In a no-holds-barred interview with Chris Van Vliet, former WWE Superstar Steve Blackman opened up about his infamous real-life airport altercation with JBL (John “Bradshaw” Layfield) — and it’s just as brutal as wrestling legends have made it sound.
“Some of the accounts were somewhat accurate,” Blackman admitted. “We were on the plane… JBL and one of the other guys kept throwing stuff up a few rows and hit me in the head. I’m trying to sleep. I walk back and say, ‘I’ve had enough.’ Then they do it again.”
Blackman says he managed to restrain himself until they landed in St. Louis, but once they hit baggage claim, it was on.
“Bradshaw comes up and stands beside me, bumps me. I handed my sunglasses to one of the guys and backhanded him from the floor. I turned around, went one, two, uppercut, then bomb. He went flat on his back at baggage claim… there were 500 people there.”
The chaos didn’t stop there. Blackman accidentally got his foot caught in a duffle bag, allowing JBL to recover and swing back. The two briefly scuffled again before other wrestlers pulled them apart.
Blackman recalled the aftermath backstage at the arena when Vince McMahon confronted him:
“‘Steve, Sunday morning in the airport? That’s great,’ Vince said. I replied, ‘I’m sorry it happened in the airport. Can’t say it won’t ever happen again, but I can promise it won’t happen in the airport.’”
According to Blackman, JBL eventually walked into the cafeteria, ready to fight again, but Blackman offered him a choice — apologize in front of everyone or throw down again.
“‘You can apologize for being a complete asshole,’ I told him. And he did. That was the end of it.”
Blackman noted the two now laugh about the fight, and even JBL has told versions of it with humor. But the incident briefly got both men taken off TV for a month and fined — though the heat quickly shifted when the tragic death of Owen Hart occurred later that same night.
