In light of the controversy surrounding the upcoming Crown Jewel event, Wrestling Inc recently spoke to former WWE referee Jimmy Korderas about how he felt regarding attending the first ever Tribute To The Troops event in 2003. The show took place in Iraq which was obviously an active war zone. Check out his comments below.

Whether He Was Forced To Go: 

“Never forced. Even when we first went to Iraq for Tribute to the Troops [in 2003]. When I was approached by Talent Relations, [Jim Ross] at the time. JR said, ‘We’d like you to go. It’s totally up to you. You don’t have to, there’s no obligation. There’s no heat if you don’t go. We want to know if you’re comfortable with going because we’re going into basically an active war zone.’”

His Reaction:

 “I’m like, ‘Wow, let me think about this.’ He said take your time and I called my wife and talked to her. It was something I wanted to do, but you’re thinking about what it’s like over there. There were assurances that we would be well-looked after and we were. So, I decided to go, but I was given that option.”