Chris Masters has some wild memories of traveling overseas with Vince McMahon, and according to the former WWE Superstar, the version of Vince fans saw on television was very different from the one wrestlers saw during WWE’s Tribute to the Troops trips.
While speaking to Hannibal TV, Masters was asked about his personal experiences with McMahon. He described the former WWE boss as an intimidating presence whenever they were working television, saying Vince knew how to maintain that image around the roster.
“Kind of like what a lot of other people’s were, just a kind of big intimidating presence. But I will say that Vince really kind of held up the perception of that all the time when he was at TVs and stuff.”
Things apparently changed once WWE headed overseas for Tribute to the Troops. Masters recalled flying on cargo jets that were loaded with alcohol, and he said McMahon would completely cut loose during those trips.
“He really let his hair down, so to speak, when we would go on the Tribute to the Troops shows. We’d go on those cargo jets, and they would have like these three big, freaking, whatever they’re called, of alcohol — just every kind of alcohol you could think of.”
Masters said Vince didn’t just have a few drinks either. According to him, McMahon would get hammered, pull ribs on wrestlers and even try to start fights among the guys.
“Vince would go absolutely insane. He would get absolutely hammered. He’d instigate fights with the guys and pull ribs, and it was just some of the craziest stuff I’d ever seen.”
Masters then brought up his first trip to Afghanistan, which happened only a few months into his WWE run. He said the trip was thrown at him at the last minute and admitted what he witnessed there was some of the craziest behavior he experienced during his entire time with the company.
“I had to go to Afghanistan, and this was in my first kind of few months with the company, and it was last minute. I wasn’t even prepared for this trip. So it was literally the day of, and I don’t know, man. It was just some of the — I just couldn’t even believe it.”
Masters didn’t get into every detail of what happened, but he made it clear that the trip stuck with him.
“It was the wildest, wildest stuff I’ve ever seen probably, I think, in my time in the company.”
The conversation eventually moved to another famous WWE road story involving Joey Styles punching JBL. Masters confirmed that incident was legitimate, although he made it clear he was not on the particular trip where the punch happened. He also accused JBL of being a bully during that era and said he personally got a taste of it while traveling in Afghanistan. Masters later said JBL made that Afghanistan trip miserable for him.
“JBL’s a good dude, but if he doesn’t admit that he was a bit of a bully to a lot of different people, then he’s just lying.”
“He made my life a living hell too on that Afghanistan trip. Oh my God, he tortured me, man. He mind-f**ed the hell out of me the whole trip and just talked smack. You would have had to be there to see it.”*
WWE’s locker room culture has changed dramatically since Masters’ first run with the company, but stories like this show just how different things were behind the scenes during that era. Masters clearly remembers Tribute to the Troops as a place where Vince McMahon dropped the intimidating corporate persona and became part of the chaos himself.
What do you make of Chris Masters’ story about Vince McMahon getting hammered and instigating fights during WWE’s overseas trips? Let us know what you think in the comments.
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