A year before he officially signed with WWE, Paul London appeared on television as a fan caught in the crossfire of a brawl between The Undertaker and Ric Flair on “WWE SmackDown.” As noted on “Insight With Chris Van Vliet,” his positioning was intentional, though, as WWE had hired him as a professional plant.

“After the Perry Saturn match [on WWE Jakked], I was also a plant for SmackDown,” London said. “This is leading up to WrestleMania 18. So Undertaker is a heel, Flair is a babyface. They stumble into the crowd. Flair goes to punch Undertaker, Taker moves, [Flair] decks a fan. I’m the fan, so he decks me. It’s a live SmackDown.”

The “WWE SmackDown” episode in reference centered in San Antonio, Texas on March 7, 2002, with The Undertaker defeating Al Snow and Maven in a two-on-one handicap match. Afterward, Undertaker asserted that if Flair really wanted a match with him at WrestleMania 18, then “The Nature Boy” would have to beg for it while on his hands and knees. Instead, Flair ignited a brawl with “The Phenom.”

When the action spilled over the barricade and into the crowd, Flair connected with a chop to The Undertaker, which was meant to be followed by another punch. The Undertaker ducked, though, resulting in London taking the hit and Flair getting arrested (in storyline) backstage.

“We go upstairs. [They say] ‘We’re coming back in like, two minutes.’ ‘Okay, you’re gonna say that man punched me.’ I’m like, ‘Flair, right?'” London recalled. “[They said] ‘Don’t say his name.’ The f*** kind of a fan am I who doesn’t know his name? I’m wearing a Stone Cold shirt. I want the p**** wheeling, jet stealing, limo driving, that dude, the money dude, yeah, he hit me. ‘No, say that man hit me.'”