Style Over substance!" barked WWF television announcer Jesse "The Body" Ventura shortly after the Rockers' first bout on WWF Superstars of Wrestling. The youthful, handsome duo of Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannetty had just blurred across the ring in their fluorescent tights, dispatching their opponents in dynamic fashion. Longtime wrestling observers were almost as overwhelmed as the Rockers' opponents. It was clear that the enthusiastic, inventive tandem was bound for big things.
Only Jesse the Body offered the voice of dissension. "They're pretty boys!" he yelled. "Nothing more, nothing less! They'd be OK if this was some MTV glam-metal video, but it's not-it's the World Wrestling Federation, and you've got to be tough to make it here. Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannetty? Don't even write their names down. In six months you won't remember them-and that's tellin' it like it is!" Jesse Ventura, you were wrong.
Michaels and Jannetty proved almost immediately that their poster-boy good looks were just gravy on a creative, well-stocked wrestling arsenal. Sure, the two could fly across the ring, but that wasn't all. They could match technical wits, as they've done with teams such as the Fabulous Rougeau Brothers and the Orient Express or slug it out back-alley style, as the Powers of Pain found out. Most significantly, they could plan, forsaking a manager to formulate their own complicated strategies and coordinating team maneuvers the likes of which had never been seen in the ring.
"Yeah, we've heard the criticism, people saying we're too cute," Michaels states, his lip curling up slightly. "Hey, it's not our fault we look this way. But we know a lot of teams out there would like nothing better than to take our faces and mangle them. And, in the World Wrestling Federation, a lot of teams could do it, too. We've been in that ring a while, and we're still rockin' and rollin' and looking good. I think that says something."
The Rockers have risen to the top of their game by earning the title "the masters of motion." "They move so quickly, it's amazing that they don't smash into each other and disintegrate," admits one former opponent. "But their timing's so perfect that each always knows what the other's doing. No one else does, though. They're on the mat, in the air, on the ropes, tagging in and tagging out. I don't consider my loss to them something to be ashamed about. I consider it an introduction to tag team wrestling."
But the Rockers are also "the tag team specialists." "Before we entered the World Wrestling Federation, we knew how tough it was going to be," Jannetty explains. "So we spent just as much time in the video library as we did in the gymnasium. We watched all the great tag teams on tape-all the WWF champions. And then we pledged to add to what they had done, take it all a step further. From the day we started, we wanted the world to define tag teaming in Rocker terms."
One of the first contests in which the duo's fortitude would be tested was the 1988 Survivor Series. The Rockers were members of a team captained by the Powers of Pain, pitted against a squad headed by Demolition. While the bout would only aggravate tensions in the long-standing war between Demolition and their rival captains, the Survivor Series marked the start of a new struggle-the Rockers vs. the Brain Busters. The teams had already engaged in a few skirmishes and came to the match gunning for each other.
"The Brain Busters were the first tag team to really single us out," Michaels recalls. "I think a lot of that had to do with their manager, Bobby 'The Weasel' Heenan. The thought of two young guys like us making our own decisions without the aid of a manager just burned him. We knew that he'd instruct the Brain Busters to take us but at the Survivor Series, and we were more than happy to give it back to them."
With the world watching the pay-per-view telecast, the Rockers and Brain Busters ferociously clawed at each other, brawling on the arena floor and then all the way back to the dressing room.
"Bobby Heenan used the Brain Busters to try to prove a point," Jannetty says. "He wanted to show the world that we weren't so hot. Well, whether it was at the Survivor Series or our matches with the Brain Busters after that, we never let up. Heenan wanted to wear us down, and I think he got the opposite result. I mean, look at the facts: The Rockers are still going strong, and the Busters are long, long gone."
The Rockers' rhythmic quotations, along with their poetic wrestling styles, soon infuriated another manager, Jimmy "Mouth of the South" Hart. A onetime pop star with the Gentrys, Hart fancied him-self as the WWF's king of rock 'n' roll and took special exception to the Rockers' unique form of "jamming." When his tag team, the Fabulous Rougeau Brothers, had their song All American Boy cut off on the public address system and replaced by the Rockers' theme, Hart became doubly incensed. He ordered his charges to show no mercy on the popular stars, and during a ringside free-for-all, Michaels' neck was intentionally injured by the French Canadian-born brothers.
"That was one of the low points of my career," Michaels recounts. "I was laid up, and the doctors were saying they weren't sure if I'd ever return to the ring. Somehow, I knew they were wrong. I felt that I had to go back. I just wasn't ready to give up everything I had worked for. I owed it to Marty, and I owed it to all the people who came to the arena to cheer us on. And I also owed the Rougeaus something-a Top 40 whupping."
In fact, in their first few matches with the Rougeaus, the Rockers seemed more determined to mete out revenge than to log a victory. "We might be the tag team specialists," Jannetty says, "but against the Rougeaus, we felt more like an avenging army."
Despite warningsto be cautious, Michaels flew at the Rougeaus with the throttle down. In one bout shortly after his recovery, he stunned spectators by coming to the ring with a bandage still around his throat. "He was just inviting the Rougeaus to battle," says a friend. "It was as if he was saying, 'Here's my injured neck. Try to hurt it again. I dare you.' When-ever the Rougeau Brothers would take the bait, Shawn and Marty would go wild."
In this particular match, the Rockers spent much of the opening minutes chasing the Rougeaus and their manager around and around the ringside area. Eventually, Michaels caught up with Jacques Rougeau in the ring and slammed his head into the turnbuckles 10 times. After he fell backward to the mat, nearly unconscious, each Rocker took turns splashing his fallen form. When Raymond Rougeau attempted to slip into the ring on behalf of his brother, he didn't fare much better -the Rockers blasted him with a double dropkick.
But the presence of Jimmy Hart would prove an important factor in the first few confrontations between the teams. So overzealous were the Rockers at teaching their opponents a lesson that they were easily distracted by the manager and then double-teamed by the Rougeaus. However, Michaels and Jannetty refused to be psyched out by Hart's tactics. With each bout, they learned and improved, until they were able to use the Rougeaus' techniques against them.
By the time the battle reached the Palais Omnisport in Paris, France, the Rockers had advanced to the point that they could not be beaten. As the French-speaking crowd threw its support solidly behind Michaels and Jannetty, the Rockers overcame every obstacle. Even in the closing moments of the match, when Jacques executed a piledriver and covered Jannetty for the pin, the Rockers found a way to gain an advantage. Michaels rushed into the ring to intervene.
From the other side, Raymond stepped through the ropes to block him. As the referee cut off Raymond, Michaels lifted and delivered a piledriver to Jacques, placed Jannetty on top of him and returned to the corner while the referee spun around to count the pinfall.
However, in the world of professional wrestling, there is rarely time to celebrate before someone else steps into the picture to humble you. The devious Mr Fuji, seeking to strike while the Rockers were off-guard, snuck up to ringside after one of the duo's triumphs and started tormenting them. Michaels and Jannetty looked at one another for a moment, then gave the manager what he came for-a double dropkick and double fistdrop. According to the plan Fuji conceived beforehand, his team of Warlord and Barbarian, the Powers of Pain, charged out of the dressing room and attacked the Rockers.
"Fuji expected the Rockers just to shrink away from the wrestling scene," says a source close to the Powers of Pain. "Warlord and Barbarian are chiseled monsters. They're huge compared with the Rockers and savage between the ropes. Michaels and Jannetty shocked Fuji when they demanded a match with his team. They shocked a lot of people."
Their time in the WWF had convinced the Rockers that they could withstand this difficult challenge. Although they considered the Powers' immense proportions, they were not unaccustomed to taking on larger opponents. During WrestleMania V, the Rockers squared off against the Twin Towers, Big Boss Man and Akeem, and stunned them with simultaneously executed maneuvers. Having recuperated from his thrashing by the Rougeaus, Michaels was aware of his capacity to overcome pain. Then there was the matter of courage. The Powers of Pain had tried to humiliate the Rockers, and now the Rockers were committed to cutting them down-valiantly.
"Just looking across the ring at guys like Warlord and Barbarian is enough to make some wrestlers run back to the dressing room," says Jannetty "They're awesome. But so are we, in a different way. When the Powers of Pain jumped us, I told Shawn, 'Be strong, brother. We're going to take down a volcano."
The task was as difficult as anything the Rockers ever faced, but they got around the rough spots by using innovative team moves. After Michaels was outmuscled by Barbarian, he ran the ropes and hurled himself at his big adversary with a flying bodypress attempt. Barbarian caught the Rocker in midair and tried to slam him onto the mat. But before this could be achieved, Jannetty sailed off the turnbuckles onto his partner's back, forcing Barbarian down to the canvas for a near-fall.
Later in the match, Michaels compensated for the height disadvantage by backing Warlord into the turnbuckles, mounting the second rope and hammering downward with hard fists. Believing it was time to finish up the night, the Rocker tried a sunset flip. Warlord resisted, struggling to remain standing while Michaels endeavored to turn him over. In a flash, Jannetty was aiding his partner, delivering a high cross-bodyblock to the squirming Warlord.
It was only the intervention of Mr. Fuji that cheated the Rockers out of a clear-cut win against their heavily favored foes. And Fuji was so taken aback at the Rockers' diversified repertoire that he scanned the world to find another team to eliminate them. While home in Japan, he discovered the Orient Express.
On paper, Sato and Tanaka were evenly matched with the Rockers. Both teams favor the airborne assault and are proficient at capitalizing on the five seconds after a tag when both members of a squad can be in the ring. However, the Orient Express has Mr. Fuji, an admitted expert at twisting the rules. At WrestleMania V1, the Rockers received another painful education in the manager's cruel tricks-Jannetty was temporarily blinded outside the ring when salt was thrown in his eyes.
In a rematch, the Orient Express tried to keep the edge by pouncing on the Rockers, whipping them both into the ropes and bending to backflip them. But Michaels and Jannetty managed to put on the brakes before the routine could be completed, stopping in front of their opponents by slamming their heads together.
Even when the Express was at its best, the Rockers were better. At one stage, Michaels backflipped Tanaka, who wiggled around in midair, positioned himself perfectly and landed on his feet. But before Tanaka could gloat, Michaels spun around and leveled him with a clothesline.
The match ended with Tanaka flat on his back and the Rockers in opposite corners of the ring, prepared to execute a double fistdrop from the top turnbuckle. However, Sato managed to disrupt the Rockers' plan, and all four combatants-along with Mr. Fuji-ended up duking it out on the arena floor. Remarkably, both Rockers ceased fighting at the exact same time and slid into the ring before the referee completed his 10-count. Michaels and Jannetty had scored a count-out victory over Fuji's team.
"Hey, Fuji," Jannetty tormented the manager as his hand was raised triumphantly, "keep trying!"
The Rockers intend to keep trying, challenging the toughest opponents and bettering themselves, becoming the standard against which future tag teams will measure themselves. On the near horizon is a confrontation with Hercules and Paul Roma, Power and Glory.
"Power and Glory's the ideal tag team for us to wrestle at this stage in our career," Michaels says. "Roma knows how to fly just like us-he has the highest drop-kick in the sport-and Hercules is a big, muscular brawler with a ton of experience. Guys like that come to the ring to fight, and that's OK with the Rockers, baby."
Feeling the heat between the ropes has never inhibited the Rockers. They wrestle with flair, and the girls all want their pictures; but that's not why Michaels and Jannetty are in wrestling. They're here because they love to wrestle-something that's easy to do when you're a tag team that puts substance over style.