The Rockers, originally the Midnight Rockers, were an American professional wrestling tag team consisting of Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannetty who teamed from 1985 to 1992. The team worked for NWA Central States Wrestling, the American Wrestling Association, Continental Wrestling Federation, Continental Wrestling Association and the World Wrestling Federation. In 1992, the team had a violent kayfabe breakup that helped propel Michaels into the singles ranks with "The Heartbreak Kid" gimmick that he used until his retirement in 2010. After the breakup Michaels and Jannetty had an on again, off again feud due to Jannetty leaving the WWF on more than one occasion. In 1996, Jannetty teamed up with Leif Cassidy (later to be known as Al Snow) to form The New Rockers, but the team never achieved much success in the WWF and ended later that same year.
In 2005, The Rockers reunited for one night, but nothing more came of it because Jannetty was released by WWE. In 2006, Jannetty was slated to return and work an extended angle, teaming with Michaels against Mr. McMahon and Shane McMahon, but only made two televised appearances before being released from his contract again. Instead, WWE reformed Michaels' other team, D-Generation X, to fill the storyline.
History
Midnight Rockers (1985–1988)
NWA Central States Wrestling (1985) 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.
American Wrestling Association (1986–1987) 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.
Various promotions (1987–1988) Five days after dropping the AWA Tag Team Championship, the team made their first WWF appearance at a house show in St. Paul, Minnesota, where they challenged the then WWF World Tag Team Champions The Hart Foundation for a title match. Four days later the Midnight Rockers wrestled at their first and only TV taping for the show WWF Wrestling Challenge, defeating the team of Jose Estrada, Sr. and Jimmy Jack Funk. After just a few weeks with the company, which included some house show matches against The Shadows., Michaels and Janetty were fired because of excessive partying and not enough focusing on their in ring work.
After being fired by the WWF, they went down to Continental Wrestling around Alabama and Pensacola, Florida. According to the Heartbreak and Triumph DVD, Michaels was unhappy there. When Bob Armstrong took over the booking, they gave them two weeks notice that they were no longer needed and he was bringing in another tag team.
After the way they had left the AWA Michaels and Jannetty could not just return like nothing had happened, instead the Midnight Rockers started working for the AWA affiliated Championship Wrestling Association (CWA) in Memphis, Tennessee. The team had made a couple of appearances in the CWA in the past as part of their working agreement with the AWA but now they were in Memphis full-time. Shortly after arriving in the territory, Michaels and Janetty turned heel signing with manager Mark Guleen. Their first feud in Memphis was against a recently formed team known as The Nasty Boys (Jerry Sags and Brian Knobs) whom they faced in several brutal matches all over the CWA territory. After The Nasty Boys, The Rockers got involved in a feud with “The Nightmares” (Danny Davis and Ken Wayne). Their villainous personas were that of self-obsessed, glory seeking ”superstars”, the same persona Michaels would later adopt as ”The Hearbreak Kid”. Their feud with the RPMs saw the Midnight Rockers defeat Lane and Davis to win the AWA Southern Tag Team Championship on October 26, 1987. Jannetty and Michaels lost then regained the Southern Tag Team title as the Midnight Rockers / RPMs feud raged on.
With their success in Memphis, the AWA started to book them as well, having the Midnight Rockers split their time between Memphis and the AWA territory – in Memphis the Midnight Rockers were heels but in the AWA they were faces (good guys), something which was possible before the advent of national television deals and easy internet access. On December 27, 1987 The Midnight Rockers defeated The Midnight Express (Dennis Condrey and Randy Rose) for the AWA World Tag Team title. Since they had won the AWA World Tag Team titles, Jannetty and Michaels were forced to vacate the AWA Southern Tag Team titles in January 1988. While in the CWA, they had a brief feud with The Rock 'n' Roll Express over the AWA World Tag Team titles. After a short while in the AWA Jannetty and Michaels began asking for more money and a guaranteed contract from owner Verne Gagne. When this request was denied the Midnight Rockers quit the AWA without having found another promotion for which to work. Before they left the promotion, they lost the AWA Tag Team Championship on March 19 to Badd Company (Pat Tanaka and Paul Diamond).
The Rockers (1988–1992)
World Wrestling Federation (1988–1991)
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.
In December 1989, The Rockers feuded with The Powers of Pain until February 1990.
At the Royal Rumble in January 1990, both men competed in the Royal Rumble match. However, neither Michaels nor Janetty was victorious in their attempt, being eliminated by the Ultimate Warrior and Ted DiBiase, respectively.