He Loves to Wrestle and He Loves to Party

On my last entry, I received a question from the Icon about the whereabouts of one Marty Jannetty. Jannetty, as you may recall, was part of one of the greatest tag teams in the 80’s, the Midnight Rockers (or just the Rockers depending on what show you watched). His tag team partner was Shawn Michaels.

The Midnight Rockers, who wrestled mainly in the AWA, won the AWA Tag Team titles on two separate occasions. After jumping over to the WWF, they shortened their name to just The Rockers. Their luck must have changed with their name - they never became tag team champions while they were in the company.

Three years later, Shawn Michaels walked out on Marty Jannetty and the Rockers as we knew it were over. An attempt was made by Jannetty to make amends with Michaels, but all he got was some Sweet Chin Music and a trip through a plate glass window for his troubles.

Shawn Michaels went on to become a huge superstar. He was the first ever WWF/E Grand Slam champion (World Champion, Intercontinental Champion, Tag Team Champion, European Champion). Only four other people can say that they have been on that list – Triple H, Chris Jericho, Kurt Angle and Eddie Guerrero. That feat can also no longer be achieved as the European Championship is no longer active.

Marty Jannetty on the other hand had his career come to a screeching halt without the help of his tag partner. After a feud with Michaels, in which Jannetty actual won the Intercontinental Championship – only to lose it back to Michaels less than a month later, he joined forces with the 1-2-3 Kid (X-Pac) and finally won the WWF Tag Team titles. However, this title reign was shorter than his Intercontinental reign – they held the tag titles for one week.

Jannetty’s career floundered for a few more years until he found a new tag partner and formed the New Rockers. His partner was Leif Cassidy, who is much better known as Al Snow. After the team split, Jannetty pretty much fell of the face of the earth. He did wrestle briefly in ECW and WCW, but spent most of his days in the independent wrestling scene.

In the years to come, Jannetty’s life turned dark. He wasn’t married, had no family to care for and had very little work. In his mind he had very little to live for. On a fateful day, while Jannetty was contemplating suicide, he received a phone call from none other than Shawn Michaels. Michaels, being a born again Christian, talked Marty into going to a conference in Phoenix and became a born again Christian himself. Ted DiBiase, a minister himself, told this story to wwe.com this past summer, it is quite an interesting read.

Afterwards, Jannetty was contacted by the WWE for a one-time deal, and that was for a warm-up match for Kurt Angle, as he was scheduled to take on Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania 21. Jannetty was also given a match on Raw prior to his match with Angle for his own warm-up match. He teamed up with his old tag partner, Michaels, and even came out to the ring with their old music. Quite the site to see after a 14-year absence. The Rockers defeated La Resistance that night.

A few days after his match with Kurt Angle, Jannetty was offered a contract with the WWE in which he signed. However, his demons crept back into his life and he was arrested shortly after for a DUI. A few months after signing a contract with the WWE, he was let go in one of the WWE’s mass releases. He was given his release along with Spike Dudley, Billy Kidman, Maven, Charlie Haas and about a dozen other stars.

Nothing has been said as to what happened to Jannetty after his release from the WWE – at least not that I know of. Unfortunately, his official web site www.martyjannetty.com has been shut down until further notice.

Posted by: starman on 12.10.2005 at 4:30 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink