You may think that Shawn Michaels' first major WWE title was the Intercontinental, won from Davey Boy Smith in '92 but in fact his fast-paced tag partnership with the often forgotten Marty Jannetty yielded his first taste of WWE gold. Unfortunately it didn't officially happen and lasted all of a couple of days. The story goes that Jim Neidhart of the Hart Foundation was on his way out of WWE, unable to agree a new contract. As a result The Rockers (simpler times, eh?) were booked to unseat the champs at a TV taping in Indiana. October 30th 1990 saw a botched finish lead to a three count for Jannetty and Michaels while Neidhart and Hart looked genuinely aggrieved at the match's close. Regardless, The Rockers were champs, even successfully defending the titles against Hercules and Paul Roma and on course to capitalise on their enormous popularity once the title change was shown on WWE TV. It never was. Neidhart came to terms with WWE and the titles were returned to the Hart Foundation. The tag titles really meant something in 1990 and it's hard to imagine that this went very smoothly. For those in the know, pre-internet (the fans in Indiana and readers of the physical dirt sheets), WWE mumbled something about a broken turnbuckle during the 2 out of 3 falls match that had given rise to their decision. This kind of absence of logic combined with a delicious disregard of fan's feelings typifies the WWE troll machine. Of course this wouldn't be the last time Hart and HBK would be involved in a bit of messy WWE business but that's been covered plentifully elsewhere don't you think?
Originally from Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales, now residing in East London with my wife and cat. I'm a member of Ghost Carriage Phantoms, co-owner of Marketstall Records, Editor of #flatoutfucked fanzine, a regular contributor to various music/culture websites and the co-author of a couple of scripts, mired in the endless hell of pre-production.
