Thought Of The Day – Marty Jannetty
This is something I might try to do every few days but don’t expect it to happen every day. It might be short, it might be long, it might be stupid. Kind of mixed bag if you will.When a tag team breaks up, why is it such an insult to call someone the Jannetty of the team? Marty Jannetty won two tag titles and the Intercontinental Title after the Rockers broke up. That’s a better career than most guys ever have. You know what the insult should be called? Being the Neidhart of the team. What in the world did Jim Neidhart ever do without Bret?
The difference I think is that it was always clear Bret will be the star of the team, while with the Rockers both guys were held in almost equally high regard, at least for a long period of time.
At the end of the day, the breakup of the Rockers is more memorable than the breakup of the Hart Foundation, and HBK ended up being a bigger star than Bret did.
Also, Janetty sounds better than Neidhart.
Adding onto what Ryan said, Michaels had by far the more “Rockstar” career in comparison to Bret, which makes the comparisons between Michaels and Janetty all the more vivid than Niedhart and Hart.
Jannetty is remembered more than Neidhart I believe. I think it has something to do with that and the sounding of the name as well. Calling someone a “Jannetty” sounds better to me than “Neidhart”. “He was the Jannetty” vs. “He was the Neidhart.” Jannetty, jabroni, jackass, jerk-off. Combine that with The Barber Shop incident when Shawn kicked him in the face, that kick shockingly breaking up the tag team. Neidhart, however, just disappeared when the Harts broke up and it was much more subtle than a superkick to the face.
I don’t think it’s an insult to Jannetty, as he teamed with a guy who would go on to be one of the all-time greats, hard to outshine his partner. He’ll forever be the guy who got kicked in the face by Shawn Michaels, which launched the singles career of many people’s favorite wrestler, and has his name on the term “being the Jannetty of the team”. Neidhart, even though he won tag titles with Bret, will just be that scary-looking guy in the Hart Foundation. No big moment, no term name. Better to be remembered for something than nothing at all.