During a recent episode of his podcast, The Jim Cornette Experience, former longtime WWE executive / on-air personality Jim Cornette spoke about the passing of his longtime friend and one of the Superstars he managed in WWE, Leon “Vader” White.
As noted, White passed away at age 63 earlier this month. During the show, Cornette told the full story of how Vader ended up getting arrested in Kuwait while doing promotional work for WWE after he attacked a TV show host.
“Leon and The Undertaker, a rare appearance on any kind of talk show for The Undertaker on a talk show but they were in Kuwait. It was a big tour, it was a sold tour for a lot of money,” Jim Cornette said as he discussed how Vader once found himself detained overseas because he protected the pro wrestling business. “They were being interviewed on one of the morning news shows like ‘Good Morning Kuwait’ I think actually might have been the title of it or whatever the host just, actually said to the side some blatantly disrespectful stuff to the guys sitting there about how he thought that wrestling was all fake and a show. Whereas Undertaker kinda sat back and was cool he didn’t say anything at first, Leon turned around and backhanded snatched that guy by his tie and his shirt and I’d had Leon snatch me when he was working and he’d yank all your chest hair out and it was stiff and the guy just s–t himself. Leon cut a little promo on him and let him go and kinda just pushed the little coffee table over and everything.”
“They detained him,” Cornette continued. “I guess some people would remember, some might not have been alive it was over twenty years but they detained him in Kuwait. After the tour was over all the guys left and were glad to get on the plane to come home and they kept Leon for a while deciding what to do. There was daily reports being called in. Vince called him ‘our man in Kuwait.’ You know he stuck up for the business I think more than I would’ve in Kuwait if I would’ve been there, but finally, they let him go. I can’t remember if he paid a fine or whatever but they let him get back on the plane. You know that wasn’t necessarily the venue to protect the business but he did it. I admired him for that.”
Check out the complete episode of The Jim Cornette Experience podcast at Art19.com.
