SPOTLIGHT: THE MUSIC OF WRESTLING

This column is all about looking at how one certain person, team, or event has affected wrestling and how we see it and hear it today.  One of the items that I have wanted to do for a long time was the music of wrestling and how that shaped wrestling.  With the 15^th anniversary of RAW album coming out I thought it would be good to open up this discussion. Mainly we are going to be looking over individual songs but before we get to that I wanted to speak on the music of sports entertainment in a general fashion. 

The music, especially the ring entrance music of WWE/TNA/WCW/ECW had an interesting start in that it wasn’t really till the late 70’s/early 80’s that the idea took form and shot off like a cannon.  Prior to that time we as fans never heard entrance music, let alone every single wrestler coming out to it on any given production.  I personally think it was like the big bang theory where some little particle showed up and then all of a sudden there was an explosion in space and time.  To me, the little particle was the Fabulous Freebirds tag team. There were other musical entrances but it seemed that they really started the “Rock N’ Wrestling” phenomenon, whether Vince McMahon wants to agree with that statement is another story. 

In recent years a lot of the entrance music has been being performed by big name acts such as Rage Against the Machine, Limp Biscuit, Our Lady Peace, Motorhead and Lil’ Kim. But the real man behind WWE’s music scene is Jim Johnston.  He has composed several pieces such as Kane’s theme and excelled at making just the right sound for any particular character. My understanding is that he also heads up the department that decides what performer/artists who aren’t of WWE fame will do music for certain wrestlers. That is a huge job when you really thinking about it, he has to have meetings all week I am sure and listen to various artists to decide who will perform for specific wrestlers, specific pay per views, WWE montage selections and other various events. Johnston deserves a lot of the credit for all of the music we hear in wrestling today, even if it isn’t composed by him.

With that said let’s look at a multitude of songs that wrestlers and wrestling companies used or are using today and see what they mean to the business…Unless otherwise notated the songs were composed by Jim Johnston or the TNA,WCW and ECW composers.

Real American (Rick Derringer) – This piece of 80’s bliss, for over 30 years, has signified so many different things. When it came on it could tell you that Hulk Hogan was coming down to the ring.  It signified and amplified Hulkamania.  At times it even was used as an American, good old red, white, and blue, anthem.  As far as how it affected wrestling, it was the single song that changed the music entrance world completely.  It wasn’t the first but it was the one that blew the doors open completely. It also has had the most staying power with the fans with maybe the only exception being Ric Flair’s theme music.  

Also Sprach Zarathustra (Richard Strauss) – The music for the infamous Ric Flair.  When I first heard this the only thing I could think of was “2001: A space Odyssey” because Flair’s music was also the theme to that film. It was originally written in 1896 by Strauss as an inspiration from Nietzsche’s tone poem of the same name.  I had the chance to look up the instrumentation from it and it interested me to find that it uses Piccolos’, flutes, trombones, Strings, Tympani and various amounts of other instruments.  Most of the theme songs we hear today have 4 instruments: Drums, Bass, Guitar and voice.  It is funny to me that the music Flair comes down to has so much involved in it because it’s just like Flair himself.  Most importantly Flair’s character has always been and forever will be over the top, and this piece of music creates just that feeling.

Down in the Catacombs – This is the theme song to Abyss from TNA.  I’ve always thought it was really well done.  It is menacing and somehow glorifies and ignites violence and blood just from its chords.  For the character of Abyss it is fantastic. Mankind had a similar theme song and I’m sure many would argue that his was better, I wouldn’t.

Pomp and Circumstance (Edward Elgar) – This is another of the most instantly recognized theme music of any wrestler and for that matter any graduation.  It happens to be Randy Savage’s theme that has gone through many instrumentation and style changes over the years.  In the early days it was orchestral and later when Savage was with TNA it had blazing electric guitars.  I remember sitting at my graduation in 1995 and hearing the music play and all I could think about was Savage, Elisabeth and WWE. 

Cool Cocky Bad – This was one of my all time favorites and it did something unique to wrestling in my opinion.  This song and Honky Tonk Man’s voice made it so heels forever more could use a horrible singing voice to get heel heat with the crowd.  It had been done in various ways before, even Roddy Piper used his bagpipes on occasion to kill the crowd but never like Honky.  Think of how many people have done this gimmick, Jeff Jarrett, Road Dogg (although his voice wasn’t too bad) and most recently Jillian Hall.  Yep, it was a doosey, but one that changed the heel side of wrestling forever.

Sexy Boy – It doesn’t take a genius to immediately recognize this theme song.  What I find most interesting about Shawn Michaels’ music is in how it was and is used.  Michaels didn’t really use this music till he got with Sheri Martel and turned heel. For all intents and purposes, Shawn could have used the old Rockers theme for the rest of his life if he wanted to.  But this music helped to turn him heel because it signified arrogance, just like his character at the time.  Another really interesting part to this tune is that he still uses it today.  This song is so identifiable with the Shawn Michaels character that even though it really is built for him being a heel, he uses it as a face, not only that but a face who has had a positive religious change…that is wild!

Sumo – This was the theme to Yokozuna.  What is important to recognize here isn’t how great the piece of music is (but recognize it is a great piece of musical art) but how this piece of music puts you into a time and place.  Yokozuna’s character was supposed to be from Japan , as was his manager, Mr. Fuji.  This style of music, the note choices and especially the instrumentation puts fans directly into a frame of mind, something many other entrance themes can’t do.

The Opening titles – I am sure there are names to all of the ECW, WCW, TNA, and WWE opening montage theme music for their television shows but I didn’t want to do five or six separate paragraphs about the same thing.  Even the “Friends” opening sequence had a title, “I’ll be there for you”.  To me, the friends theme is the most easily recognized theme song of any television show, but the wrestling openers weren’t far behind.  You knew when Nitro began because you could instantly recognize it even if you were in another room.  Though I understand why ECW had to change its theme song “Let the bodies hit the floor”, I thought it was fantastic and it had that same quality that WCW had. 

Time to Rock and Roll (Lil’ Kim) – I include this on the list because there aren’t a lot of female wrestlers who have amazing theme songs and more importantly recognizable one’s.  This one stands out as I think it is a fantastic use of sensuality and concept.  Other songs that stand out in the women’s division are Lita’s theme music and Stacey Keibler’s old music.  I must say Candice Michelle’s song is starting to catch on too.

The Game (Motorhead) – Though this one is the one that always stands out to me it is the entire Triple H discography that interests me.  Triple H has had music done by Drowning Pool, Chris Warren, Run-D-M-C and Motorhead.  In the last several years the game has only used Motorhead as his musicians for entrance themes and it has worked well.  They have written “The game”, “Line in the Sand (Theme to Evolution)”, and “King of Kings”.  What is interesting here is that sometimes it isn’t necessarily an artist or certain song that works for a character but a style.  HHH tapped into a niche by using these types of bands and so he has the freedom to come up with a new theme song every few years.

Whatever (Our Lady Peace) – This was my absolute favorite theme song because it was by one of my favorite bands of all time.  In case you don’t remember it, it was Chris Benoit’s theme music.  It is a travesty that we won’t ever hear it again in WWE, but I felt it important to mention.  I have this on both a WWE album and an OLP live album.  I listen to the latter a lot and whenever it comes on I get sad for all that happened.  The point of this is to say a song can have a lasting effect, a memory of triumph or sadness or any other emotion for that matter.  When I heard Mae Young come out at the 15^th anniversary of RAW her old time tune had the same effect because Moolah had recently passed away. 

Breed (Nirvana) -This was Tazz’s old theme music when he was in ECW.  It was a great tune.  Tazz has always had great songs and this was just one of them.  If you ever get the chance, go find it.

In Closing:

There are a ton of other songs that I could mention on here, this is just a sample.  Jeff Jarrett, Raven, Kurt Angle, WGTT, Cade and Murdoch, Deuce and Domino, Jake Roberts, Demolition (which is my second favorite entrance theme music) and Ted Dibiase are just a few wrestlers or tag teams that have had tremendous success with the use of a good theme song.  Songs for pay per view events have been important as well.  Bands like Rush, Saliva and Alterbridge have all seen strong sales directly after the WWE using their tune as an events theme music. My favorite band of al time is the Canadian trio Rush and was amazed and enthralled when a SummerSlam used their music from “Roll the Bones” a few years back.

Music excites, ignites, and gives recognition to sports entertainment.  It should never be taken for granted.

And with that, I bid you farewell until next time Spotlighters!  If you are interested please check out my new columns on www.pwinsiderxtra.com, “Armageddon by the numbers”, a preview of today’s events and “Weekly Thumbs”, my new weekly article that disscusses the best and worst matches of the week along with an ever changing list of who is doing well and who is doing better! 

To e-mail Joel go to www.myspace.com/joelcroyle where you will also find new music Joel performs in his acoustic guitar show!