The Sad Fate Of Marty Jannetty

The belated grudge match was a drab and underwhelming affair that Jannetty blamed on a lack of sleep. Michaels blamed it on Jannetty's indulgences. What we know of Jannetty's performance level at 'Mania VI, and how he lived virtually all of his days, renders Shawn's account more convincing, irrespective of the cynicism behind his politicking. Jannetty was let go for the second time in as many years.

Amid wider turmoil in the WWF, waning in popularity, he was re-signed just months later. This time he was on-form. After a long and hexed saga, he and Michaels finally worked the barnburner they always had in them. Even better was the final match in Jannetty's vastly underrated series with the original Doink the Clown; a captivating and unique two-out-of-three-falls match, in which Jannetty had to solve a psychological maze in addition to fighting underneath against Matt Bourne's accomplished technique, it was a triumph. Jannetty coaxed the very best work from one of pro wrestling's most ambitious and cursed characters.

Across this run and his next, Jannetty was mostly promoted as a tag team hand. It didn't work out. It never really did; an old, litigious botch returned to haunt him in 1994, and in 1996, Jannetty walked. He spent the next several years as a minor league journeyman, missing the riches of the Attitude Era almost entirely beyond a forgettable WCW run in 1998. He was released in a manner consistent with that company's cruelty when recovering from a shoulder injury. It was difficult to feel much sympathy for him. After a stormy period in the '90s, Jannetty spent much of the next two decades on the shoot interview circuit conspiring to babyface the wrestling industry (!) for passing on him.

CONT'D...(4 of 6)