Since I already sent in one Rocker vs. Curt match earlier this week, I figured I'd submit this gem as as something of a companion piece, featuring the other Rocker and the other Kurt. Obviously the last great match of Janetty's career (and really the only one post 1994 or so), and a real testament to Kurt's ability to bring out the best in his opponents. As an aside, Kurt Angle really was the evolutionary Hennig, wasn't he? The hyper-cocky technical genius who could work heel or face without really changing his gimmick. It's a shame we never got a program with the two of them, but I suppose the window there was pretty small. Anyhow, here's the match, and it is good: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1cvku_kurt-angle-vs-marty-jannetty-smackd_news
Yeah, that was a good week for Marty. Surprised he didn't earn himself a job off that.
Good stuff. Glad they got time too, and didnt settle for a squash
ReplyDeleteIf you were to tell me Jannetty and Shawn would reunite on Raw and then Jannetty would have a 4-star match with Angle the same week, I'd tell you to lay off the dope. I'm pretty sure Jannetty got a contract for his performances, but WWE never did anything with him and cut him towards the end of the year. Then they proceeded to hire and fire him 5 times over, or something similar to his contract status from 1992-95.
ReplyDeleteFrom Wiki: He did seemingly earn a job but things went sour
ReplyDeleteOn 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. WWE soon
signed him to a new contract, but due to a domestic incident, he was
arrested and unable to meet the commitments of his WWE contract, leading
to his release on July 6. 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 March 3, WWE announced that it had severed all professional ties with Jannetty without further explanation.
There was talk at the time of a Rockers nostalgia tour, but I thought that Janetty got canned for the usual reasons.
ReplyDeleteHe almost came back, but his probations got in the way. Apparently he needs (or needed) to get full written permission in order to leave his home state of Missouri, so it became too much of a headache to get everything prepared for him every time they wanted to use him.
ReplyDeleteMan, Kurt was an all time wwe great. His dorky 3 I's, won a gold medal with a broken freaking neck is one of my favorite characters ever. Its a shame his wwe run ended so abruptly and that his legacy has kinda taken a hit with the drug stuff.
ReplyDeleteMarty DOES hold the record for most times hired and fired by the company
ReplyDeleteWow. I stopped watching for awhile after WM20 so this is quite the surprise matchup.
ReplyDeleteAnd of course, this also set up one of my favorite, and one of the funniest promos of all time:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GIXF-CGftc
"Marty Jannetty- still can't walk!..."
I thought he got a job after this match, but ended up getting himself released not long later before he made it back on television. Then he was rehired around the time of WM22 before getting released again. And then there was a hiring as a trainer that he was also fired from.
ReplyDeleteWhich reminds me....sometime before Wrestlemania 22 I'm at a bar with some friends and we get talking to this guy who had some job with some Atlantic Canada Wrestling company. I've only seen posters for their shows but it's usually a bunch of nobodies and Kurgan. This guy told us that he heard Cena would face Triple H at Wrestlemania and that Shane and Vince were going to face the Rockers....we thought he was making things up and didn't think anything of it until a couple of weeks later when Jannetty shows up and gets involved in the McMahon/Spirit Squad/HBK angle...seemed to be going that direction but then he was fired. Does anyone know if that was really the original plan?
Not sure if it was for Mania, but yeah, originally they were going to do Shane/Vince vs. Rockers. I'd heard it was for that Backlash or whatever where Shawn's partner was God, though.
ReplyDeleteI posted the suppused original plan below
ReplyDeleteI was friends with Marty on Facebook for a while, and he's a mess. He would often go on his FB page and brag about his drug benders with random indie guys and then say stuff like "yolo" when people would suggest he clean up for a comeback. Not to mention blaming Shawn for everything bad that has happened to him, until it's time to make up for an autograph signing.
ReplyDeleteHell of a wrestler, though.
No arguments here. Have you ever heard him just try to TALK, like in an interview? He's a twitchy, jabbering, stuttering mess.
ReplyDeletehim or Goldust
ReplyDeleteI thought Jannetty was gone by Wrestlemania 22, not the week before DX reformed, which was in May.
ReplyDeleteThat WM scenario kinda blew my mind. It did seem like they were going that direction when Jannetty got involved. Just thinking about Marty in a top level WM match at that point just cracks me up.
ReplyDeleteSo, is this any good? I'm sorry, but I refuse to watch any video that has VQ that bad.
ReplyDelete"Surprised he didn't earn himself a job off that."
Would YOU hire him? I always slam TNA for re-hiring Jeff Hardy (and then proceed to REALLY slam them for putting the belt on him again, but we've been over this already...), but that I can least understand. Who the fuck ever bought a Marty Janetty shirt, or paid to see him live? What surprises me is that they ever considered bringing him back at all.
The match is about **** if you can bear the quality. Marty always had the goods in the ring, it was everything else that was the problem.
ReplyDelete