Celebrity Picks: Marty Jannetty (The Rockers)

Hello my Grue-Lings,
Today our guest for Celebrity Picks is a WWE wrestling legend Marty Jannetty.
Jannetty and Michaels formed a team called The Rockers. Their 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.
Despite their previous success, The Rockers never officially won the Tag Team Championship during their three-year run together in the WWF. In October 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 came to a stop-gap agreement with management and was rehired. The belts were returned to the Harts a week later, while the change was never broadcast or even acknowledged on television. When news spread, WWF explained that the original result was void due to a collapsed turnbuckle in the ring during the bout.
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 in Detroit, Michigan. 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 Barbershop”. Michaels and Jannetty appeared to reconcile, but then Michaels hit Jannetty with Sweet Chin Music and then threw him through the set’s plate 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 would culminate at WrestleMania VIII. Jannetty was released from the company in March 1992.

Jannetty returned on October 12, 1992 at a TV taping in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan from the crowd, attempting to strike Michaels with his mirror, but inadvertently hitting Sherri when Michaels pulled her in front. He would go on to challenge 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 in May 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 would 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. According to Jannetty, it was Curt Hennig who brought him back to the WWF. Hennig, who was on good terms with Vince McMahon, convinced him that the bad performance at the Royal Rumble was indeed Shawn Michaels’ fault. Jannetty believes that consequently his own title win was meant as punishment for Shawn Michaels for lying. 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 2 falls to 1 after Doink interfered in the match. However, 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 Tag Team Championship with the 1-2-3 Kid from The Quebecers (Jacques and Pierre) on the January 10 episode of Monday Night Raw. However, 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.

After leaving the WWF in 1992, Jannetty joined the USWA and turned heel. During his stay, he was managed by Bert Prentice and feuded with Jerry Lawler.

After leaving WWF, Jannetty debuted for ECW on February 25 at the ECW show, “Return of the Funker” where he faced the 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 July 22 Jannetty 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.

On the March 14 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. On the February 20 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 added a stipulation, however, as 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 the December 3 episode of Raw, Mr. Kennedy, who was feuding with Shawn Michaels at the time, said that he would speak to three individuals 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 and losing in a match against The Miz.
Jannetty still continues to wrestle in various promotions. Below is the Marty Jannetty’s Favorite Horror films, and due to being busy, Jannetty was only able to give us just the names of his favorite horror films: