Jim Ross On Why Bill Watts Was Upset About Shawn Michaels Getting Beat Up Outside a Bar in Syracuse in 1995

On the latest episode of Grilling JR, Jim Ross spoke about Shawn Michaels getting beat up outside of a bar in Syracuse in 1995. Conrad Thompson noted on the podcast that Jim Cornette claimed that Michaels had been hitting on a guy’s girlfriend or wife, and that when Michaels and Davey Boy Smith went to leave, the guy pulled Michaels out of the passenger side window and beat him up. Ross also talked about how upset Bill Watts was over the incident. Watts had just been brought in to WWE as a booker in 1995. Highlights are below.

On when he heard about the incident: “The next day I heard about it. You’re concerned that someone is hurt or hospitalized or whatever. It sounds like some people were over served and may have made the wrong comment to the wrong people, I don’t know, I wasn’t there.”

On Bill Watts not being happy about the incident: “I think it’s simply a case of guys drinking too much, being in the wrong territory. I know Cowboy was not happy about it because of his old, antiquated rule that if you lose a fight in a territory you’re gone, was a Mid-South rule. It was not a rule in WWE, nor should it have been. Times have changed. Times had changed. But Bill didn’t like the fact that that happened and that a guy so highly on the card, and look, Bill had great respect for Shawn, he started Shawn in his career in Mid-South, so there was no personal animosities there. It’s just the philosophy of a pro-wrestler losing a fist fight to a civilian is unacceptable. A, if you don’t think you can win the fight, then somehow or another, don’t engage. As I’ve always told the guys, pick your spots on where you hang out. Going to a local bar and trying to become the alpha male in somebody else’s bar in another city you don’t live in is not really smart. You’re safer going to a gentlemen’s club, quite frankly, because they have more security, for the ladies, more security.”

If using any of the above quotes, please credit Grilling JR with an h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.