Marty Jannetty

In 1986, Jannetty debuted for the American Wrestling Association. In the AWA, Jannetty aligned with Shawn Michaels as the Midnight Rockers, and quickly built a reputation as a talented tag team, performing many acrobatic moves in tandem and electrifying crowds with their athleticism. The two won the World Tag Team Championship twice, first defeating Buddy Rose and Doug Somers, and then the Original Midnight Express for their second and final reign.

Joining the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) and now called simply The Rockers, Jannetty and Michaels' popularity carried over from their stint in the AWA and the team was often called "tag team specialists" by commentator Gorilla Monsoon. They made their WWF debut at a television taping on June 18, 1988, and they faced tag teams such as Demolition, The Hart Foundation, and the Brain Busters for the rest of 1989. Duos including The Rockers routinely headlined house show events during this era of tag team wrestling.

Despite their previous success, The Rockers never officially won the WWF Tag Team Championship during their three-year run together in the WWF. On October 30, 1990, The Rockers were scheduled to win the titles from The Hart Foundation due to Jim Neidhart, one-half of the championship team, being in the process of negotiating his release from the company. The match was taped with The Rockers fairly winning the belts, but soon after, Neidhart reportedly came to a stop-gap agreement with management and was rehired. The belts were returned to the Hart Foundation a week later, and despite The Rockers making a title defense against Power and Glory on November 3, the change was never broadcast or acknowledged on television.

In a 1991 angle, Michaels was "accidentally" kicked in the face during a maneuver initiated by Jannetty on one of The Nasty Boys, which clipped Shawn in the face and resulted in an elimination at Survivor Series. Michaels got up after being pinned and began screaming at Jannetty, blaming him for being eliminated. Attempting to help settle their differences, Brutus Beefcake invited both on his interview segment *The Barber Shop* on the January 12, 1992 episode of *WWF Wrestling Challenge*. Michaels and Jannetty appeared to reconcile, but then Michaels hit Jannetty with *Sweet Chin Music*, after Marty tried to escape through the glass window. Jannetty was initially meant to work the injury, thus missing the opportunity to win the vacant WWF Championship at the 1992 Royal Rumble, before returning to start a feud which culminated at WrestleMania VIII. However, Jannetty was released from the company in March 1992.

Jannetty returned on October 12, 1992 at a television taping in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan from the crowd, attempting to strike Michaels with his mirror, but inadvertently hitting Sensational Sherri when Michaels pulled her in front. He challenged Michaels to a match at the 1993 Royal Rumble. Jannetty lost after interference by  Sensational Sherri backfired. It was planned for the two to continue their feud, but Jannetty was released again.

Jannetty returned once again on May 17, 1993, challenging Michaels for the Intercontinental Championship after appearing out of the crowd on *Monday Night Raw* when Michaels was being interviewed by Vince McMahon and telling the audience that he would defend his title against anyone at any time. Though Michaels initially tried to back out of fighting Jannetty (clearly not expecting anyone, least of all Jannetty, to challenge him that night), he eventually put his title on the line against his former partner. Jannetty won the title that night, thanks to Mr. Perfect preventing Michaels from heading to the locker room where he would be counted out but keep his title. He lost it to Michaels just a few weeks later due to interference from Michaels' bodyguard Diesel. Throughout June 1993, Jannetty feuded with Doink the Clown, eventually winning the program with a final best of three falls match on the June 21, 1993 edition of *Monday Night Raw*, where Doink almost won the match two falls to one after "Doink II" interfered in the match. Randy Savage (who was commentating the match), attacked the first Doink and revealed the second to the referee, making Jannetty win by reversed decision.

Jannetty then formed a tag team with the 1-2-3 Kid, with the two being the winners and survivors of their match at Survivor Series.

Jannetty won the WWF Tag Team Championship with the 1-2-3 Kid from The Quebecers (Jacques and Pierre) on the January 10 episode of *Monday Night Raw*. They lost the titles to The Quebecers seven days later at Madison Square Garden at a non-televised event when 1-2-3 Kid was pinned following an assisted senton. A clip of the finish of the match aired on the 1994 Royal Rumble video.

Jannetty debuted for ECW on February 25, 1995 at the ECW show, *Return of the Funker*, where he challenged ECW World Heavyweight Champion Shane Douglas in a losing effort. A few months later on April 28, Jannetty defeated Jim Neidhart, and the next night he defeated Shane Douglas. On May 13, Jannetty challenged Eddie Guerrero for the ECW World Television Championship, but failed to win the title. On July 20, Jannetty defeated Bull Pain. The next night on July 21, Jannetty defeated The Terrorist. On June 9 and July 22, Jannetty unsuccessfully challenged The Sandman for the ECW World Heavyweight Championship. On July 28, Jannetty faced Jim Neidhart with the match ending in a double disqualification. This turned out to be Jannetty's final match in ECW as he left for the WWF again.

Later that year, just months after Michaels made a shocking face turn that got him over, Jannetty returned to the WWF in September 1995. He continued to wrestle as a face, despite bad blood between him and Michaels that had carried over in the storylines. Jannetty teamed with Razor Ramon during November and December in a feud with Sycho Sid and the now-heel 1-2-3 Kid.

Following this, Jannetty turned heel in February 1996 by joining Leif Cassidy to form "The New Rockers", who were unsuccessful in their attempts to win the Tag Team Championship. Jannetty interfered unsuccessfully in a singles match between Michaels and Cassidy that March, then lost to Michaels in a WWF Championship match at the Kuwait Cup event in May, as well as in a non-title match that July. Jannetty left the WWF following Survivor Series after asking for his release. His last match came on December 16, when the New Rockers were defeated by Pierroth and Cibernetico in a match that aired on the December 23 episode of *Raw*.

Jannetty made another appearance in ECW when he teamed with Vampire Warrior in a match against Roadkill and former partner Al Snow at a house show in Orlando, Florida on September 27, 1997.

Jannetty made his World Championship Wrestling (WCW) debut on the January 17, 1998 edition of *WCW Saturday Night*, defeating Louie Spicolli. Days later, he made his *Monday Nitro* debut and was defeated by Chris Benoit. Jannetty was initially utilized at an enhancement level, falling to wrestlers such as Raven, Dean Malenko, and Chris Jericho. He was successful lower level competition, defeating Lenny Lane, Frankie Lancaster, and Horshu.

In April 1998, he had his first substantial winning streak in WCW, defeating Barry Horowitz and Vincent. In May, he began a house show series with Konnan. In July, he wrestled Konnan in multiple house show matches, and his final match came on August 31 when he lost to Konnan on *Nitro*. Jannetty was released from his contract while recovering from a shoulder injury suffered during this match.

On the March 14, 2005 episode of *Raw*, Jannetty returned for a one-time only reunion with his former tag team partner Shawn Michaels, once again billed as The Rockers and performing their traditional entrance with their original music, against La Résistance (Sylvain Grenier and Rob Conway). Jannetty scored the win for his team after he used his signature *Rocker Dropper*. This was preparation for Jannetty's match with Kurt Angle on that week's *SmackDown!*, as Angle had challenged Jannetty prior to his WrestleMania 21 match with Shawn Michaels. Angle claimed that since Jannetty had taught Michaels "everything he knows" while part of The Rockers, he could teach Michaels "how to tap out" by forcing Jannetty to submit on *SmackDown!*. Angle made good on his promise and forced Jannetty to submit to his ankle lock, but only after a nearly twenty-minute match and an impressive showing for Jannetty which saw him nearly pin the Olympic champion. WWE soon signed him to a new contract, however he was unable to meet the commitments, leading to his release on July 6.

On the February 20, 2006 episode of *Raw*, Shawn Michaels was pitted against four of the five members of the Spirit Squad in their in-ring debut. After he had used *Sweet Chin Music*, Michaels was attacked by all five members until an unknown man came storming in to the ring to defend Michaels. During the melee, it was revealed that it was Marty Jannetty coming to defend his former tag team partner. Later on *Raw*, Vince McMahon came out to mention that he would offer Jannetty a full-time contract. McMahon then added a stipulation that Jannetty had to join Mr. McMahon's "Kiss My Ass Club" the following week on *Raw*. Jannetty refused, and McMahon instead offered Jannetty the possibility of breaking Chris Masters' signature submission hold, the *Master Lock*. Jannetty appeared to almost break the hold, but Mr. McMahon (who was officiating) hit Jannetty with a low blow. Unable to break it, he was only released from the hold when Michaels ran in to save him. Shortly after Michaels had saved Jannetty, Shane McMahon ran in the ring with a steel chair and knocked out Michaels. The former Rockers were supposed to continue a program with the McMahons, but Jannetty was absent from the next episode of *Raw* and instead Triple H and Shawn Michaels reunited as D-Generation X. On March 3, WWE announced that it had severed all ties with Jannetty without further explanation.

On the December 3, 2007 episode of *Raw*, Mr. Kennedy, who was feuding with Shawn Michaels at the time, said that he would speak to three people who knew Michaels very well as part of a feud between him and Michaels. The three were imposters dressed as Razor Ramon, Diesel, and Jannetty. Along with a fake Michaels, they were all attacked with *Sweet Chin Music* by the real Michaels. The next week on the 15th anniversary of *Raw*, Jannetty appeared along with Michaels in an interview. Michaels wanted to see what would happen when Kennedy fought the real Jannetty. In the end, he was defeated by Kennedy.

On October 19, 2009, Jannetty made an appearance on *Raw*, losing in a match against The Miz.