10 WWE Superstars Who Sabotaged Their Own Careers
9. Business In The Front, Party In The Back
You can argue that, at least in the early going, Marty Jannetty was the more talented of the Rockers. The difference was that Shawn Michaels didn’t let his issues with booze and pills interfere with work, and Jannetty did. Michaels kept improving, in the ring and on the stick, and Jannetty’s issues kept him spinning his wheels.
When the WWF broke them up, it was Michaels - the younger, better looking one - who went on to the big singles push. Jannetty was supposed to feud with Michaels, but after assaulting a police officer he was sentenced to six months of house arrest, and he was released in March 1992.
Jannetty was rehired to resume the feud, but was sacked again after the 1993 Royal Rumble, this time for allegedly being wasted in the ring. He’d return again in May, running after Michaels like a puppy, temporarily snaffling the Intercontinental title from him and going on to lift the tag titles with the 1,2,3 Kid before once again being released.
This pattern of unreliability - of intoxication and uncontrollable behaviour, arrests and travel restrictions - would follow for some years, preventing him from ever wrestling in one place long enough to make a career work.
From all reports Jannetty’s very real issues with the Heartbreak Kid are long in the past, and no one in WWE or anywhere else has anything personal against him: back in 2007 he was being considered for a backstage role. It didn’t pan out. Three guesses as to why.