Urban Dictionary defines “Marty Jannetty” as, “The member of a pair destined for lesser things. A reference to the 80’s and 90’s wrestling tag team The Rockers. Shawn Michaels went on to greatness, while Marty Jannetty faded into obscurity.” As this list demonstrates even before Shawn Michaels far surpassed the career of the ill-fated Midnight Rocker some teams have been able to make an incredible impression on the wrestling industry. Then for whatever reason the team breaks up and one member achieves success that either comes close to meeting the success of the team, matches it, or in some cases completely overshadows the pairing. Meanwhile, the other guy…well doesn’t.
That is not entirely true as hardcore Jannetty fans will stick up for one half of The New Rockers. They can point to his run with the WWF Intercontinental Championship or winning the WWF World Tag Team Championship with 1-2-3 Kid,a title that The Rockers technically never held. That is all well and good until you compare it to Shawn Michaels’ last WWE salary. With that said here are 7 Wrestlers Who Shouldn’t Have Been the Marty Jannetty.
1. Christian
For a time the WWF/WWE teased giving Edge and Christian serious singles pushes their entire careers. The difference is that Edge eventually got his at the main event level and Christian hasn’t yet and probably never will. It first looked like the WWF had some faith in Christian when he won the WWF Light Heavyweight Championship as soon as he debuted. Newer fans might actually understand why in hindsight this is so irrelevant even quicker than older fans. This is because they probably have no idea that that the WWE had a cruiserweight division at one point. As Christian’s career continued a big singles push was teased, but never fully realized. Christian won the WWF Intercontinental Championship and it was deactivated just over a year later (for a time). Christian won the ECW World Heavyweight Championship and had an amazing reign, but it too was deactivated. Finally, it looked like he might lead a major brand when he won the World Heavyweight Championship (only after Edge retired mind you). However, then Randy Orton came along. Edge on the other hand had fully realized runs with the WWE Championship and World Heavyweight Championship. Edge accomplished this despite nagging injuries that would require breaks from wrestling, limited his in-ring performance to at least some extent and finally cause an early retirement.
2. Dynamite Kid
If you think Davey Boy Smith was the more talented member of The British Bulldogs then type, “Tiger Mask vs. Dynamite Kid” into YouTube and watch any of the matches featuring the two. Go ahead this article can wait. The only reason it is not more of shame that Dynamite got the Jannetty treatment is because it is tough to cheer for a guy who comes off as a gigantic ass even in his autobiography.
3. John Morrison
John Morrison is somewhat unique on this list in that he had a partner who was arguably more talented than him. His name was Joey Mercury. The guy that managed to not only overshadow him but to main event a freaking Wrestlemania, The Miz was just lucky to be on the roster when he was first paired with Morrison. To his credit The Miz has improved tremendously by putting in the effort, but he never should have caught up to Morrison’s spot let alone surpass him. Perhaps fortunately for fans The Miz’s main event push stopped and he fell to a more reasonable spot on the card. Perhaps unfortunately John Morrison isn’t even on the WWE roster these days.
4. Sean O’Haire
Sean O’Haire was half of two teams that captured the WCW World Tag Team Championship. While O’Haire is probably better remembered than Mark Jindrak he was featured less in WWE than Chuck Palumbo. The latter team is the one that got more exposure thanks to it being the one that the WWF brought over after the buyout of WCW. O’Haire’s failure is really puzzling because on the surface it looked like O’Haire had a ton to offer. He was about as agile as Jeff Hardy, but had a bigger build and better muscle tone. When Palumbo entered the company it didn’t look like he was an awful worker, but he was about as exciting as a bag of rocks. Guess who stuck around and who got sent to developmental? O’Haire returnd with a Devil’s advocate gimmick and cut amazing promos in the studio, but could not manage to recreate the charisma needed for these in front of a live crowd. While Palumbo would be no Shawn Michaels in the WWE, he lasted longer than O’Haire and even made a return from 2006 to 2008.
5. Scotty Riggs
The American Males were a far cry from being in the league of really just about any other team on this list. Still, as lame as The American Males name was and as horrendous as their entrance music sounded (which was highlighted by the team clapping overhead in rhythm with it) members Marcus Bagwell and Scotty Riggs were young. As their careers unfolded each proved that they had some talent. Marcus turned on his partner and joined the NWO to become Buff Bagwell. Now, a lot of what has always drawn me to wrestling is the cheese factor of it all. Bagwell was cheese to the max and at the time I enjoyed him for it. However, that was over a decade ago. Leaving cheese to age it is likely to grow more appealing and become like a fermented fine wine. Bagwell instead simply rotted and watching his promos today is almost unbearable. Riggs on the other hand had what could have been a really interesting character. After suffering an eye injuring from Raven he sought revenge. He tapped into a darker part of his personality than ever before only to be met with apathy by the WCW booking committee. Riggs would be able to explore his gritty character further in ECW, but in WCW the by far larger promotion he lost his feud with Raven, joined Raven’s Flock and was a minor flunky while Bagwell got tons of time onscreen.
6. Brian Christopher
While Too Cool got some of the best reactions in the company during their peak in 1999 and 2000, neither member of the core tag team of Brian Christopher aka Grand Master Sexay or Scott Taylor aka Scotty 2 Hotty went too far. Still, Taylor had a job with the WWF/WWE for over 15 years. Okay, not all of that was on the main roster, but still getting WWF/WWE money for that long including during a boom period couldn’t hurt. Christopher should have been able to get a similar reward. After all he had to endure the USWA in Memphis. This is a textbook example of a worker succeeding over another because of reliability more than anything else.
7. Paul London
Paul London got a slight push early on, but as has been mentioned the WWE just doesn’t care about cruiserweights. London then got paired up with Brian Kendrick in an amazing tag team that got very little mic time or mentions outside of their matches. Like all WWE tag teams they were eventually broken up. Kendrick got a minor push as The Brian Kendrick and London quickly got wished the best in his future endeavors. Post-WWE, Kendrick appeared in TNA while London went insane.
Photo Credits:
Photos 1-5, 8: onlineworldofwrestling.com
Photos 6-7: en.wikipedia.org
Categories: Wrestling Lists
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