Marty Jannetty Interview

[strummer 0]

The Demise of the Rockers

 

by Heath Santo

 

This past June, Shawn Michaels, who had found religion, reached out to

a suicidal Marty Jannetty and baptized him at the Athletes In Ministry

conference in Phoenix. Years earlier, their run in the WWF saw its

share of politics, first in 1987 when they fell out of favor with the

locker room just days after their arrival. So much so, that

exaggerated stories of their behavior at a hotel bar in Buffalo were

taken to Vince McMahon. Michaels and Jannetty paid for round-trip

airfare from Minneapolis to Stamford with hopes of convincing him not

to fire them.

 

In the lobby of the WWF headquarters, Michaels sat with his leg

crossed, his snakeskin boot more visible. "Those boots are made for

walkin'," McMahon joked. He then let them go in the meeting that

followed. "I'm doing this for your own good," he said. "If the boys

don't want you here, you won't last."

 

A year later in the summer of 1988, they were back with the WWF and

racking their brains in a hotel room for hours trying to come up with

a name for the tag team. They had wrestled as the Midnight Rockers in

the AWA, a name the WWF couldn't legally use. The next day at a

television taping, McMahon turned to one of the agents for help, who

said they're called "the Rockers" in the dressing room as a truncated

nickname when they're needed for interviews.

 

Feather-haired pretty boys who were always in motion, the WWF billed

the Rockers as "tag team specialists." Their first year, they earned

around $170,000. That figure rose roughly $30,000 each year until

1992. Around the same time that ideas on splitting up the team were

being considered, the Rockers' real-life friendship was crumbling.

They had a well-publicized fistfight in a Denver hotel room, but it

was what happened after a commercial shoot in Atlanta that really

divided them.

 

The Rockers, Natural Disasters, Legion of Doom, and some other stars

were chosen to film an ad for a WWF breakfast cereal. Before the

taping, McMahon had allegedly assured Michaels and Jannetty they'd be

bigger players after they made known their concern over coasting for

so long as a midcard tag team. But after learning they'd be paid only

$5,000 apiece for the commercial while the other tag teams got twice

that amount, a furious Michaels reportedly urged Jannetty to call the

office right from the filming studio to tell McMahon they were

quitting.

 

McMahon wanted to talk with them about it at TV but they had their

minds made up. "There's no need to keep you where you're not happy,"

he told Jannetty, and arranged for them to finish up in three weeks at

a Survivor Series show. While Jannetty was relieved he didn't hold

them to the standard policy of giving 90 days' notice and then jobbing

them out for three months, Michaels was in disbelief that McMahon

would allow them to walk. He went to McMahon and allegedly told him he

knew nothing about Jannetty's plan to quit. Jannetty confronted

Michaels in a phone call. Michaels told him he couldn't go through

with quitting, with a wife and mortgage in Tampa. Jannetty's place in

Orlando was paid off. When the Rockers got to the next TV, everyone

had heard what happened. Wayne Bloom was said to have even offered to

beat Michaels up.

 

The Michaels heel turn unfolded in Corpus Christi. He was to superkick

Jannetty and then send him through a window on the set of the Barber

Shop, an interview segment hosted by Brutus Beefcake. Michaels was

stiff with the kick and Jannetty blacked out. He doesn't remember

crashing through the glass. Jannetty wasn't supposed to juice –

McMahon had banned any color at that time to attract the family market

– but legit glass was in the window instead of sugar glass because

they weren't properly marked. He suffered cuts on his forehead, arms,

and belly.

 

To sell the injury, the plan was for Jannetty to be out six weeks, but

that turned into six months when he had to serve house arrest for a

charge of obstruction of justice with violence. A week after the angle

was taped, he pulled an officer off a stripper the cop was manhandling

after being kicked in the shin. The woman was a friend of Jannetty's

who had been busted selling packets of cocaine in the bathroom of a

Tampa nightclub.

 

The payback angle had Jannetty coming out of the crowd in Saskatoon to

hit Michaels with his own mirror. The outline of a pink broken heart

on its surface hid a crack that allowed it to break more easily.

Michaels' manager Sensational Sherri took the shot when he pulled her

in front of him.

 

Michaels and Jannetty were praised for their house show program that

led to the Royal Rumble. Part of agent Jack Lanza's job was to call in

from the arenas and report how the matches went. On several nights he

was heard saying the match was going to steal the show at the

pay-per-view. But their performance when it came time to deliver fell

below expectations when Sherri was booked into the match, disrupting

its rhythm.

 

McMahon fired Jannetty at the next TV after getting a report that he

was intoxicated and passed out in the locker room at the Rumble.

Jannetty defended himself by saying that all the guys sleep because

they're there at 1:00 with nothing to do for six hours, and challenged

McMahon to test him. Such an offense was considered a big deal because

Jannetty had a no drinking clause in his contract. He had been

drinking when he got into a fight with a hotel desk clerk in Canada

over some change from a bill for Chinese food.

 

Curt Hennig, a friend of Jannetty's from their Minneapolis days, was

instrumental in getting his job back for him a few months later.

Hennig allegedly told him that it was Michaels who went to McMahon

with the story of Jannetty being drunk and fouling up the Rumble

match. McMahon rehired Jannetty after hearing claims from Hennig that

Michaels was in bad shape the night before the show, reportedly

passing out facefirst in his food from too many somas. Waitresses

panicked and called 911.

 

While it was clear the office saw star value in Michaels and not

Jannetty, what followed was a role reversal of sorts when Michaels

dropped the IC belt to him as punishment. Several were said to have

been in awe over Michaels' pouting backstage. "He thinks this is

real," one wrestler was heard saying.

[Guest LooneyTune]

Sounds like all the person did was transcribe what Jannetty said in his Shoot Interview except for the first sentence or two.

[BUTT 0]

Michaels told him he couldn't go through

with quitting, with a wife and mortgage in Tampa.

Michaels had a first wife?

[Lil' Bitch 0]

Wow, didn't know this stuff, thanks for posting.

[MillenniumMan831 0]

Would've been hysterical had Beau Beverly kicked Michaels' ass. Maybe The Genius would've read a poem afterwards.

[Guest LooneyTune]

You betrayed Marty

My Beverlys kicked your ass

Have some pancakes bitch

[MillenniumMan831 0]

Behold the great Beau Beverly

Mr. Michaels, you tried to sell Jannetty out

Which does not sit well w/ the Beverlies or me

Now the clean shaven Beverly turned you into sauerkraut

[snuffbox 0]

What an entertaining thread...

[JJMc 0]

Jannetty's shoot is really good. I urge anyone to check it out. He seems to really enjoy telling the stories (like Cornette etc.) and doesn't seem burdened to be there. There's a bunch of cool stories I didn't know before, such as Jannetty being on house arrest after the breakup. Ordinarily, I'd be able to hook you guys up, but I don't engage in such affairs anymore. Just grab it from RF, I guess...

[Stephen 0]

what happend during Marty Jannetty's last run in the WWF, the last match i remember seeing him in was on a raw with al snow against two masked mexican guys. Then one year later i see him wrestling on WCW, and that didn't last very long.

[JST 0]

Just to clarify, Wayne Bloom was Blake Beverly. Beau was the bigger Mike Enos.

[Papacita 0]

No, I'm pretty sure Enos was Blake. I remember him wrestling in singles for a while after Beau left.

[Guest LooneyTune]

Jannetty's shoot is really good. I urge anyone to check it out. He seems to really enjoy telling the stories (like Cornette etc.) and doesn't seem burdened to be there. There's a bunch of cool stories I didn't know before, such as Jannetty being on house arrest after the breakup. Ordinarily, I'd be able to hook you guys up, but I don't engage in such affairs anymore. Just grab it from RF, I guess...

Here, Here. An entertaining four hours, and he barely reaches 1993 before it's over. Lots of cool stories (including a hilarious one about the Nasty Boys and another about the Iron Sheik)

 

I'm pretty sure Jannetty was back to his demons again when part of the new Rockers (the end of his WWF run in '96-97). His work-rate seemed to have went down the toilet and he didn't look like he wanted to be there period.

[MillenniumMan831 0]

Yeah, Bloom was definitely Beau (w/o mustache) and Enos was Blake (w/ mustache).

[JST 0]

Turns out you're both right. I got my Beverlys confused. Sorry.

[Slayer 0]

I could never figure out which Beverly was which, I just called them by their real names from their AWA days instead

 

And I'm pretty sure Bloom was the bigger one

[Guest LooneyTune]

I always knew Blake had the mustache, but he ended up shaving it off when he went solo for a few months, so that threw me off track. Beau was the ugly(er) one.

[MillenniumMan831 0]

Yeah, Beau had that big ol scar around his jaw region.

[yankovic fan 0]

During the Goldberg streak when they fed Enos and Bloom to him, the next day in school, some "insta-fan" was talking about the previous night's Nitro to some other guy. (Goldberg had just beaten Enos I think)

 

The other guy says "Did Goldberg fight?" and the insta-fan was like "yeah he beat some jobber..."

 

 

Knowing the history of them two, and then he just dismissing one of them as "some jobber" well, yeah

 

 

 

As far as Jannetty goes, I think I would want to forget about being teamed with Leif Cassidy. (no offense to Al Snow or anything)