Jannetty

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The Rockers: Marty Jannetty (left) and Shawn Michaels (right).

About

"Jannetty" is a slang term in wrestling fandom which implies that one member of a wrestling tag team is the less successful member following a break-up.

Origin

The term derives from the wrestling tag team The Rockers, formed in 1985, which consisted of the now-legendary Shawn Michaels and the "other Rocker", Marty Jannetty. Following their storyline break-up in early 1992, Jannetty was supposed to remain a heroic character while Michaels became a villain. However, Jannetty had several absences owing to real-life personal reasons, and so Michaels continued to develop his villainous character in other storylines, building his reputation and eventual legacy.^[1]

Michaels eventually went on to win several championships and perform at a main event level, while Jannetty floundered in the mid-card and faded into obscurity. Apart from among wrestling fans, who to this day use the word "Jannetty" to refer to the less successful member of a team in similar scenarios.

Spread

Urban Dictionary has an entry for "Marty Jannetty", which it describes as follows:^[2]

The member of a pair destined for lesser things. A reference to the 80's and 90's wrestling tag team The Rockers. Shawn Michaels went on to greatness, while Marty Jannetty faded into obscurity.

"That guy from Wham who wasn't George Michael was totally the Marty Jannetty of that group."

"Bob Odenkirk was the Marty Jannetty of Mr. Show."

"In the end, Emilio Estevez was the Marty Jannetty of Martin Sheen's kids."

Online wrestling discussion frequently sees threads along the lines of "Who was the Jannetty" as a common topic of discussion concerning which member of a tag team has been most successful.

During their breakup angle in 2009, WWE wrestler Mike "The Miz" Mizanin frequently claimed that his former partner John Morrison would be the "Jannetty" of the two.^[3] Although Morrison is considered an excellent wrestler and was getting pushed gradually higher up the card, he departed the company in 2011 while the Miz had managed to capture the WWE championship by the end of 2010 and is still a prominent and beloved member of Smackdown's roster in 2016. Discussion threads on prominent subreddit r/squaredcircle have held discussions on "Jannetties" before, including the aformentioned Miz & Morrison.^[4]

Prior to their match at Bragging Rights 2009, the Miz claimed he would " prove that I am the Shawn Michaels and you are the Marty Jannetty"(0:42 in the video)

Online forum Proboards had a discussion thread where the OP asked "why is it called the Jannetty and not the Neidhart?"^[5], referring to Hart Foundation member Jim Neidhart, arguing that this was a more apt comparison as the "lesser" of a tag team. This lead to a discussion about how Jannetty and Michaels were seen as having equivalent potential prior to their split.

Following the breakup of popular wrestling group The Shield, news website Grantland.com ran an article reviewing that week's episode of Monday Night Raw, entitled "Who Will Be the Shield's Marty Jannetty?"^[6]

TV Tropes' page now entitled "Breakup Breakout" was previously titled "The Jannetty", which still works as a page redirect.^[7]

Usage as a meme

4chan's board /asp/ (Alternative Sports & Wrestling) sees frequent usage of the term "Jannetty", where it is used primarily as a form of shitposting. Threads where the OP is simply "Who was the Jannetty" often revolve around tag teams where the answer is incredibly obvious, and has been snowcloned to feature characters from other media such as video games.^[8] December 2016 even saw a thread where the OP asked who was the Jannetty of Michaels and Jannetty. Furthermore, it has become common practice to modify a wrestler's name by adding "etty" to the end. Discussion often concerns which of the aformentioned Shield is the Janetty, with the various members described most often as "Romanetty" (Roman Reigns), "Jasethy" (Seth Rollins), or "Deanetty" (Dean Ambrose). Of course the joke is that many teams have no Jannetty and all three former Shield members are main event level talents that have held world titles in WWE, so sometimes all three are referred to in tongue-in-cheek terms as "the Shieldettys".^[9]