Why It's Time To FINALLY Kill The Worst Trope In Wrestling

4. The Differing Career Paths

Toxic Attraction Jacy Jayne Gigi Dolin
WWE

Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannetty clearly had very different career paths once the Rockers split in January '92.

Looking back on their respective careers in WWE terms, the Showstopper can lay claim to being a two-time Hall of Famer, a four-time World Champion, a three-time Intercontinental Champion, a one-time European Champion, a six-time Tag Team Champion, and a two-time Royal Rumble winner.

For Jannetty, he has that one Intercontinental Title win against his former partner, would later finally win the Tag Team Titles with the 1-2-3 Kid, formed the vanilla New Rockers with Leif Cassidy, and had forgettable spells in ECW and WCW while Michaels was busy headlining WrestleManias.

To clarify, your writer here is a major fan of the work of Marty Jannetty, but it's the comparison between the careers of the Rockers which has caused WWE to lazily create a false narrative that comes into play whenever there starts to be dissention between tag team partners. Even more so, it's a certain section of the wrestling fanbase that likewise throw this trope around whenever they discuss the possible break-up of a tandem.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.