AEW wrestlers who previously toured with WWE internationally noticed a big difference

UPDATE: This story has been updated to reflect that AEW did have a shuttle bus to get wrestlers from the airport to the hotel and from the hotel to the venue and then back to the hotel on the Friday before the event for the key flights that most personnel and wrestlers were on.

AEW wrestlers who previously have toured internationally with WWE noticed some big differences in how AEW handled the travel.

WWE wrestlers on international tours generally travel together in groups, are given an official itinerary, have arranged rides to get them from the airport to the hotel or arena, have security assigned to the group, and have a guide who just handles all of the logistics to lead wrestlers where they need to go. In AEW in London, wrestlers had to find where the AEW shuttle busses were located on their own.

With AEW, their memo to wrestlers said the busses were tracking flights and if a flight with wrestlers was delayed, the driver would be aware of it and wait. They also offered to reimburse wrestlers who ended up taking an Uber due to a full bus or any delays. They told wrestlers to “look for AEW signs or familiar faces” once they got through customs.

New Japan also picks up non-Japan-based wrestlers at the airport when they arrive in Japan.

Wrestlers who arrived Saturday missed the shuttle service that AEW offered on Friday, which was when most arrived. C.M. Punk initially drew attention to this when he was upset that he didn’t have a ride at the airport when he arrived Saturday, a day later than most other wrestlers.

C.M. Punk ended up disoriented after he arrived at the airport and had to ask fans for help getting to Wembley. Haus of Wrestling reported this detail:

[W]hen Punk landed at Heathrow Airport for AEW All In London on Saturday morning, no one from AEW was there to greet him. There was also no car service to take him to his hotel, and when he texted a number he was given by AEW for the driver, it bounced back as being an invalid number. After waiting for a while, Punk chose to buy a train ticket and find his own way to his hotel. We are told that The Tube was fairly busy at the time, Punk got lost, and a few fans who noticed The Second City Saint helped him figure out where he was going. It appears that Punk got into London so close to the actual event because he had taping commitments in Atlanta on Wednesday and wanted to spend Thursday with his wife and dog, Larry, before heading out on Friday and landing on Saturday morning.

Because London is a major modern metropolitan city, wrestlers ended up getting to where they needed eventually, and wrestlers who hadn’t experienced WWE’s smooth travel process weren’t thrown off as much as they didn’t have any expectations and the shuttle service AEW offered was sufficient.

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