A Look Back At The Rockers, The Original Tag Team of Shawn Michaels & Marty Jannetty

When you look at who the greatest tag teams of all time are, the usual names get thrown out: The Road Warriors, The Hardy Boyz, Edge & Christian, The Dudley Boyz, The New Day, The Young Bucks, and a few others. There is one name that seems to have been forgotten over the years, one that would produce one of the biggest stars ever. That would be The Rockers.

The Rockers Paved The Way For The High Flyers Of Later Years

The tag team known as The Rockers was formed in 1985. Consisting of Marty Jannetty and some guy named Shawn Michaels. They were a duo of brightly dressed and long-haired high-flyers. To look at them now is to see The Hardy Boyz or The Young Bucks. The similarities of look and style are certainly there. For The Young Bucks, they were even trained by Jannetty and adopted Michaels’ superkick finisher.

For a few years, The Rockers wrestled in NWA and AWA, where they were known as The Midnight Rockers. They made it to the WWF (now WWE) in 1987, only to be promptly fired due to their hard partying and lack of training. A year later Vince McMahon gave them a second chance, and the tag team took off. Their first feud saw them in the ring against the established team of Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard, known then as the Brain Busters. This led to feuds with The Twin Towers, The Fabulous Rougeau Brothers, and The Powers of Pain. They won some, they lost some, but they always put on a show as fans had never seen.

In 1990, they finally won their one and only tag team championship…except technically they didn’t. At a taped show they defeated The Hart Foundation in a very sloppy match to capture tag team gold. The Rockers even defended the titles at a house show after, only for a decision to be made not to air The Hart Foundation match. The titles were taken from The Rockers and given back to their previous owners. It was as if their win never happened.

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The Heel Turn That Changed The World

The near pinnacle had been reached by The Rockers. They would never again reach such heights together. By late 1991 Michaels and Jannetty were not getting along and even got into a very heated backstage brawl. This played into their matches, with the animosity creeping into storylines that saw Jannetty costing Michaels matches on multiple occasions. Then came the heel turn.

In January 1992, while being interviewed on Brutus Beefcake’s “The Barbershop” segment, Michaels turned on Jannetty, giving him a dose of Sweet Chin Music, before throwing him through a barbershop window. It was a huge moment in wrestling history, and next to Hogan’s joining the NWO a few years later, the most shocking heel turn of all time.

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This should have led to a subsequent feud between the two, as we always see now whenever a tag team breaks up. It didn’t happen here. Jannetty ended up being suspended for cocaine possession and Michaels easily moved on without him, becoming “The Heartbreak Kid,” a pompous heel managed by Sherri Martell. He would quickly capture the Intercontinental Championship while Jannetty sat at home.

Nine months after they broke up, Jannetty would finally return and attack his former partner. The resulting feud saw Martell turn on HBK to join Jannetty, who lost a match against Michaels at The Royal Rumble. They collided again on Monday Night Raw a few weeks later, and this time Jannetty took the Intercontinental Championship, but only for a few weeks, before losing it back to Michaels at a house show of all things. It was an uneventful end to a feud that began long after everyone had moved on. In the time that had passed since their breakup, Michaels had become one of the company’s biggest acts, while Jannetty became stagnant. It was obvious to everyone that Michaels was the star, and unfortunately, Jannetty was now beneath him.

While Michaels would become one of the biggest stars ever, Jannetty bounced around between companies, never seeming to stay anywhere too long. The pair would eventually become friends again in later years and even reunited on screen and in the ring from time to time in the 2000s, a fun nostalgia act that for a moment took fans back to another time. Who they were, however, is more than just a happy memory. Though they were never champions, their look and style paved the way for acts to come, inspiring a new generation of talent who could build off what they created. The Rockers were pioneers. That is their lasting legacy.