Although it was used sporadically by performers before, entrance
theme music become common place in the 1980s. Promoters started using ‘Rock and Roll’ songs to accompany wrestlers to and from the ring.
It soon evolved to where music was used to help promote the gimmick of a wrestler. ‘A Real American’ ‘Sexy Boy’ and the eerie ‘Gong’ helped the fans connect and become instantly aware of a performers arrival. It is also used to signify the end of a match or segment, but the basis of its original functionality is still very much the same today.
Back when WWE was changing to a more adult orientated product and to ‘PG14’ programming they also decided that entrance music needed to be updated from the soft ‘gimmicky’ tunes to more main stream and edgy.
Rock and Roll was thriving in the music industry and WWE started using songs from artists such as Motorhead, Limp Bizkit, Rob Zombie and Kid Rock amongst many others. Such was the popularity of the product some groups wrote and performed songs specifically for WWE.
Up until recently Jim Johnson was in charge of music production for the company. He wrote and composed original music for most of the performers and is credited with the creation of entrance music for stars such as The Undertaker, The Rock and Stone Cold. He also led in the creation of the soundtracks for WWE programming, video games and is now concentrating on work with WWE Studios.
‘CFO$’ is now primarily in charge of entrance music for WWE superstars. CFO$ is a music production company run by John Alicastro and Mike Lauri. They produce and write songs for the WWE Superstars entrance and also for shows like NXT and Total Divas.
Since taking over from Johnson the quality of the production of theme music has diminished considerably! ‘CFO$’ is struggling to grasp the characters and provide them with entrance music that can help them flourish or appeal to fans in the same way Johnson did.
Cesaro’s theme music is a perfect example….it’s horrific! and could certainly have gone some way to stifling his progress. When his music hits you just want it to be over as quickly as possible. It is just a horrible noise and seems lazily produced as it repeats itself every 15 seconds or so. What relevance it has to Cesaro’s persona or what it is trying to achieve is beyond me.
Adam Rose was given a theme song that although catchy at first was obviously going to become very annoying very soon. Although there may have been no hope for his gimmick from minute one, it certainly doesn’t help him now the audience is more familiar. Another one that you can’t wait until it has finished.
Seth Rollins music isn’t great, Dean Ambrose, although fitting with his character, doesn’t make me move to the edge of my sofa like the glass smashing for Austin or guitar riff for ‘The Game’. Not one entrance theme song from NXT is memorable or catchy. The one that the crowd where into in the ‘Vaudevillians’ they changed when the team become ‘heel’ and all of the above have been produced by ‘CFO$’.
Recent successes have been the Wyatt Family entrance and less so Bo Dallas’ entrance music, which fits his character perfectly. Neither have been produced by ‘CFO$’.
In the height of the ‘attitude era’ WWE was making huge amounts of money and spending it also. Using actual songs from popular recording artists is hugely expensive when it comes to royalties and licensing costs. CM Punk use of Living Colour’s ‘Cult of Personality’ is the last real throwback to the use of a popular rock song as entrance music.
Hiring a company to produce original theme music for WWE, who requires a huge amount of it and is an integral part of their show is savvy and cost effective. What is not ‘best for business’ or best for your talent is a company who doesn’t understand the business, doesn’t understand the fans and doesn’t understand the character’s they are charged with helping progress. Anybody with a high powered music program on their computer could replicate what ‘CFO$’ is producing. ‘This guy is scary, lets make scary music’ or ‘He is unstable so lets make a crazy tune’ works to an extent. Connecting with the performer, longevity and becoming an extension of the wrestlers character is something much much harder to create.
For 25 years, Jim Johnson was hugely successful at this. He didn’t knock it out of the park every time, but he understood the concept and what was required to make an entrance theme that would benefit the performer. He also understands the business and has huge experience of it.
Sometimes bigger and newer and more technologically advanced isn’t better. Sometimes you don’t know what you have until you no longer have it!
It would be great to hear you all time favorite entrance theme song also. Please feel free to comment below.
