The Syracuse Incident

[Failed Bridge 0]

So there's this guy that comes into 7-11 quite a bit and we shoot the shit now and again. Few days ago he comes in and there are some punk kids standing outside (yes, I am going somewhere with this before a mod gives up and moves the thread) and he says "God, I'd love to just hit them but I'd probably get arressted and there's a few out there". I replied with "Hit the biggest one square in the jaw, that'll knock him down. Good shot to the jaw takes anybody down". He says "You got that right, I remember being in a bar in New York awhile back when I was in the army and one of my buddies knocked out a big wrestler with just one punch to the jaw". I said "Oh shit, really? Who?" and he replied "Shawn Michaels"

 

Well of course I went on to ask where exactly the bar was and as I expected he said "Syracuse". Turns out this guy was there for the Syracuse incident so I started asking more questions about it. He said "Shawn Michaels, that 1-2-3 Kid guy and Davey Boy Smith came into the bar. Must have been when Shawn Michaels was World Champ or something because he had the belt with him (I didn't bother tell him it was the Intercontinental title), anyways there was about 20 of us G.I.s on weekend leave and some of us brought our girlfriends. Shawn Michaels decides to try and pick up the girlfriend of a G.I. about my size (couldn't be taller than 5ft 8 and 175lbs soaking wet) ignoring the G.I. right beside her. Well this guy gets pretty pissed but keeping composed tells Shawn that they're together and could he just leave them be. Michaels starts acting like a big shot, tells him just who he is, says he's got back up (pointing at Waltman and Davey Boy) and that he's going to take his woman back to the hotel. The G.I. gets pissed, starts yelling, Michaels pushes him and the G.I. proceeds to punch Michaels ONCE in the jaw and knock him silly. From there the guy started stomping on Michaels and kicking him in the head with steel-toed boots. 1-2-3 Kid made the bartender call the cops and then ran outside to flag them down when they got there. Davey Boy did nothing and no other G.I.s did a thing. In the end the guy got arrested, had to pay Shawn's medical bills after Shawn sued and he's also barred for like from WWF things. He didn't care about that part though because he thinks wrestling is gay."

 

So there ya go. One G.I. beat up Michaels for hitting on his girlfriend and being a prick. It wasn't 300 marines throwing the guy into the hoods of cars or anything. Just some steel-toed boots repeatedly into the side of his dome.

 

Thought everybody might find that interesting though.

[Darth Vader 0]

That's pretty fucked up right there.

[muzz 0]

I'd be yelling at him to kip-up.

[Craig Th 0]

Moving to General Wrestling since this is Old School.

[Boxer 0]

Well, nice to know Shawn layed down and did the job that time.

 

Too bad the GI wasn't Shane Douglas. Then at least the job would have more credibility.

[snuffbox 0]

Believable. And funny.

[haVoc 0]

Has Waltman or Davey Boy ever talked about this incident?

[The Amazing Rando 0]

I'd say both Waltman and Davey Boy have about the same amount of credibility on this incident at this point in time.

[Black Lushus 0]

let's ask Davey Bo...oh...

[The Amazing Rando 0]

I'll bet Davey Boy's sitting in his house right now saying "I could write a book about that!"

[Dobbs 3K 0]

I'll bet Davey Boy's sitting in his house right now saying "I could write a book about that!"

 

Is that supposed to be a joke?

[Black Lushus 0]

yes

[cawthon777 0]

Meltzer reported Davey was in on the fight. He was sporting a black eye the next day at the Syracuse house show.

 

This is how it was reported in the Observer, copy and pasted from a discussion on my board a while back.

 

10/23/95:

 

Bill Watts officially quit the WWF on 10/13 over an apparent disagreement with Vince McMahon over what being in charge constituted. Later that evening, outside a bar in Syracuse, NY, Shawn Michaels was involved in a one-sided street fight with several servicemen and was pounded into the pavement and hospitalized. He will be appearing at the In Your House PPV although it may be a rare occasion where he'd be the one who would have to be carried. Just one day earlier, the WWF had officially received word that the Undertaker had suffered a broken orbital bone (the bone that holds the eye in the socket) several days earlier and would be out of action for at least one month, definitely missing the 10/22 PPV show in Winnipeg where his match with King Mabel was considered the semi-main event…

 

Numerous stories have evolved stemming from the situation where Michaels, 30, was beaten up and hospitalized. What is consistent in all versions is that Michaels, Davey Boy Smith and 1-2-3 Kid were drinking at a bar in Syracuse, NY near their hotel, coming into town after matches earlier that evening in Binghamton. The wrestlers called for a taxi to take them to their hotel, but the taxis in town were all booked up as it was closing time on a Friday night. One of the bouncers got his girlfriend to drive them back. As the wrestlers left, between eight and ten servicemen (depending upon the report) followed them outside the bar. One of them started calling Michaels a "fag" and another tried to throw a punch at Kid into the car. Michaels either got out of the car or was pulled from the car and the car door was slammed on his head. Michaels ended up being knocked down with several of them stomping him in the head and smashing his face onto the car bumper before Smith and Kid got out of the back seat in the two-door car and got involved in the altercation, whereupon several more guys who appeared to be servicemen showed up. Kid was on the ground wrestling with one of them. Smith dragged off one of the guys who was attacking Michaels, who was helpless by this point. He was leg-dived from behind by a second guy, but ended up quickly getting him in a front facelock and was choking him out when a third guy from behind stuck his finger in the left corner of his eye and tried to pull his eye out. He turned around and began fighting him when what appeared to be an undercover police officer showed up and pulled a gun, sending the servicemen running into two white Ford Broncos where they left the scene.

 

Smith worked that evening in Syracuse, NY but had scratches on his face and reddish/black right eye from broken blood vessels in the eye from the fight that was noticeable to fans at the matches. Kid, who wasn't hurt in the melee, worked a match with Bob Backlund that contained absolutely no action. Michaels was taken to the hospital after 3 a.m. that evening, with both his eyes swollen shit and had the side of his face badly swollen and blood coming from his eye and his ear. He needed 10-stitches both above and below the eye to close wounds and sew back on his eyelid that was nearly ripped off, and also may have busted his eardrum. However, Michaels suffered no concussion or broken bones in the face and was released from the hospital in the morning and flew home to San Antonio to recuperate. There was no police report of the incident as of press time although the WWF said on television Monday night that a police investigation in Syracuse was going on, nor was it reported in any of the local media. In fact, on Tuesday morning, local police claimed to not be even aware of any such incident. There were reasons potential publicity could be regarded as embarrassing for the WWF, such as not wanting more publicity because of the fact two wrestlers who were wrestling one another were together (Michaels and Smith) and the fact that technically Smith's legal problems regarding an alleged bar incident in Calgary haven't been completely closed. However, it was acknowledged on Raw with Michaels doing an interview from his home talking about the incident in very vague terms. It was acknowledged on Nitro as well with one of Gene Okerlund's sleaziest 900 line come-ons to date (which did result in a record amount of business for any Monday in hotline history) saying how a WWF star came out on the short end of a fight with a "fan," which contrasted with the Raw version being Michaels being jumped by "ten thugs unprovoked" with no acknowledgement of Smith and Kid's involvement for obvious reasons. Michaels on Raw said he would be wrestling in Winnipeg and pretty much said that he wouldn't be nearly 100% for a match.

The WWF had no events scheduled this week, so after missing his Saturday and Sunday bookings (Marty Jannetty was flown in as an emergency replacement and was put over in a Battle Royal to earn a match with Smith and won that match as well. Even when it comes to the heel challenging for the title on a PPV one week later, WWF policy is when there is a main event replacement, and in this case, the top two attractions on the show not being there, the sub babyface always goes over so the fans leave less with the felling of being ripped-off), Michaels' next scheduled match was with Dean Douglas on the Winnipeg PPV. At both weekend shows in Syracuse and Utica it was announced before the shows of the injuries to both Michaels (said to be from an out of the ring altercation) and Undertaker that a Battle Royal had been added to the shows. Michaels is expected to work the PPV, although that wasn't 100% certain as of press time.

 

10/30/95:

 

An update on the incident involving Shawn Michaels, Davey Boy Smith and 1-2-3 Kid and Michaels not wrestling on the In Your House PPV event on 10/22 and forfeiting the IC title to Dean Douglas (who immediately lost the title to Razor Ramon that night)

 

Although for obvious reasons (the involvement of Smith, who was working a house show program with Michaels at the time, in saving Michaels) not giving the complete actual story, the WWF wasn't technically dishonest either in how it handled the story. In mid-week, Michaels' neuro-surgeon told him he would advise against him even taking the trip to Winnipeg, and strongly advised against wrestling. This came after the weekend syndicated shows were taped where it was stated as fact that Michaels would wrestle on the show. On Action Zone, which is done later in the week, the WWF still strongly indicated Michaels would be wrestled but wasn't 100% as earlier in the week. They underplayed that he odds were great that he wouldn't be wrestling. During the pre-taped pre-game show, Todd Pettingell talked about Michaels wrestling on the show as a given, although they inserted an updated segment with Jim Ross and Gorilla Monsoon, which appeared to be done either live or earlier that day in Winnipeg, saying it was questionable and basically saying Monsoon had yet to decide whether to allow Michaels to wrestle but that his doctors didn't want him to wrestle but he wanted to wrestle. By that time it should have been a certainty that they knew it wasn't going to happen. Monsoon said if Michaels couldn't wrestle, they'd still have an IC title match and that Douglas would be awarded the title and defend against a mystery opponent. It wasn't until the show began that it was acknowledged Michaels wasn't going to wrestle, and that Douglas' opponent would be Ramon. WWF had been more honest that the generally dishonest wrestling business had been in similar situations in regard to Undertaker, and even with the Michaels up to that point, particularly if you compare it with WCW's totally dishonest misrepresentations and handling of injuries to Rick Steamboat and Rick Rude prior to PPV shows where they were in key matches. However WWF, possibly because Undertaker was already missing the show, didn't want to let anyone know that Michaels would miss the show as well because it would potentially hurt late buys. Certainly they could have gotten the word on the pre-game show, and probably on Mania for that matter, of the back-up plan should Michaels not be working and giving the true likelihood of that happening. The fact that the 1993 hierarchy and the 1991 WWF hierarchy would have fraudulently hid both the Michaels and Undertaker injuries from the public shouldn't make one compliment an organization that tried to be more honest than the dishonest rules of American pro wrestling, but in the end, resorted to the traditional con game. The situation as far as credibility was doubly bad, because WWF was coming off a PPV show in which it had guaranteed a title change, and then did a screw-job finish and not delivered on a guarantee it attempted to hammer home (remember the statements about a title changing on a DQ or COR the week before the show). The last show was a booking decision that resulted in false hype and advertising of the headline match. This was a combination of unfortunate circumstances beyond the company's control which they started off being very honest in handling, but in the end, where the chips were down, they resorted back to being sleazy wrestling promoters.

 

As for the incident on the WWF's bad luck Friday the 13th in Syracuse, NY, the police reports of the incident only slightly differed with the account given to us by as reliable a source as would be possible given the circumstances. Despite it being said on Raw the past two weeks about a police investigation, the case was already closed at the time they made that statement the first time since both Michaels and WWF agent Dave Hebner refused to press charges the day after the incident took place.

 

The slight differences in last week's Observer and the police report were that in the police report, apparently largely derived from Waltman, the men who instigated the incident were yelling insults at the driver of the car, Donna Jones, and not at Michaels. The police report stated that Michaels was in the front seat, but was intoxicated and had passed out and was actually asleep when he was pulled out of the car and mercilessly pummeled and had no chance to defend himself. It stated that there were three people in the back seat of the two-door car, Waltman, Smith, and a third person named Robert Jones, with Smith in the middle between the two which because of his size and being in a two-door car, compounded the time before he was able to get out of the car and basically pull the perpetrators off Michaels. The police reported ten assailants, not nine, and said the fight was broken up when Donna Jones, who was apparently the girlfriend of a bouncer at the Club 37 in the Ponderosa Plaza in Syracuse where this was taking place in front of, ran into the club and two bouncers came out (not an undercover officer as reported here) and the perpetrators escaped in two white Ford Broncos. One of the broncos turned around and attempted to run over one of the bouncers, Tony Alberti. The police report stated nothing about the perpetrators being Marines or servicemen, although the entire group had short crew-cut haircuts similar to Smith. The police report stated Michaels suffered a laceration of the right eyelid and right cheek below the eye, two black eyes, swelling and blood coming from the ears and right eye.

[Special K 0]

They tried to rip his EYELID off? Jesus

[The Amazing Rando 0]

I'll bet Davey Boy's sitting in his house right now saying "I could write a book about that!"

 

Is that supposed to be a joke?

 

 

Someone's signature has (or had) the original comment, which i punch-lined.