The Rockers

The Rockers were a professional wrestling tag team consisting of Marty Jannetty and Shawn Michaels.

History

Early Days

The Rockers were previously known as the Midnight Rockers (an obvious play on the NWA's Midnight Express and Rock 'N Roll Express) when they were in the American Wrestling Association (AWA), prior to signing with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in the summer of 1987. Their first run was cut short after only two weeks due Michaels and Jannetty's excessive partying. The Rockers returned to the AWA until the summer of 1988 when they were rehired by the WWF. Initially, their theme music was Judas Priest's "Living After Midnight", but this was quickly phased out in favour of an original uptempo WWF-created guitar theme called "Rockin' Rockers".

Acrimonious Breakup

After a high profile fan favourite run as part of the WWF's tag team ranks in the late 80s and early 90s with their combination of agility, innovation, speed, and teamwork, the team broke up following a heated dispute backstage. Also of note was their very numerous (and increasingly colourful/adorned) in-ring attires, a trait shared with the Ultimate Warrior, who was employed by the WWF around the same time as them.

Reportedly, the reasons for the split stemmed from the filming of commercials for a WWF breakfast cereal, in which the Rockers and several other WWF wrestlers made appearances. Michaels learned that he and Jannetty were paid about half of what the others wrestlers received, and allegedly was so furious that he told Jannetty to call Vince McMahon and inform him that they were quitting. However, Michaels did not carry out his decision to leave the WWF with Jannetty because he needed to support his family, and told McMahon he knew nothing about Jannetty quitting. Michaels, in his side of the story from his biography, says it was Jannetty's idea to talk to McMahon and that the notion of quitting was never brought up until Jannetty talked to Vince without telling Michaels of his plan. Michaels claimed he had no interest in quitting the company and refused to stand by Jannetty in his decision.

This led to the breaking up of the Rockers and Shawn Michaels' heel turn. Onscreen, the incident was not mentioned; the reasons behind the split were simply that Michaels wanted to become a singles wrestler and became frustrated with the team's lack of titles. Michaels and Jannetty appeared to have reconciled on Brutus Beefcake's "Barber Shop" interview segment, but it ended with Michaels hitting Jannetty with a superkick (later dubbed the Sweet Chin Music) and then throwing him through a glass window. While the superkick and Jannetty crashing through the window were worked (that is, following the script set out by the bookers), Michaels was very stiff with the kick, causing Jannetty to legitimately black out in the process.

"I don't have a clue!" Shawn Michaels said when Gene Okerlund asked him what he was thinking when he tossed Jannetty through the window.

Jannetty vs. Michaels

Thinking he successfully disposed of Jannetty, Michaels became a successful singles wrestler, including winning the Intercontinental Championship. Months later, after disposing of a preliminary wrestler on an episode of WWF Superstars of Wrestling, Michaels began posing for the mirror his manager/love interest Sensational Sherri was holding up. Jannetty came out of the crowd and stood behind him. Michaels saw his reflection, turned around, and got the beating of his life from Jannetty.

This led to a series of matches between Michaels and Jannetty, where Michaels dominated a good portion of them. Jannetty eventually won the title from Michaels in May 1993. He lost the title back to Michaels the next month.

Differing Successes & Reconciliation

In 1995, Michaels turned face again. Jannetty returned to the WWF a few months later as a heel and formed the New Rockers with Leif Cassidy. The team was generally booked as a joke and thus gained little in the way of success. Many fans and critics feel that this contributed to Jannetty's decline whilst Michaels during this period became one of the WWF's biggest draws.

On March 14, 2005, The Rockers reunited to defeat La Resistance just 3 days before Marty Jannetty was going to face Kurt Angle. Angle defeated Jannetty on the following edition of SmackDown!.

Shortly after that, the WWE signed Marty Jannetty to a contract. However, Jannetty had been arrested on June 11, 2005 for driving under the influence of alcohol, and on June 29, 2005 he was placed under a supervision order. Due to the year-long case standing in the way of Jannetty's bookings, the WWE released Jannetty on July 6, 2005.

On the February 20, 2006 edition of RAW, Jannetty made his return to WWE, helping Shawn Michaels from a Spirit Squad beat down.

Later on that night, Mr. McMahon announced that he would offer Jannetty a full-time WWE contract on the February 27, 2006 edition of RAW. However, he would have to join McMahon's Kiss My Ass Club. When the time came, it turned out that Jannetty would not swallow his pride and kiss McMahon's ass. When this happened, Mr. McMahon sent for Chris Masters to come out and stated that he can have a contract if he beats The Masterlock Challenge. He was unable to, however, and therefore the WWE has severed all connections with Marty Jannetty.

According to Marty Jannetty's myspace information, he was unable to fly to the next RAW location therefore the WWE had to do major rewrites in the storylines. The severed connections are believed to be kayfabe.

Trademark Finishers

Double Flying Fists: Double top-rope Fist Drops

Rockerplex: Vertical Suplex (Michaels) into top-rope Cross Body Press (Jannetty)

Springboard: Flying Fist Drop while jumping off the partner's shoulders from the corner

Double Missile Dropkicks: Double top-rope Dropkicks from adjacent corners

Championships/Accomplishments

1-Time WWF World Tag Team Champions*
2-Time AWA World Tag Team Champions
2-Time AWA Southern Tag Team Champions
1-Time NWA Central States Tag Team Champions
Pro Wrestling Illustrated ranked them at #33 of the 100 best tag teams during the "PWI Years" in 2003.
*Although they won the Tag Team Titles in a 2/3 Falls match from The Hart Foundation on a taping of WWF Superstars, the top rope became disconnected from the ring. Because of this, the entire match was edited out of television. Prior to it, Jim Neidhart was going to be let go by the WWF, and so The Hart Foundation were scheduled to drop the tag titles to The Rockers, with Bret Hart continuing down a singles career path. After winning the titles, The Rockers successfully defended the belts at least once, if not twice. A change of events led to Jim Neidhart being hastily rehired by the WWF one week after the Saturday Night's Main Event victory by Jannetty & Michaels. Neidhart was again teamed up again with Bret Hart as though his departure had never happened. The Hart Foundation were quietly handed back the belts, and the record went down as The Rockers simply never winning the titles. This incident is strongly suspected of sparking the heated real-life animosity between Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels.

Notable Feuds

World Wrestling Entertainment teams and stables | American Wrestling Association teams and stables

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