Match of the Debut - Montel Vontavious Porter

MVP vs. Marty Garner - No Mercy (2006)

In honor of MVP's new roll in TNA.

For weeks a guy named Montel Vontavious Porter appeared on Smackdown to boast that he was the greatest free agent on the planet. When he finally stepped into the squared circle at No Mercy, it was obvious this guy was just heeling it up. So, JBL on commentary did his best at giving the Most Valuable Troller as much criticism as humanly possibly. Granted MVP did come out through a blowup tunnel, had a blue bodysuit on and was cocky as all get out, I think the multiple comparisons to Power Rangers, Battlestar Galatica, and William Shatner (I honestly don't see that one) were a bit over the top. Still, it got MVP over as a guy fans could easily rip on for the rest of his tenure in WWE.

So, who was MVP's first (televised) opponent  in WWE? Why it was Marty Garner, of course. Commentary might have forgotten who he was, but the internet has not. Marty Garner is that guy who took the craziest looking pedigree from Hunter Hearst Helmsley back in '96. Garner was also trained by The Hardy Boyz and one of the other guys from OMEGA, a promotion started by The Hardy's and their friends around North Carolina. Coincidentally, MVP would go on to have a rather amusing feud with Matt Hardy some time after this match which saw Hardy and Porter perform all sorts of challenges to see who was the better man. These challenges included a football throwing contest, an arm wrestling match, a pizza eating contest, and a beer drinking contest.

Match of the Day - The Marty Garner Pedigree incident

Hunter Hearst Helmsley vs. Marty Garner - WWF Superstars (1996)

Everything was going well and dandy in this 1996 Hunter Hearst Helmsley match against a ham & egger named Marty Garner to promote Helmsley's match against Jake Roberts in the opening round for the King of the Ring tournament. That was until the "Conneticut Blueblood" delivered his trademark finisher still used on a part-time wrestling basis, the pedigree to put away poor Marty Garner. Garner being the inexperienced  rookie that he was mistook the pedigree as something else (like a double underhook suplex or powerbomb) and therefore jumped as if he was going to be lifted up and flipped over. The result: the deadliest looking pedigree of all time!

Marty Garner "fun" facts: He is good friends with Matt and Jeff Hardy as he got his start with them in their North Carolina wrestling promotion, OMEGA as "Cham Pain". He also wrestled as one of the Dupp Brothers in ECW as Puck Dupp and was The Rock's assistant in Walking Tall according to IMDB.