The Sad Fate Of Marty Jannetty
Nobody told WWE's former Rocker that it isn't midnight anymore.
Your writer used to get so pissed off when fans - or wrestlers, when putting themselves over at the expense of the partner they'd just turned on - would describe Marty Jannetty as Not Shawn Michaels. After Hulk Hogan, he was the best.
There's an inherent cruelty to the comparison even if it's true. It's lazy. You don't have to diminish one talent to put the other over. It is, one supposes, an easy shortcut to describe the wrestler who is more likely to go further. But virtually every pro wrestler to ever be labelled the "Marty Jannetty" of their team could not lace the man's boots. Jannetty was a prodigious talent. You could even make the argument that he was the better Rocker at the time.
Consider WrestleMania VI. This night was emblematic of Jannetty the performer, and of the Jannetty the man. The Rockers worked the Orient Express in what was, by some distance, the best match on the undercard. By the standards of the time, this was a banger. That qualifier might be harsh. About a third of the time, when the modern super-athlete flips out of a hold, they don't nail the landing.
Hell, even Kenny Omega, the greatest professional wrestler of all-time - the man who has redefined the athletic standard in what is, analysing Dominion 2018, as objective a statement one can make about the most subjectively received pro wrestler ever - will wobble on occasion after setting up his middle rope moonsault.
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