The Real Life Connection Between The Rockers’ Marty Jannetty And AEW’s Young Bucks, Explained
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The Young Bucks have had a career like few others in professional wrestling. Today, they’re top stars in addition to filling an executive role for AEW. However, there was a time when they were legitimately youngsters, out in the wild of the independent wrestling scene, trying to make a name for themselves. The nature of the indies is that they tend to be populated by not only smaller name talents, but an intriguing mix of young stars on the rise and older stars on the downward slide.
Related: 10 Matches On The Indies That Sound Fake (But Actually Happened)It’s in that space where a young Matt and Nick Jackson wound up crossing paths with Marty Jannetty, who had previously built his name on The Rockers tag team with Shawn Michaels.
The Young Bucks Drew Inspiration From The Rockers
It should come as little surprise that The Young Bucks drew inspiration from The Rockers. Much like a young Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannetty, Matt and Nick Jackson were smaller, fast-paced, athletic kids. The trail that The Rockers blazed in the AWA and all the more so in WWE established a path for a team like The Bucks to eventually make it in mainstream wrestling.
There’s also the matter of superkicks. While Gentleman Chris Adams generally gets credit for innovating the now overused move, The Rockers regularly incorporated it, often in stereo, to great effect during their tag team run. That’s before Shawn Michaels took the superkick to the next level with Sweet Chin Music, using it to win world titles out on his own. The Young Bucks would further the move’s evolution, throwing Superkick Parties for their aggressive, pervasive use of the strike throughout their action-packed matches.
The Young Bucks Impressed Marty Jannetty
In their book, Killing the Business, The Young Bucks discussed how in 2007 they were booking the High Risk Wrestling indie, and managed to secure Marty Jannetty for a show, who joined them in a six-man tag team match main event. The duo impressed Jannetty in the bout, not only with their budding in ring talent in general, but by successfully executing some signature Rockers spots like a double elbow into a double fist drop into a double kip up while he applauded from the corner.
After their match, The Bucks reported that Jannetty gave them the highest praise, calling them “The new-generation Rockers.” While recreating old tag teams tends to flop, it was clear the Jackson brothers had enough of their own style to do more than come across as a pale imitation. They claimed in the book that, after that point, they had regular phone calls with Jannetty for the years to follow in which “he’d teach us where to place moves in the match, how to build to a strong hot tag, and how to string together a proper comeback.” These lessons helped take the athletically gifted tag team to the next level.
Marty Jannetty Connected The Young Bucks To Shawn Michaels And WWE
In addition to Marty Jannetty becoming a mentor figure to Matt and Nick Jackson, he opened a door for them to the mainstream wrestling world. The Young Bucks found out about WWE looking for extras for a show in their area and Jannetty not only encouraged them to go for it, but according to The Bucks’ book, “said he would call his old tag team partner, Shawn Michaels, to see if he could take care of [them].”
Related: 7 Wrestlers Who Were Inspired By WWE Legend Shawn MichaelsAccordingly, when The Bucks worked their first WWE event, HBK asked to speak to them personally and referenced that “Marty has nothing bout good things to say about a young tag team called the Young Bucks,” and later said, “Any friend of Marty’s is a friend of mine.” Michaels went on to give them advice too, guiding them on how they could appeal to WWE management in their dark match, not to mention personally introducing them to John Laurinaitis, who had an important role as Executive Vice President of Talent Relations at the time.
It only makes sense that Marty Jannetty, and even Shawn Michaels, would take a shine to The Young Bucks for the way they emulated the old school Rockers style in the ring. Things never worked out for Matt or Nick Jackson in WWE, but it’s fair to say they did just fine on their own terms in Ring of Honor and New Japan Wrestling in the years to follow. As they discussed in their book, WWE did at last make overtures to them in 2018, with Triple H offering them not only big deals, but special considerations like an opt-out clause if they weren’t happy with how WWE used them. By that point, the no-longer-that-Young Bucks had grown confident betting on themselves, and opted to instead embrace their key role in launching AEW.
