With a vault full of songs and hundreds of wrestlers of the years, wrestling companies sometimes think it might be easier to get away with reusing the same track for different wrestlers. Sneaking in less memorable themes, it always serve as a surprise to see wrestlers using a theme more associated with another performer. Time to name that tune in one as we document 10 reused and recycled theme songs in pro wrestling.
“Medal” (Kurt Angle, The Patriot, etc.)
This one is quite well-known but is nonetheless worthy of mention considering how many people have used the theme.
Kurt Angle’s 1999 debut was quite the event for the WWF, who had been willing to sign the Olympian for years. When finally agreeing on terms, Angle would debut for the WWF and showed that the same effort put into his whole package was not the same for his theme.
Kurt’s theme, “Medal”, was the theme of former WWF championship contender The Patriot – both using the jovial, patriotic piece. The theme was also used at Survivor Series 1997 for Team USA (Steve Blackman, Vader, Goldust, & Marc Mero), a team without The Patriot although he was originally scheduled for the line-up.
On the topic of the track, although Angle thought it brilliantly fit him, The Patriot (played by Del Wilkes) was slightly less impressed and told Fightful that “[Kurt] ended up using it as well. More power to him.”
On one occasion, Sgt Slaughter even used the theme. The occasion was his infamously terrible Boot Camp match against Triple H at D-Generation-X: In Your House.
Considering how Angle has made his theme his own, especially with the “You suck!” chants, WWE will not be able to recycle this theme anymore.
“March Of Death” (Loch Ness, Rey Mysterio, The Zodiac)
To quote OSW Review, “Only WCW could use the same song for 750-pound Englishman and a 170-pound Mexican.”
The rather operatic theme was initially suitably made for The Dungeon Of Doom’s The Zodiac, another gimmick on the résumé of Ed Leslie. Yet considering how Leslie changes gimmicks more frequently than an indecisive chameleon, it soon fell into non-use.
Made by Andrew Grossart and Paul Williams under the Chappell Recorded Music Library, the theme was rehashed for Loch Ness. Only wrestling a handful of WCW matches, Loch Ness was portrayed by British wrestling legend Giant Haystacks, who counted Paul McCartney and Frank Sinatra as fans – even an issue of The Scotland Herald in 1988 wrote that: “The Queen Mother would never miss one of his epic fights.” Aside from his fame, Haystacks only wrestled at one WCW PPV: Uncensored 1996, with the Lancashire local’s health waning, being diagnosed with lymphoma.
Watch The Zodiac using the theme at Halloween Havoc 1995.
It was shortly after used for ECW defectee Rey Mysterio. The theme really did not fit The Ultimate Underdog very well, with the masked man walking to the ring not to his usual upbeat themes but an ominous, almost solemn, theme.
“Bring The Swag” (Team B.A.D., The Street Profits)
2015 was the year of the ‘women’s revolution’ in WWE, with perhaps the least memorable team being Team B.A.D., featuring Naomi, Tamina, and ex-NXT Women’s champion Sasha Banks. The team was arguably the third wheel of the feuding female factions but they would have a theme song later used elsewhere.
The team’s theme was titled “Unity”, later renamed “Bring The Swag” under The Street Profits.
The verses in both versions are actually identical, with the exception of the chorus. Both choruses have the difference of the song’s title featured in the lyrics.
Due to the hip-hop/rap style of the theme and characters of both teams, the theme does work for both. Perhaps it works better for Montez Ford and Angelo Dawkins although this may be due to our familiarity to their usage of the track.
“Real American” (The US Express, Hulk Hogan)
I feel it is every wrestling fan’s duty to watch the first WrestleMania. Sure, the show is not very good, with some decent to good matches, but should be viewed more for the spectacle of the show.
Upon viewing the event, fans may be shocked to hear Hulk Hogan stroll out to Survivor’s “Eye Of The Tiger”. Hogan normally had an instrumental synth track, as is on The Wrestling Album.
Described by songwriter Rick Derringer as “destined to be a hit,” “Real American” was first used in October 1985 for another team on the card of the inaugural WrestleMania: The US Express (Barry Windham and Mike Rotunda).
The WWF’s reliance on commercial theme songs was not restricted to the back catalogue of Survivor, with The US Express also initially using Bruce Springsteen’s “Born In The USA”.
When Barry Windham left the WWF, thus breaking up the team, the patriotic theme was thus passed onto fellow pro-American Hulk Hogan by December 1985, only a few weeks after being gifted to the brothers-in-law tag team.
The theme has now gone on to become one of the most iconic themes in wrestling. Pro wrestling reporter for various websites described the song as such: “Critically…a lot is wrong with the song. It’s goofy as hell; it’s one of the cheesiest songs you’ll ever hear. Song-wise it’s just outright propaganda, but in the context it was used and released — in the professional wrestling world — it’s perfect.”
“Insatiable” (Layla/Tiffany)
It might be an unpopular opinion but I thought Tiffany (the future Taryn Terell in TNA) was pretty great as the general manager of ECW. It was a shame it was ECW, breaking with the traditional ethos of the promotion, but she did the best she could for a fairly untrained performer in her position and was quite the joy to watch with a lovable character.
The last general manager of ECW thus had a theme suitable with her Reese Witherspoon-esque image and persona. The chosen theme was “Insatiable”, a traditional, girly theme about trying to find a boy, almost middle school-esque in nature.
The theme would not leave a lasting impression as ECW often saw miserable ratings, including often below 1.00 during its final days. When Tiffany was released in 2010 after a domestic altercation with husband Drew McIntyre, her theme fell back into disuse.
In 2012, former diva Layla El, now just Layla, made her return to the division, scooping up the women’s title. The former Extreme Expose member’s theme was “Insatiable” too, a weird choice considering her age. Now, it would be wrong to call Layla old because she is not but she was comparative to her co-stars, including being nearly a decade older than on-screen cohort Kaitlyn. Her theme was therefore not quite as suited to Layla as Tiffany.
On the topic of recycled women’s themes, Layla formerly used “Not Enough For Me” when a member of Lay-Cool. That same song used to be used by Torrie Wilson.
“Orient Express” (Orient Express/Bull Nakano)
The WWE has a chequered history with foreign face wrestlers. Perhaps one of the most illustrative examples of the WWE’s racially insensitive attitude to foreigners is towards the Japanese. Since inception, nearly all Japanese citizens have been treated the same: stereotypically, and with the same theme song.
The Orient Express, a rather great lower-mid-card tag team, debuted with a stereotypical Japanese theme, combined with traditional sneaky Japanese manager Mr. Fuji. The version was used by both the original and second (Badd Company) line-ups, fitting with the light-hearted and fairly comical nature of the tag team. The team only wrestled on two WWE PPVs, allowing the theme to later be used for following far east talents.
The theme afterwards was thrown around for one-off or short-term use by Japansese nations such as Aja Kong, Tomoko Watanabe, Takao Omori, and Shinobi. Perhaps the most notable was Bull Nakano.
The top heel of the women’s division during the razor-thin roster of the early 1990s, Nakano came into the WWF for a series of great matches with Alundra Blayze. An all-round awesome performer, the one-time Women’s champion’s theme may have represented her homeland but was perhaps not as daunting or threatening as her character implied. Luckily, the WWE later realised this for Shinsuke Nakamura and Asuka, both of whom have tremendous themes that expand beyond the norms of the WWE style they had set a precedent for.
Yet Pat Tanaka of The Orient Express was not just the first user of just one later popularised theme…
“Invasion” (Pat Tanaka/Goldberg)
Of all the themes in wrestling history, one of the best has to be Goldberg’s.
Classical music in wrestling just works, especially in this case. A bombastic foreboding, a marching band as if walking into truly titanic warfare, the song seems suited for Goldberg. That is not to mention how it suits with Goldberg’s mannerisms and entrance. The sparklers, the strikes, the pyro – all combine to create the perfect look, sound, and experience of an iconic wrestler.
It might then be jarring to hear Goldberg’s future theme used by Pat Tanaka.
Okay, so let us backtrack a bit. Firstly I presume your response to the previous statement was: “Pat Tanaka was in WCW?” to which the answer is yes, he wrestled a total of 41 matches across two runs between his run in the USWA.
Tanaka used the theme during his second WCW run, a long-forgotten stint, likely due to his status as glorified enhancement talent whilst dressing in rather unnoteworthy all-black clothing. Although competing on some PPVs, these were only dark match losses. He spent the majority of his time on B- and C-shows such as Saturday Night. It is just odd to see the unremarkable jobber enter for a brief loss against Glacier or Prince Iaukea on Nitro to the tune of Goldberg’s theme.
With Tanaka’s minimal role in the promotion, it makes sense then that it was thought no one would recognise the theme.
“Dragon” (Ultimo Dragon/Ricky Steamboat)
In the 1980s, Ricky Steamboat’s theme was “Sirius” by The Alan Parsons Project, the band perhaps best known for a Billboard top 3 hit in 1982 with the single “Eye In The Sky”.
Following this, one of his WCW themes was “Opening Ceremony”, a grandiose anthem for the megastar that was The Dragon.
In 2003, the theme “Dragon” was first used. It was given to Ultimo Dragon during his largely uneventful run in the promotion, memorable only for the Japanese masked man infamously slipping and nearly falling arse-over-teakettle when making his WrestleMania XX entrance.
By the time Ricky Steamboat returned for a short run with the company, the “Sirius” theme was seemingly above the WWE’s budget. Considering his nickname was The Dragon and Steamboat was Japanese-American, he was gifted the old theme of Dragon and rightfully so as it has to be one of the greatest themes in WWE history. It does too suit Steamboat more: intense, forceful, and empowering, just like the man using it this time around.
After turning back the clock during his performance at WrestleMania XXV, The Dragon prolonged his return including an additional PPV appearance at Backlash 2009. The Hawaiian has made numerous recurrences over the years, still using the theme originally suited for the ultimate title collector.
“Studd Theme” (Big John Studd/Jim Duggan)
The creatively named “Studd Theme” was used as the WWF theme for the returning Big John Studd who made an odd return to the company in 1988.
Studd’s sudden return is shown by the WWF’s theme gifted to him. The song was already in use at that time and by another popular babyface attraction: Hacksaw Jim Duggan. The only difference was that Duggan’s had an opening cry of “Ho!” and a faster pace compared to Studd’s andante pace.
Jim Duggan debuted in 1987, a time when a BJS return seemed fairly unlikely due to a multitude of reasons. The business had moved on since Studd’s day, the WWF was already filled with newer and younger monsters (King Kong Bundy, One Man Gang, etc.), legitimate hatred between Studd and proven WWF draw André The Giant, and – prior to the 1989 Royal Rumble – he had not wrestled for years.
Studd would not be too long for the company after his 1988 return, whilst Duggan would later go on to have other theme songs including more stereotypically American themes to fit with his patriotic character.
It is ironic the theme was used by the first Royal Rumble winner and then used for the second.
“Never Thought My Life Could Be So Good” (Kerwin White/Michael Cole)
Chavo Guerrero was always great. One of the most underrated in-ring performers of the 20th century, Chavo will unfortunately forever live in the shadow of his uncle Eddie which is a great shame for the former ECW champion.
Whilst trying to distance himself from Eddie, Chavo was given a gimmick that would certainly never get over: Kerwin White.
In 2005, the Latino superstar became a suburban, middle-class, conservative ‘gringo’. Now with white picket fences, blond hair, and a keen golfer, he was renamed Kerwin White, notably with a caddy that would go on to become The Spirit Squad’s Nicky, later better known as Dolph Ziggler. To really nail the point home, White’s catchphrase was the not so subtle: “If it’s not white, it’s not right.” Guerrero later told Chris Van Vliet that “I was like alright I have two options, you either say no and possibly go back on the back burner for a while, or get fired, or you say alright, let’s do it.”
He therefore needed themes fitting with his character. He was given a jaunty, old-timey tune resembling the vocal talents of Ole Blue Eyes, Frank Sinatra.
Although Michael Cole’s theme varied over time from the Raw theme “Burn It Down” to silence, Cole also used the obnoxiously prickish song formerly used by White, in 2012.
It would be short-lived before he converted to the song “Cool Party”.
It all just goes to show how wrestling themes may take a second life for a new wrestler.
Do you know of any other wrestlers who used the same themes? Leave them in the comments below!
