THTRobtaylor
Once & Future Wrestlezone Columnist
First off... The reason Jannetty's Royal Rumble match went awry was the clear shoulder dislocation he suffered during the match, go back and watch it again and you hear Heenan talking about "the bump"... That led to a changed finish of Sherri nailing him... Shawn too was stripped and suspended of the IC title several times in 1993/1994 - So the arguments that Jannetty screwed up his push is unfair, as Shawn did his best to screw his up too...
2nd, Marty suffered due to the Charles Austin incident, where a prelim's neck was broken with the Rocker Dropper... that cost Vince a whole chunk of change and argualbly was the cause of a lot of Marty's issues with substances...
3rd, Jannetty was clearly the "captain" of the Rockers... he was a bit older, a bit more experienced and was generally the match winner for the team... the Jannetty hot tag/double elbow/Jannetty pin was a large part of what made the team work... Shawn learned a lot from working with Marty that made him what he later became... at first he was the ragdoll of the team...
4th: Jannetty still had a strong career by many of his peers standards... Marty was more successful after the split with an IC title reign and a World Tag reign, however brief... thats more than Neidhart, Martel, Santana, Demolition, Powers of Pain and many of the other tag wrestlers of the late 80's got...
So keeping with the thread, what if?
So Jannetty's shoulder doesn't go at the Rumble... they go with the IC switch that night... Sherri accidently nails Shawn... Jannetty and Shawn face off at Wrestlemania 9 with Shawn's new bodyguard Diesel coming in and helping Shawn win the belt...
Jannetty spends the rest of 93 feuding with Shawn and Diesel, teaming with Mr. Perfect at Summerslam against the 2... At Survivor Series we see Marty, Perfect, Razor and the 1-2-3 Kid v Shawn, Diesel and Money Inc... this begins a new angle for Marty, where he is distrustful of Perfect and Razor due to their chequred pasts and Shawn's turning on him... DiBiase plays it to his advantage and plants seeds that he has bought someone on the team... A miscommunication with Kid means Jannetty is last eliminated and snaps attacking The Kid causing the ire of the rest of the team who come down to rescue him... DiBiase and IRS get involved levelling things up - We soon see it is Marty who has infact taken the money from DiBiase and is now under his tutelage... He annouces he is going on vacation with his new found wealth and that if Razor and Perfect want a peice of him on his return... they can wait...
Cue Marty offscreen for several months...he returns at the Royal Rumble, during a Razor/Perfect v Money Inc tag title match... costing Razor and Perfect the belt...and at this point, nearly ending Perfect's career...He has changed his attire, now preferring suits, short hair and the Million Dollar title..
WM10 sees Perfect v Jannetty in a career match... Jannetty wins and feuds with Razor over the rest of the year for the IC title...
At WM11 - Diesel is now the World Champ and Marty AND Shawn are circling him as contenders... Diesel is credited with ending DiBiase's career and Jannetty is out for revenge... Marty v Shawn opens WM and goes for 30 minutes... with Marty pulling out a big win at the last moment... later in the show he faces Diesel but comes up short...
I'd predict that Marty would win his first World title somewhere around Summerslam 1995 or on one of the fledgling In Your House shows... feuding with The British Bulldog, Bret Hart and a newly turned Shawn Michaels before a career ending injury hits in 97...
2nd, Marty suffered due to the Charles Austin incident, where a prelim's neck was broken with the Rocker Dropper... that cost Vince a whole chunk of change and argualbly was the cause of a lot of Marty's issues with substances...
3rd, Jannetty was clearly the "captain" of the Rockers... he was a bit older, a bit more experienced and was generally the match winner for the team... the Jannetty hot tag/double elbow/Jannetty pin was a large part of what made the team work... Shawn learned a lot from working with Marty that made him what he later became... at first he was the ragdoll of the team...
4th: Jannetty still had a strong career by many of his peers standards... Marty was more successful after the split with an IC title reign and a World Tag reign, however brief... thats more than Neidhart, Martel, Santana, Demolition, Powers of Pain and many of the other tag wrestlers of the late 80's got...
So keeping with the thread, what if?
So Jannetty's shoulder doesn't go at the Rumble... they go with the IC switch that night... Sherri accidently nails Shawn... Jannetty and Shawn face off at Wrestlemania 9 with Shawn's new bodyguard Diesel coming in and helping Shawn win the belt...
Jannetty spends the rest of 93 feuding with Shawn and Diesel, teaming with Mr. Perfect at Summerslam against the 2... At Survivor Series we see Marty, Perfect, Razor and the 1-2-3 Kid v Shawn, Diesel and Money Inc... this begins a new angle for Marty, where he is distrustful of Perfect and Razor due to their chequred pasts and Shawn's turning on him... DiBiase plays it to his advantage and plants seeds that he has bought someone on the team... A miscommunication with Kid means Jannetty is last eliminated and snaps attacking The Kid causing the ire of the rest of the team who come down to rescue him... DiBiase and IRS get involved levelling things up - We soon see it is Marty who has infact taken the money from DiBiase and is now under his tutelage... He annouces he is going on vacation with his new found wealth and that if Razor and Perfect want a peice of him on his return... they can wait...
Cue Marty offscreen for several months...he returns at the Royal Rumble, during a Razor/Perfect v Money Inc tag title match... costing Razor and Perfect the belt...and at this point, nearly ending Perfect's career...He has changed his attire, now preferring suits, short hair and the Million Dollar title..
WM10 sees Perfect v Jannetty in a career match... Jannetty wins and feuds with Razor over the rest of the year for the IC title...
At WM11 - Diesel is now the World Champ and Marty AND Shawn are circling him as contenders... Diesel is credited with ending DiBiase's career and Jannetty is out for revenge... Marty v Shawn opens WM and goes for 30 minutes... with Marty pulling out a big win at the last moment... later in the show he faces Diesel but comes up short...
I'd predict that Marty would win his first World title somewhere around Summerslam 1995 or on one of the fledgling In Your House shows... feuding with The British Bulldog, Bret Hart and a newly turned Shawn Michaels before a career ending injury hits in 97...