The Rockers

History

Midnight Rockers (1985–1988)

Marty Jannetty and Shawn Michaels first met and struck up a friendship when they both competed for the National Wrestling Alliance's Central States Wrestling territory in Kansas City in 1985. Initially they would only travel together (along with Dave "D.J." Peterson) since Jannetty was either teaming with Tommy Rogers (not to be confused with Tommy Rogers of the Fantastics - and better known as Tommy Lane of the Rock 'n' Roll RPMs) as the Uptown Boys, or he was teaming with Central States booker ”Bulldog” Bob Brown. After the team of Jannetty and Brown broke up Michaels and Jannetty started teaming up, although they were not given a team name. On May 15, 1985 Michaels and Jannetty defeated The Batten Twins (Brad & Bart) to win the NWA Central States Tag Team Championship. Their first title reign was short-lived as the Batten Twins regained the title only a week later on May 22, 1985. Shortly after the team lost the CSW tag team title, Michaels left Kansas City and the NWA, and returned to his home state of Texas to work for Texas All-Star Wrestling. In TASW Shawn began teaming with Paul Diamond as ”American Force” and the team of Jannetty and Michaels seemed like it was never meant to be a permanent thing.

In early 1986, both Jannetty and Michaels were signed by the American Wrestling Association (AWA) as they needed young talent to replace the wrestlers that had switched to the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) as it was expanding towards becoming a national company. The two were paired up by the AWA bookers; Greg Gagne (son of the owner and one of the bookers) suggested the name ”The Country Rockers”, another idea for a name was the "U.S. Express" (as told by Marty during an interview on AWA television that aired in 1986) not keen on the idea the two of them came up with the name The Midnight Rockers inspired by Judas Priest’s ”Living after Midnight”. AWA owner Verne Gagne did not seem to understand the idea, (in fact he is quoted as wondering if fans might confuse the name with rocking chairs) but let the team go ahead and use the name.

The two started wearing identical outfits and develop the ”Fun loving pretty boy” gimmick they would be known for throughout their time together. After wrestling on the lower end of the card to get the fans familiar with the team the Midnight Rockers soon moved onto a feud with the team of Doug Somers and Buddy Rose who at the time were one of the top teams in the promotion. Their initial outing with Somers and Rose at the WrestleRock stadium show on April 20, 1986 did not go well for Jannetty and Michaels who lost in front of 22,000 fans. When Somers and Rose beat Scott Hall and Curt Hennig for the AWA World Tag Team Championship the Midnight Rockers suddenly found themselves chasing the tag team champions of the world. The Midnight Rockers teamed up with Curt Hennig to defeat Somer, Rose and Alexis Smirnoff at ”Battle by the Bay” on June 28, 1986 to prove that they were indeed capable of beating the champions. The Midnight Rockers would repeatedly challenge Somers throughout the rest of 1986 but never quite be able to get the win when the title was on the line. Finally near the end of that year, Jannetty and Michaels defeated the champions in a ”non-title” Steel cage match on December 25, 1986 on the AWA's ”Brawl in St. Paul” show. A month later on January 27, 1987, at the Met Center, in Bloomington, MN, the Midnight Rockers defeated Rose and Somers for the AWA Tag Team title. Jannetty and Michaels realized that the AWA was a promotion in decline (it would shut down completely by 1990), and decided their best bet was to work for the WWF. The Midnight Rockers got an offer from Vince McMahon while they were AWA World Tag Team Champions, and signed with the WWF. This resulted in a quick title loss to the unproven duo of Boris Zhukov and Soldat Ustinov on May 25, 1987.

The Rockers (1988–1992)

Shortly after leaving the AWA, Jannetty and Michaels were contacted by WWF owner Vince McMahon informing them that he was willing to bring them back if they were able to be more professional this time around. By the end of May the team was working for the WWF under the shortened name The Rockers. They officially made their television debut on the June 18, 1988 edition of WWF Superstars of Wrestling (taped June 1, 1988) in a squash match defeating Iron Mike Sharpe and the Intruder. The Rockers made their pay-per-view (PPV) debut at the 1988 Survivor Series as part of the 10 team tag match. They eliminated The Bolsheviks from the match before being eliminated by a double-disqualification in a brawl with the Brain Busters. The brawl between The Rockers and The Brain Busters led to a match taped for WWF Superstars of Wrestling where both teams were disqualified once again, this time before the match could really start. This led to a series of house show matches between the two teams, a series of matches that drew rave reviews from the fans. One match in particular on January 23, 1989 at Madison Square Garden was rated as one of the 50 greatest matches in the PWI 10th anniversary issue. The Brain Busters narrowly defeated The Rockers, as Anderson held down Marty Jannetty's leg as Blanchard pinned him. The feud continued to rage on as they clashed at Saturday Night's Main Event XX in a match that saw both teams counted out for brawling on the floor.

They competed against The Twin Towers, Akeem and Big Boss Man, at WrestleMania V. According to Michaels' autobiography, he was nursing a severe hangover in the hours before this match. In spring 1989, The Rockers started a storyline with The Fabulous Rougeau Brothers that kicked off with an underhanded attack on Michaels during a match. The Rougeaus assaulted Michaels with manager Jimmy Hart’s megaphone and drew blood. This storyline put The Rockers' issues with The Brain Busters on the back burners while The Rockers and the Rougeaus fought. The issue between The Rockers and Rougeaus was the storyline reason for introducing the “Iron Man match” to the WWF. Despite wrestling 5 Iron Man matches against each other none of the matches were ever televised or released on a commercial tape. On August 28, 1989, the Rockers/Rougeau feud made it to PPV as the Rougeaus teamed with Rick Martel to defeat The Rockers and Tito Santana at SummerSlam.

In late 1989, The Rockers and The Brain Busters resumed their feud after The Brain Busters lost the WWF Tag Team Championship to Demolition. On November 23, The Rockers faced Arn Anderson as part of the 4-on-4 elimination matches at Survivor Series. Prior to the match, Tully Blanchard had failed a drug test and was fired, forcing manager Bobby Heenan to wrestle in his place. The Rockers and The Brain Busters had one last match at Saturday Night's Main Event XXIV where they defeated The Brain Busters 2 falls to 1. After the match, Bobby Heenan fired the team in a backstage segment to explain why the team disappeared from the WWF.

Michaels vs. Jannetty (1992-1993)

Michaels and Jannetty were supposed to feud following the breakup, but Jannetty was suspended by the WWF, due to an incident outside a Tampa night club that occurred on January 25, 1992. He was arrested and put under house arrest for months with charges of resisting arrest with force, cocaine possession and possession of drug paraphernalia, forcing the feud to be abandoned at least temporarily. While Jannetty was away, Michaels began developing his “Heartbreak Kid” heel persona including getting Sherri Martel as his manager. Michaels also won the WWF Intercontinental Championship from The British Bulldog. On the October 31, 1992 (taped October 12, 1992 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan) edition of WWF Superstars, Michaels was in the ring posing before a match, admiring himself in a mirror that Sherri brought to the ring. To everyone's surprise, Jannetty came down through the crowd and entered the ring. Jannetty attacked Michaels, grabbed the mirror and tried to hit Michaels with it. But Michaels pulled Sherri in front of himself so that she got hit with the mirror instead. This led to Sherri being hospitalized from the glass shards (only in storyline terms) when Sherri returned from her “recovery” she turned on Michaels and actually backed Jannetty in his unsuccessful attempt to take the Intercontinental title away from Michaels at the 1993 Royal Rumble. After the loss, Jannetty was fired by the WWF for supposedly being drunk or hungover during the match however, Mr. Perfect reported that it was actually due to a lack of sleep and Jannetty was brought back.

During an episode of Monday Night Raw on May 17, 1993, Jannetty returned to the WWF during an impromptu challenge. Jannetty defeated Michaels to win the title (with the help of Mr. Perfect). Three weeks later Jannetty lost the title back to Michaels in an untelevised house show thanks to the interference of Michaels’ new bodyguard Diesel. After losing the title the Michaels/Jannetty feud petered out with Michaels focusing on other title challengers while Jannetty wrestled on the mid-card until leaving the WWF in the Spring of 1994.

The New Rockers (1996)

In September 1995, Jannetty returned to the WWF and initially worked in the singles division. In February 1996, Jannetty was introduced to Al Snow and told that he would be his new partner as the New Rockers. The initial plan was a return to The Rockers' gimmick, but the decision was made to make the team "silly" comedy heels according to Marty Jannetty in the book The Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame: The Tag Teams. They were told that the idea was for them to be like watching the 1960s television show The Monkees, complete with Snow being named "Leif Cassidy" as a play off 1970s idols David Cassidy and Leif Garrett. Going against his better judgment, Jannetty agreed to it, if nothing else than to help Snow out, who was trying to find a bankable gimmick. Jannetty was later informed that former partner Shawn Michaels had been the one to suggest the change in the gimmick. Jannetty fought Michaels twice who was WWF Champion at the time. Once on May 11 in Kuwait and the otehr on Raw July 1 episode. The team was never seriously pushed in the WWF making only a couple of low card PPV appearances before Jannetty decided to leave the WWF in December 1996. Cassidy later changed gimmicks in 1997 and went to ECW using the Head gimmick. He returned to WWF in 1998 with the Head gimmick.

Reunions (2005, 2006, 2007)

In the years following Jannetty's 1996 departure, Michaels became a born-again Christian in real life. This helped the two to patch up their above mentioned off-screen differences once and for all when Michaels shared his faith and aided Jannetty in becoming a Christian. On the SmackDown! shown on March 10, 2005 (taped two days earlier) Kurt Angle announced that as part of his preparation for his WrestleMania 21 match against Michaels' he would face Michaels old partner Jannetty on the following SmackDown. The following Monday, March 14, 2005, Jannetty made a surprise appearance on WWE Raw and, for one night, The Rockers reunited to take on La Résistance (Sylvain Grenier and Rob Conway). Jannetty got the win with the "Rocker Dropper" after Michaels hit ”Sweet Chin Music” on Grenier. Three days later on SmackDown Angle had promised to make Jannetty ”tap out”, just like he was going to make Michaels tap out at WrestleMania 21. Angle made good on his promise and forced Jannetty to submit to his ankle lock submission hold, but only after a nearly twenty-minute match and an impressive showing for Jannetty which saw him nearly pin the Olympic champion. After two good showings on Raw and SmackDown to convince WWE that he was still a very talented performer, they signed him to a contract. However, due to a domestic incident, Jannetty was arrested and thus unable to meet the commitments of his WWE contract. This led to his release on July 6, 2005.

On the February 20, 2006 edition of Raw, Michaels was pitted against four of the five members of the Spirit Squad in their in-ring debut. After he had connected with "Sweet Chin Music", Michaels was attacked by all five members until an unknown man came storming in to the ring to defend Michaels. During the melee, it was revealed that it was Jannetty coming to defend his former tag team partner. Later on Raw, Mr. McMahon came out to mention that he would offer Jannetty a full-time contract. However, McMahon added a stipulation: Jannetty had to join McMahon's "Kiss My Ass Club" the following week on Raw. On Raw Jannetty refused to indulge McMahon. McMahon instead offered Jannetty the possibility of breaking Chris Masters' signature submission hold, the Master Lock. Jannetty appeared to almost break the hold, but McMahon (who was officiating) delivered a low blow, and Jannetty was never able to break it, only being released when Michaels ran in to save him. Shortly after Michaels had saved Jannetty, Shane McMahon ran in the ring with a steel chair and knocked out Michaels. The former Rockers were supposed to continue a program with the McMahons, but Jannetty was absent from the next edition of Raw which meant that they had to rewrite the angle leaving Jannetty out of it.

The Newest Rockers (2022)

On October 21, 2022 Leif Cassidy as Al Snow formed The Newest Rockers with youngster Kal Herro winning the OFE Tag Team titles.

Championships and accomplishments

American Wrestling Association

AWA World Tag Team Championship (2 times)

Central States Wrestling

NWA Central States Tag Team Championship (1 time)

Continental Wrestling Association

AWA Southern Tag Team Championship (2 times)

Pro Wrestling Illustrated

Ranked No. 33 of the top 100 tag teams of the PWI Years in 2003

Pro Wrestling This Week

Wrestler of the Week (February 8–14, 1987)

Wrestling Observer Newsletter

Tag Team of the Year (1989)