[1992-10-31-WWF-Superstars] Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannetty

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Of course this was great! Jannetty returns after being gone all year and turns it loose on Shawn. I wish they hadn't made the focus on Sherri getting KO'd with the mirror, but this was still really well done. Who would have thought at the beginning of 1992 that they'd be looking to The Rockers to get a hot, upper card program going before the end of the year?

[Tim Evans]

Kinda interesting that months later, people were stil interested in Marty vs Shawn. Love this angle.

[shoe]

Awesome angle.

[PeteF3]

The first hot WWF angle in months.

[WingedEagle]

HBK is challenging for title at Survivor Series, but there's no angle here setting it up. Jannetty shows up and HBK sees him in the mirror in a great bit of production. Jannetty lays him out and he breaks the mirror over Sherri's head. Pretty hardcore, super angle.

[garretta]

First of all, hats off to Sherri for taking the mirror shot. I'd have liked to see blood, but I understand why they couldn't do that.

 

Curt's really good here, going after Marty for hitting Sherri. He's come a long way as a color man in a few short months. He's still not quite what Jesse was, but he's the best they've had on Superstars since Jesse left.

 

This also shows great insight into the HBK character (even though they don't call him that yet). He not only pulls Sherri in front of him to take the mirror shot, but instead of checking on her afterward, he runs for the locker room without looking back. He's more worried about what Marty might do (mess up his pretty face) than what Marty has done (give the woman who manages him and loves him a potential concussion, accidentally or not). He couldn't care less about Sherri or anyone else on earth. In a great bit of foreshadowing, he even says in his promo that he's an island unto himself. Vince has created two really great heel characters in Razor Ramon and The Heartbreak Kid this year, and has also found the perfect wrestlers to play them in Hall and Michaels. It's kind of a shame that they were so well done that they each eventually had to be turned face.

 

All of that said, this feels like something that should have been done either after Survivor Series or instead of it, by which I mean Marty and Shawn should have wrestled at the pay-per-view. Doing it now means that a World title match, the pinnacle of every wrestler's career, has been overshadowed by a vengeful tag team partner whom we haven't seen in months. That just shouldn't be. If they felt that they needed to get all they could out of Marty while he was sober, they should have had Shawn wrestle him and Bret give Flair a rematch, where they could have done Curt's turn after a loss. What that does to the Ultimate Maniacs, I have no idea and really couldn't care less. Have Savage wrestle Hall one-on-one, which they never did on a WWF pay-per-view, and send Warrior to the nut house (assuming he isn't fired like he was in real life). Otherwise, put this feud on ice until December and hope that Marty's still capable.

 

Vince was almost unintelligible at the start of this, so I didn't catch what kind of match Nailz and Bossman were supposed to have at Survivor Series. It sounded like Vince said "nightstick match", but I can't be sure. How exactly did that match work?

 

So Sarge is already commissioner, huh? I thought that came about a few months later.

[PeteF3]

It was a nightstick match, and it was a standard weapon-on-a-pole match, though at least it'd never been done in the WWF before.

 

I forget what title they'd given Sarge around this time, but he was supposed to be a "rules enforcer" overseeing the referees. This came at a time when the WWF was handing down new internal directives about not brawling outside the ring or using low blows unless specifically directed, I think to combat injuries and possibly as a PR move as well. The whole thing was literally forgotten about in like two weeks.

[garretta]

Thanks for the info, Pete!

[Beast]

This is a great angle, but I also agree that Jannetty's return confused the build to Michaels' world title match at Survivor Series. I'm impressed at how they were able to have the main players all have current feuds and future programs hinted at (Bret vs. Michaels/Flair/Razor, Michaels vs Hart/Jannetty, Undertaker vs. Kamala/Nailz, etc..), but right before a major PPV (that ended up having major substitutions) is not the best time.

Jannetty immediately erases any concerns about whether it's worth revisiting this feud by throwing down a top-notch return beatdown on Michaels and Sherri. Only thing I'd have done differently is to not show Jannetty at all until he appears in the mirror. Still was awesome, but they gave away the surprise instead of having us experience it like Michaels. Guess they weren't sure if the young audience would remember Jannetty so they needed Vince to walk us through it.

And of course this all became moot when Party Marty got himself kicked out again in January.