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Marty Jannetty: The Other Rocker,
A DVD review of “The Marty Jannetty Story”
Out Now!

The Rockers

Although many of you may be familiar with the story of “the forgotten Beatle”, the pro wrestling industry is full of tag teams that split up, leading to one performer becoming a bigger star than the other. Steve Austin became a household name, whilst Brian Pillman ended up dead. Christian floundered in the midcard, having to go to TNA, while Edge became the biggest heel in the industry. Bret Hart carried the company, while Jim Neidhart road his motorcycle around the unemployment line.

There is only so far a team can go before the inevitable split, and it almost always ends up with one getting a push and the other fading in to the background to be forgotten by the masses. Perhaps the most well known tag team split was that of the Midnight Rockers, Marty Jannetty and Shawn Michaels, when HBK superkicked Jannetty and put him through the Barber Shop window. One became a living legend, the other held his own for several years, before being chased by “demons” to the the Indy scene. While one continues to get a fat paycheck and mainstream recognition, the other must continue to ply his trade on the proverbial “high school gym” scene, because “that is the only thing I’ve ever been married to”. Mickey Rourke, eat your heart out!

This 2 Disc DVD set, “The Marty Jannetty Story” chronicles the life and career of “The Other Rocker”, documenting his career beginnings, and what happened once HBK took off to the top and Jannetty took off in the opposite direction.

What sets this great DVD apart from most shoot interviews is the footage. Whereas you’ll usually get a guy sitting in a chair talking for 3 hours, this film follows Marty on the road showing several of his matches. Granted he does sit in a chair, but it changes from chapter to chapter. During the early parts of the first disc you’ll get to see where he grew up, watched his first wrestling matches, his school where he used to set off the fire alarm and where he trained to wrestle on horse hair mats! Although the story of older wrestlers paying their dues comes up a lot, it never gets old. Before wrestling his first match Jannetty had never been in a proper ring and was not clued in to whether it was real or fake. We’ve definitely come a long way since then, and Jannetty goes on to explain some of this to the rookies of today.

Some might call the career of Marty Jannetty tragic, and it might be, but despite all his missed opportunities, incidents with Shawn and the falling in to the grip of drugs, Marty is not bitter and remains upbeat and enthusiastic about the business.

Although parallels with the “Randy The Ram” character can be made when we see him wrestle a rather drawn out hardcore brawl in a nowhere town and learn of his drug and alcohol abuse, we also see the positive side when he shares advice with some up and coming workers and goes on to have a great 6 man tag with the pair.

It’s all here. We learn Jannetty’s side of the story about when the Rockers debuted and were fired in just one night from the WWE. We hear about his corrupt legal battle against a young wrestler whom failed to take the “rocker dropper” correctly, breaking his neck and eventually resulting in Marty losing everything. We get incite on how the team split up and Shawn’s immature political games, as well as tonnes of great road stories and run ins with the law.

Jannetty is often painted as the bigger fuck up out of the team, but if anything, this documentary shows how Shawn was a thorn in his side from day one. After all Marty helped break Shawn in and Shawn appears to have stabbed him in the back more than once. It’s fitting then, that somebody who caused Jannetty so much grief was the one that ultimately saved his life and helped him to find God.

Those that haven’t followed Jannetty’s career closely may just label him as another washed out drug filled has been, and although he does appear inebriated in at least one clip, he now uses these horrible life experiences to help train the next generation of talent, who hope to make it to the big time. We often hear about “the wrestling culture” and stars “succumbing to their demons”, but Marty Jannetty is still standing and is a stronger person for it.

With over 4 hours of exclusive footage, including matches, backstage discussions and a portion of one of his wrestling seminars, “The Marty Jannetty Story” is definitely a DVD set worth having, if just to discover what really did happen to “the other Rocker”.

To purchase your copy visit TheMartyJannettyStory.com