There is a long history of music being used in professional wrestling. Gorgeous George is generally credited as the first wrestler to use entrance music as early as the 1950s. Sgt. Slaughter has, in different shoot interviews, taken credit for the concept in WWE for when he suggested to Vincent J. McMahon that they play “The Marines’ Hymn” when he entered Madison Square Garden. Regardless, the 1980s saw a proliferation of ring music, with WWE in particular applying a song to almost every major act. Indeed, over time, entrances have become a huge part of the presentation of a wrestler, creating a spectacle that matches WWE’s concept of “sports entertainment.” However, there is an uncomfortable reality that present-day WWE theme music simply isn’t up to snuff.
It’s Difficult To Distinguish Wrestlers’ Theme Music
A part of what makes a WWE theme song great is that fans can immediately associate it with a particular act. The sound of glass shattering was synonymous with Stone Cold Steve Austin and hearing the guitar en route to a proclamation of “Oh you didn’t know!” popped a crowd for the entrance of The Road Dogg or the New Age Outlaws. It’s hard to reflect on Hulk Hogan in the 1980s without hearing “Real American,” or to imagine Mr. McMahon’s power walk without “No Chance In Hell Playing in the Background.” Ask any PG Era fan to sing John Cena’s theme music, and they can surely riff off the brassy instrumental that precedes the lyrics.
Nowadays, even the music of some of WWE’s top stars like Roman Reigns can be difficult to immediately place, whereas quite a few newer stars seem to have wholly generic music defined by heavy rock guitar chords or the occasional hip-hop informed beat. While the music of the Attitude Era may not have represented a lot of melodic masterpieces, it’s nonetheless telling that fans were all too eager to buy albums of those songs in a way that only the most hardcore fans or completists are interested nowadays.
The Most Identifiable WWE Theme Music Is From Outside Artists Or Veteran Stars
There are those current WWE theme songs that do stand out, but they tend to fall into one of a handful of buckets. There’s Ronda Rousey, who uses an iconic Joan Jett song she carried over from her MMA career—licensed, professional music from outside the WWE sphere. There are acts like The Miz and Dolph Ziggler who may not have great songs attached to them, but they are nonetheless distinctive tunes with lyrics to match the performer and, perhaps most importantly, have been in use for over a decade such that fans readily recognize them. Finally, there are talents like Charlotte Flair with theme songs that directly play off of traditional songs, in her particular case using a variation on “Also Sprach Zarathustra” that hearkens back to her father.
So it is that the best and most recognizable of WWE’s current theme music tends to connect back to past eras or outside artists and don’t really represent the company’s current creative output. While it has always been true that the Superstar makes the song to an extent (The Rock’s music, for example, may have been forgettable if attached to a lesser star), it’s also the case that today’s newer entrance themes aren’t doing the talents any favors.
Jim Johnston Is Sorely Missed
A part of why WWE’s theme music hasn’t been measured up relates to the company parting ways with Jim Johnson in 2017. Johnston isn’t exactly a household name, but the man is an unsung hero of WWE, credited as the mastermind of WWE’s music for three-decade span. Whereas instrumental music without lyrics can quickly fall into the trap of being hard for fans to distinguish it, Johnston had an unmistakable knack for crafting sounds to match unique identities. He composed The Hart Foundation music and updated it for different stages of Bret Hart’s singles career; he wrote both the original Jake Roberts WWE theme music and the more ominous version of it for his heel character.
CFO$ Were Also Solid Theme Producers For WWE
CFO$ were responsible for much of the more recent music in WWE. While they do have talent for fans of their musical style, they have yet to show significant range in what they can do to generate a truly unique, identifiable sound to match different performers. One might argue that WWE is consciously aiming to present a more unified brand via Superstars whose music represents a more singular aesthetic. Nonetheless, part of the effect has been to strip away a part of what made individual wrestlers feel like stars, and quite arguably part of the fun for wrestling fans to engage with. The effect has arguably only intensified since WWE stopped working with CFO$ in 2019, with Douglas J. David and Ali Dee Theodore most recently publicly credited with composing multiple WWE themes.
Time will tell if WWE will make significant changes to its musical direction. Nonetheless, particularly for long-time fans, the current crop of songs on the whole hasn’t engaged fans the way music from yesteryear did. A tendency to license music and rely on past stars may go hand in hand with larger issues of relying on part-time, established stars rather than investing in the future, and it will be interesting to see how the company addresses each of these issues in the years ahead.