10 Things You Didn't Know About WWE In 1995
6. The Disputed Marine Incident
"There were nine of 'em! Jeeeeesus!"
That's not exactly how he put it, but Shawn Michaels did in fact claim that he was beaten up by nine marines in Syracuse. This is...disputed.
Shawn was beaten up, and badly, on October 13. The basic story, which you'll likely know about, is that Michaels tried to crack on with a woman who, unbeknownst to him, was the partner of a marine. Said marine then lurked into the car park, after a potential dust-up was thwarted by a bouncer, and assaulted an inebriated, unconscious Michaels. Accounts vary on the number of assailants.
The story was broken by Mike McAndrew of the Post-Standard, who later wrote in his book The Storytellers that the "commonly accepted number" is five.
The official number was whittled down to six-uh, per Triple H in A&E's HBK biography. Marty Jannetty - as reliable a narrator as those who insist that wrestling looked more realistic in the 1980s - reckons that it was just one. And indeed, just one person, Douglas Griffith, was charged with second degree assault.
The true figure will never be revealed at this point, but it wasn't the nine that the WWF told you in 1995.