change was the Tailgate Brawl, which will now occur on the Full Gear pre-show.

Adam Copeland, who battles Kazuchika Okada for the AEW International Championship, described a dramatic journey from the East Coast. He was going down the runway about to take off for Denver when the pilot announced a nationwide ground stoppage. His wife, Beth Phoenix, came and got him and he went home, as one flight after another was canceled. In the end, Tony Khan sent a plane to get them.

Tony Schiavone, one-third of the AEW broadcast team, was set to fly out of Atlanta but made a last-minute decision to take a smaller plane out of Asheville, North Carolina. He arrived in Phoenix around 2 p.m. local time. His car is still in Asheville and he has no idea how he will get it back, but he said it does not matter — he was glad to be there, and would have driven the 27 hours to Phoenix if he had had the time.

Mark Davis and Jake Doyle challenge The Young Bucks for the AEW World Tag Team Championship, but getting to the arena was far from easy. Davis said he ran across Florida from Tampa to Orlando trying to get a flight, without success. Doyle drove to Detroit, then to Chicago, then sat on a private jet for eight hours waiting to get to Phoenix.

Matt and Nick Jackson — The Young Bucks — were in California and drove six hours to Phoenix. Matt Jackson said they were blessed to be coming from closer than many others, but that planes, trains or automobiles, they would have been at Full Gear regardless.

Broadcaster Excalibur was at the gym when he got a text about the travel chaos; he drove five hours from Southern California to Phoenix. Nigel McGuinness, the third member of the broadcast team, also drove, from Los Angeles. Both said there was no way they were going to miss Full Gear.

The main pay-per-view card begins at 8 p.m. ET and can be seen on HBO Max, the company said.