Craig Wilson
I am going to lay my cards on the table. Marty Jannetty was as good an in-ring performer as Shawn Michaels. There, have that. Unfortunately for Jannetty, he lacked the charisma of his former tag team partner and he wasn’t able to make as big a name for himself as Michael’s did. A great pity because his ring work was top notch. The Rockers were a fantastic team and deserved a run with the tag titles in the early nineties despite hte WWF tag team division being land of the giants stuff compared to them. Heck, it was only a broken top rope that prevented them from taking the belts from the Hart Foundation.
Anyway, I’ve gone off topic and reminiscing about great tag team wrestling again!
After the Barber Shop incident where The Rockers split up, Jannetty returned to the WWF in October 1992 and challenged Michael’s to a match at the 1993 Royal Rumble. Unfortunately, the match was below par and soon after Jannetty left the WWF again. Rumours abounded that the reason behind his departure was that the Rumble match was poor because Jannetty was under the influence of alcohol or drugs. He has claimed to this day that he was just tired and Curt Hennig, then on very good terms with Vince McMahon, lobbied for Jannetty’s return. In May of 93, Jannetty once again returned to the WWF fold challenging his former tag team partner, and then current Intercontinental Champion, Shawn Michael’s to put his title on the line at Raw.
The match comes about with Shawn Michaels in the ring being interviewed by Vince McMahon where the Champion claims he’ll defend his title against anyone. A hooded man comes to the ring and soon reveals himself to be Marty Jannetty and the Championship match is scheduled for later that night.
They look up in the corner to start and Michael’s gets a cheap shot to take control. Jannetty soon reverses and gets a two count from a roll-up. It’s a high paced match-up from the outset as Jannetty gets another two from a leapfrog straight into a roll-up.
The challenger then reverses a hip toss attempt with a clothesline and he takes the champ to the outside then skins the cat before a high cross body block has Michael’s down on the outside with the crowd going wild with “Marty” chants.
A head scissors gets Jannetty a long two count as the challenger kept in firm control. A quick aside, Bill Alfonso was the referee for this one, pre his time in ECW with the whistle. Michaels’ breaks out of the head scissors but runs straight into a back body drop. Then it’s time for Michaels’ trademark bump into the turnbuckle before he grabs his belt and makes for the back. Unfortunately for him, he’s met by Mr. Perfect who forces him back into the ring.
We return from an advert break and, as Macho Man on commentary states, it’s been all Marty Jannetty although at that point Michaels blocks another head scissor attempt by dropping his former tag team partner throat first on the top rope and takes advantage with a series of punches in the corner.
Michaels goes to the well once too often with dropkicks and Jannetty catches him and slingshots him into the top rope and the challenger is back in control. A trademark high elbow gets a great pop from the crowd as does a huge slam off the ropes that gets yet another long two count for Jannetty. A feint from the top rope then a high cross body gets another two for Jannetty as does a roll-up for both guys with Michaels using the tights for leverage. A superkick has Jannetty down but instead of going for the cover the Champion begins to taunt Mr. Perfect at ringside but Perfect throws his towel in the Champions face and Jannetty capitalises by rolling Michaels up for the three count and to win his first, and only, singles title in the WWF.
Pro Wrestling Illustrated voted this 1993 Match of the Year and its little surprise. A really nice little high paced bout between two guys that knew each other so well and that made a big difference. The number of near falls kept the crowd on their feet and they were hot for this one. The match, and title change, was also great for Raw itself. Firstly, the appearance of the match coming from nowhere gave the impression that anything could happen on Raw during a time that they tended to announce matches for Raw a week in advance. The title change itself also legitimized the program and showed that title changes weren’t PPV only and, as well as that, the match was totally different from anything else at that time in terms of style.
