This is one of those stories we hear about from time to time, and with A&E’s recent documentary on Shawn Michaels, it’s back into the main stream again.
Or as close to mainstream as professional wrestling is nowadays.
It doesn’t take away from what happened, and by all accounts if was a brutal beating that send Shawn Michaels to the hospital with a reported concussion.
Bruce Prichard talked about it and he explained what many of us understand from day to day lives that the truth is somewhere in the middle.
The reports vary from site to site about what lead up to the eventually fight, but they all state that he, Davey Boy Smith (the British Bulldog), and Sean Waltman (1-2-3 Kid, X-Pac, Syxx) were together at Club 37 in Syracuse, New York.
According to the Syracuse Post article courtesy of angelfire.com he and his friends were ambushed while signing autographs in a woman’s car.
According to the woman, named Donna Jones, nine or ten men approached the car (in some cases it’s said to be 7) and they tried to punch Waltman or Smith and Michaels got out of the car.
According to Marty Jannetty as reported in sportskeeda.com, it was only one person beating up Shawn while the rest held back Smith and Waltman was under the car.
As we said earlier, the truth is often in the middle somewhere and only those that were there know what really happened, though they may not remember it clearly as Bruce Prichard said in the above article.
“The boys look after the boys. So, it was ‘Where the hell were you, what happened?’ and don’t go out and get so screwed up that you don’t remember what the hell happened. It was an opportunity for a lesson to be learned for some people, and don’t be stupid more than anything.”
Repercussions
As Prichard also noted, Michaels had to vacate the Intercontinental Championship due to the injuries he suffered in the fight.
It was sad, first of all, because you sit there and once you saw Shawn and you realize that this has now had almost a week or more – it’s had a while to heal up – and you think about ‘Holy shit’ and how bad it must have been. I actually did see pictures of him in the hospital, and it wasn’t pretty by any stretch of the imagination. It was tough, and you had to do something. I think there was a segment of the audience that felt ‘Well, is this real or is it not?’ So, you show Shawn, you show the injuries to his face and make a story out of it. You’re dealt a set of cards, and you have to play them the best way you can at the time.”
Few things end like we expect them to, but it’s a testament to Michael’s skills and drive that he managed to survive this and push forward to become one of the greatest in ring talents we’ve seen.
What are your memories of Shawn Michaels? Let us know in the comments below.
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