Chris Jericho Pokes Fun at WWE's Roster Following the Saudi Arabia Travel Issues

AEW Word Champion Chris Jericho had some words for WWE's rosterfollowing the company's travel issues coming back from Saudi Arabia this week. For those who missed it, the vast majority of the WWE roster and production team that traveled to Saudi Arabia for the Crown Jewel event on Thursday were delayed almost a full 24 hours before they were finally able to leave the country. WWE's statement on the matter claimed the issue had to do with technical malfunctions with the plane, though numerous reports have since come out stating that reason was covering up a real dispute between the company and Saudi Arabia's General Sports Agency.

On top of that, many wrestlers took issue with part of WWE's statement that praised certain wrestlers that attempted to pay their way into chartering a separate flight to get home sooner. Luke Harper posted a photo fo the wrestlers finally getting on the plane while writing "I guess I didn't want it enough to pay for my own charter, but I'm home now," on Instagram.

Jericho jokingly wrote back, "Shame on you lazy embarrassments to the company," along with a Thumbs Down emoji. He then added, "Glad everybody made it home safely."

The portion of WWE's statement the wrestlers took issue with read as follows — ""With SmackDown emanating live from Buffalo, N.Y., several Superstars felt so strongly that they arranged for their own separate charter in order to make it back to the U.S. for the show. Due to unforeseen issues, that charter did not land until after the live broadcast on FOX," the statement read. "The remainder of WWE's Superstars, staff and crew departed on a charter set to depart Saudi Arabia on Friday."

According to Wrestling Observer's Dave Meltzer, many of the wrestlers felt "deserted" by the company as Vince McMahon was already on his way back to the United States on his private plane before the delay issues began.

Without the majority of the roster to work with, SmackDown had to rely on the wrestlers that either didn't travel overseas (most of the women's division, The Miz, Daniel Bryan) as well as invading NXT wrestlers in order to fill up SmackDown's two hours of air time. The plan worked, as SmackDown's rating managed to go up while fans praised the NXT Champion main event between Bryan and Adam Cole.

Meanwhile, Jericho is set to defend the AEW World Championship against Cody Rhodes on Saturday at the Full Gear pay-per-view.