Opening
When you’re sitting at home or in the arena watching Monday Night Raw and you hear that glass shatter, you know exactly what time it is. The building erupts as the fans watch Stone Cold Steve Austin strut down to the ring, cut a promo, and toss a couple of beers back. There’s many other examples of that first riff or sound of a wrestler’s theme song that get the crowd hype: Undertaker’s gong, The Rock’s “if you smell”, and even more recent examples like Okada’s coin flip. As someone who grew up watching WWE in the era of the great Jim Johnston’s music, it is a bit disappointing to see how sharply the music department has declined in recent years; however, there are still plenty of songs across various wrestling promotions that resonate with fans around the globe.
First Impression
Presentation is everything in professional wrestling, something I plan to cover a bit more in depth in part two of this series. However, such presentation starts with a wrestler’s music as it is something of a first impression for fans. The music, along with the overall entrance, gives the first insight into what the general vibe and character of a wrestler is. Batista’s music is pure, raw energy. Undertaker’s music feels like you are watching something undead, it feels foreboding and fear inducing. CM Punk’s music is the absolute embodiment of his character, “the cult of personality”.
The problem I think wrestling is facing right now is that there are not a lot of theme songs that fall into this category, though, this is more so a problem plaguing the WWE. WWE’s new theme songs seem to fall in one of a few categories: a bad remake of a wrestler's original theme, generic superstar 1 theme music, or an actually good theme song. Let’s start with the first one. Mia Yim, Johnny Gargano, Tomasso Ciampa, Sami Zayn, Shayna Baszler, there’s a handful of WWE superstars that had perfectly fine music that was altered into a much worse version than what they started as(granted, Zayn’s was somewhat warranted due to his character change but the song still isn’t that good…).
Then, there are those that are just outright not that good: Damage CTRL, Hit Row, Baron Corbin, and a slew more that I don’t feel like naming. Some of these songs don’t resonate for a few reasons: they’re too generic, the lyrics are hot garbage, or a combination of both. There’s too many times I hear a wrestler’s entrance music and either have no clue who it is, or just can’t get hype for them because the music doesn’t strike me.
The music feels almost disjointed from some of the wrestlers, which like I said before, when the wrestlers can feel that music and sync with it it adds a whole new layer to their presentation. Maybe I’m just a sucker for rock and metal music in wrestling, but I feel like WWE is attempting to streamline a lot of their music into pop and hip hop-esque versions of themselves(like Ricochet and Finn Balor). Now there’s nothing wrong with this if the song is legitimately good, and it fits the character. Think of AEW’s Swerve Strickland, he made his own entrance music so it’s an added bonus, but the vibe of the song encapsulates him perfectly. When he comes out he feels the music and is completely in sync with it, which in turn adds another level of swagger to his entrance.
This isn’t just a problem with WWE, though. As I said, it's a problem that affects them more often because I feel like a few top stars(and a lot of the mid and undercard) have very “meh” music. AEW has its fair share of “just ok” theme songs as well, but it’s more often the lower card talent like The Gunns and Red Velvet(first examples I could think of) that could do with better music which could happen in due time.
Pitch Perfect
Now that I’ve kicked dirt on a bunch of WWE superstars' theme songs, I’d like to reiterate that there are probably just as many good theme songs within the company as there are bad ones. The OC have arguably one of my favorites currently, as the energy that rips through the song is hardly matched within the company. Others like Bobby Lashley and Bianca Belair are just really solid, hard hitting theme songs that perfectly match the characters of each. Lashley’s music just feels like this grand boss music as the horns blare through the speakers and the gold lights shine down on his frame.
Belair’s feels more akin to CM Punk and Big E’s songs in which the lyrics that the song is composed of, along with the vibe of the melody, just perfectly fit her, and I would be very sad should she ever have to change her music. Speaking of Big E, there’s not much more to say in that you can never go wrong with Wale on a track and the choir floating in the background give his entrance this almost holy feeling(maybe an unintentional throwback to the origins of the New Day).
There are also times where I feel like WWE(and whomever they are employing to do their music at the time) strike gold with their theme songs. If Bobby Lashley’s theme song sounds like the final boss that is coming to kick your ass back and forth across the ring, Roman Reigns’ entrance music sounds like a god descending from the heavens to judge your fate. It’s a track fitting for the Head of the Table and one of the longest reigning champions in WWE history.
There are also others like Seth Rollins’ that took a little time to grow on fans, but in that time has become a fan favorite to sing along to. Along those same lines, I believe that, on top of his overall presentation(this one will especially be covered in part two), Shinsuke Nakamura has one of the best theme songs that WWE has produced and even his music when he turned heel was also very good(maybe I’m just a bit biased).
I don’t just want to harp on WWE, though, as there are many great theme songs across the globe in wrestling. I already mentioned Okada’s legendary coin flip, but the song itself is also great as it’s very high energy to pump up the crowd while also maintaining a vibe befitting of the rainmaker. One of his great rivals, Kenny Omega, also holds maybe my favorite theme song in wrestling with “Battle Cry”. A song that alludes to his history, proclaiming: “I hear the battle cry, under the devil’s sky”; it’s a well crafted song filled with great high energy parts as well as the drop around the 2 minute mark that feels almost reminiscent to Vegeta looking at the sky as it’s raining, as if the “god of pro wrestling” is getting pulled back to Earth in a moment of fear and uncertainty.
Current AEW Women’s Champion, Jamie Hayter, also has a fantastic theme song that’s simplistic, yet effective. This is an instance where I feel like the wrestler makes the music mold to her and not the other way around. Hayter is absolutely feeling it every time she steps out onto the ramp, and her energy when she throws her jacket back as she poses and struts her way down to the ring screams “superstar”. FTR is another good example of a well crafted theme song to fit the wrestler(s). The layers of old school synths flowing through the arena as the Top Guys make their way to the ring is reminiscent of an 80s ballad, perfectly fitting for a team known for their classic “wrasslin” style.
There are many other great examples of entrance music befitting of a certain wrestler, but this article would probably end up about 10 pages long so I’ll just list some off: Kaze ni Nare(Minoru Suzuki), Chairmen’s Intent(HOOK), Crusade(Utami Hayashishita), Miu Watanabe’s theme(couldn’t find the name and didn’t want to mistranslate it), Wild Thing(Jon Moxley), and Fight(Kevin Owens).
Closing Remarks
While there are obviously many wrestlers that do have great entrance music, there are a few who I believe are almost suffering as a result of having a lackluster song. Again, I think it is vital to a wrestler’s overall presentation if they have great music as it’s a great way to hype up fans and get them invested into what they are about to see. It’s even better if you can get the crowd involved with your music which the likes of Seth Rollins, Chris Jericho, Shinsuke Nakamura, and few others have been able to do. If Nakamura or Rollins came out to some sort of generic rock or pop music, then their entrance would fall flat and they would lose that first bit of connection with the fans. This isn’t to say one cannot still be great and get over even with half decent entrance music, but I firmly believe first impressions are very important and a wrestler’s entrance music is greatly tied to that.
In the next part I plan to discuss wrestlers’ presentations and how they are vital to their success, including: entrances as a whole(music, lighting, etc.), their gear, backstage segments, and more.