Marty Jannetty's Intercontinental Championship Reign

Marty Jannetty was an excellent wrestler and many say he was a victim of his own demons and it prevented him from climbing hire in the ranks of professional wrestling.  I'm not here to speculate about any of that, I'm here to write about his only singles title reign in a major promotion, the WWE Intercontinental Championship.

Along side Shawn Michael's as The Rockers they had a successful tag team run in Central States Wrestling and the AWA where they captured the Tag Team Championships in both promotions.  In the WWE from 1988 until January 1992 when the team broke up after the infamous Barber Shop segment that saw Shawn throw Marty through the window.  This was supposed to lead to a match between the two at WrestleMania, however and arrest in January 1992 lead to Marty being released from the company.

He was brought back in October 1992 after his house arrest ended picking up wins over enhancement talent at TV taping.  Although primarily known as a tag ream wrestler Jannetty was a former two time Central States Wrestling Heavyweight Champion and even challenging Ric Flair for the NWA Worlds Championship on four occasions.

Beginning November 27, 1992 through January 23, 1993 Jannetty toured the house show circuit challenging Shawn Michaels for the Intercontinental championship coming up short at each encounter.

On January 24, 1993 Marty once again challenged for the Intercontinental Championship this time at Royal Rumble in Sacramento, California.  Once again Shawn Michaels retained his title.

In a backstage interview segment Jannetty attacked Michaels leading many to believe the feud would continue leading to a match at WrestleMania that year. However, Jannetty was accused of being intoxicated during the match at the Royal Rumble and was released shortly after.

On May 17, 1993 at the Manhattan Center in New York City on Monday Night Raw Shawn Michaels was in the ring being interviewed by Vince McMahon, Michaels said he would defend the title against anyone, anywhere.  Marty Jannetty then emerged from the crowd challenging Michaels who was forced into accepting the match.  He had returned to the WWE at house shows the days before losing matches to Michaels.

  Later in the night in just under 11 minutes Jannetty would pin Michaels with a small package to capture the championship much to the delight of the the crowd.

Jannetty's title reign would only last 19 days until June 6, 1993 when he lost the title to Michaels at a house show in Albany, New York.  In total he defended the title 7 times with 6 successful defenses, with only 1 televised defense. 

May 21, 1993 Hershey, Pennsylvania, House Show

Intercontinental Champion: Marty Jannetty pinned Papa Shango with a roll up

May 31, 1993 Manhattan Center, New York, Monday Night Raw

Intercontinental Champion: Marty Jannetty with Sensational Sherri defeated Bam Bam Bigelow with Luna Vachon by count - out

June 1, 1993 Sioux Falls, South Dakota, House Show

Intercontinental Champion: Marty Jannetty pinned Shawn Michaels

June 2, 1993 Sioux City, Iowa, House Show

Intercontinental Champion: Marty Jannetty pinned Shawn Michaels

June 3, 1993 Des Moines, Iowa, House Show

Intercontinental Champion: Marty Jannetty pinned Shawn Michaels

June 5, 1993 Minneapolis, Minnesota, House Show

Intercontinental Champion: Marty Jannetty pinned Shawn Michaels

June 6, 1993 Knickerbocker Arena, Albany, New York, House Show

Shawn Michaels with Diesel pinned Intercontinental Champion: Marty Jannetty to win the championship

The June 6th house show was Kevin Nash's debut in the WWE as Diesel, and he aided Michaels in defeating Jannetty to regain the title.  I don't understand why he lost the title at a house show instead of on Monday Night Raw the next night.

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Until next time! 

The Lost WWE Iron Man Matches Part 2

Back on June 1, 2017 I posted a blog looking at The Lost WWE Iron Man Matches.  On that post I presented all the Iron Man Matches that took place before the famous WrestleMania XXII Iron Man match between Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels.

A comment was left on that post recently by Roy Lucier where he mentioned one happening in 1987 in Montreal.  Looking into this I discovered several Iron Man or Marathon matches that took place not in 1987 but in 1989 and they all featured The Rockers vs. The Rougeau Brothers.  I've described the matches the best I could based on information I found on them.  Most of it from The History of WWE.

August 4, 1989 House Show Montreal, Quebec

The Rockers: Shawn Michaels & Marty Jannetty defeated The Fabulous Rougeau Brothers: Jacques & Raymond 3 falls to 2 in overtime
The Rougeau's won falls 1& 2, the Rockers won falls 3 & 4.  The Rockers won the 5th and deciding fall when Michaels reversed an inside cradle by Raymond putting Jannetty on top after Jacques has done the same moments earlier.

August 6, 1989 House Show Chicago, Illinois

The Rockers: Shawn Michaels & Marty Jannetty defeated The Fabulous Rougeau Brothers: Jacques & Raymond in overtime
Despite the scheduled 60 minute time limit the deciding fall in overtime was at the 45 minute mark

August 19, 1989 House Show Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

The Rockers: Shawn Michaels & Marty Jannetty defeated The Fabulous Rougeau Brothers: Jacques & Raymond in sudden death overtime 

September 9, 1989 House Show Boston, Massachusetts

The Rockers: Shawn Michaels & Marty Jannetty defeated The Fabulous Rougeau Brothers: Jacques & Raymond 3 falls to 2 in overtime
Shawn Michaels clotheslined Jacques to win the deciding fall

October 8, 1989 House Show Washington D.C.

The Rockers: Shawn Michaels & Marty Jannetty defeated The Fabulous Rougeau Brothers: Jacques & Raymond in sudden death overtime

November 17, 1989 House Show West Palm Beach, Florida

The Rockers: Shawn Michaels & Marty Jannetty defeated The Fabulous Rougeau Brothers: Jacques & Raymond 3 falls for 2 in overtime
The Rougeau's won falls 1& 2, the Rockers won falls 3 & 4.  The Rockers won the 5th and deciding fall when Michaels hit a piledriver on Jacques and put Jannetty on top for the pin after the Rougeaus had attempted a spike piledriver on Jannetty

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The Last Match: WWE World Champions

This edition of The Last Match features former WWE Champions.  I don't need to saw a whole lot about the wrestlers featured in this post as their names speak for themselves.

"Stone Cold" Steve Austin
March 30, 2003 WrestleMania XIX Seattle, WA
defeated by The Rock

"Heartbreak Kid" Shawn Michaels
March 28, 2010 WrestleMania XXVI Glendale, AZ
was defeated by The Undertaker

Bret "Hitman" Hart
January 10, 2000 WCW Nitro Buffalo, NY Marine Midland Arena
wrestled Kevin Nash to a no contest

September 12, 2011 WWE Monday Night Raw Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Scotiabank Place
with John Cena defeated Alberto Del Rio & Ricardo Rodriguez

Sgt. Slaughter
March 29, 2014 Northeast Wrestling Loch Sheldrake, NY
with Jeff Starr defeated Dalton Castle & "Man Scout" Jake Manning

Mick Foley
August 12, 2011 JCW Legends & Icons Cave-In-Rock, IL
with Terry Funk was defeated by "Rowdy" Roddy Piper & "Cowboy" Bob Orton

Mick Foley also competed in the 2012 Royal Rumble being eliminated by Cody Rhodes.

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Roy's Review" WrestleMania XII

 March 31, 1996

Arrowhead Pond, Anaheim, California

Match 1: Vader, Owen Hart and British Bulldog w/Jim Cornette defeated Yokozuna, Ahmed Johnson and Jake Roberts w/Mr. Fuji. This was a solid match and was the best choice for the opener. Its to bad that Yoko couldn't lose weight. He was a good wrestler and was super over as a face at this point. The stipulation for this match was that if Yoko's team won he would get 5 minutes alone with Cornette. The end came when Vader squished Jake with a Vader bomb.
6.5/10

Match 2: Roddy Piper defeated Goldust in a Hollywood Backlot Brawl. This is where they started showing the taped portions of this match and the live ending took place before the main event. It was a good brawl but other than that it was kinda dumpy. They mocked the OJ Simpson white bronco deal with Piper chasing Goldust on the highway in a white Bronco. There wasn't a referee so there wasn't really a winner. Goldust just left after Piper stripped his body suit off, exposing women's lingerie.
5/10

Match 3: Steve Austin w/Ted DiBiase defeated Savio Vega. This was a decent match but it wasn't really anything special. It was really annoying that during this match they had Piper "on the phone" while he was out chasing Goldust on the highway. Piper's phone kept "dropping the call". The end of this match came when the referee was knocked down and Austin hit Vega with the million dollar belt. He then put Vega in a million dollar dream/chin lock to fool the referee.
5.75/10

Match 4: Ultimate Warrior defeated Hunter Hearst-Helmsley w/Sable. This was a 1:39 squash. They really wanted to bury HHH in this one. Warrior no sold a Pedigree.
1/10

Match 5: Undertaker w/Paul Bearer defeated Diesel. This was a good match which kinda surprised me. Lots of good big guy brawling. This match did have one of the worst chokeslams ever. Taker got the win with the tombstone.
7.5/10

Match 6: Shawn Michaels w/Jose Lothario defeated WWF Champion Bret Hart 1-0 in a 60 Minute Iron Man match. This was a good match but not the super all time classic that WWE would want you to believe. The first 30 minutes were really kinda boring because it was 30 minutes of rest holds. I get why it was really slow but that doesn't change the fact it was boring. The last 30 minutes kinda seemed like a different match. It was much faster paced and was very good. Time expired with Shawn in a sharpshooter and him not giving up. Gorilla Monsoon, who was the WWF president, ordered the match to continue as sudden death. This went 2-3 minutes and seemed kinda rushed. Again I get it, these guys had just wrestled for 60 minutes so they kinda get a pass on the rushed overtime period. This match is definitely not for everyone.
8.25/10

This was a decent show and had the Wrestlemania feel. It had some good matches but the show as a whole won't go down as a great Wrestlemania. Apparently Razor Ramon was supposed to wrestle Goldust in a Street Fight but he was suspended for drug use. I would have much rather seen that match than the Hollywood Back Lot brawl.

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