Greetings fellow
Golden Agers! Hope the new year is
treating you well thus far.
This week, we’ll
take a look at the Top 10 wrestling themes of the Golden Age. For anyone who is new to the blog, “The
Golden Age” is a period stretching from the mid 1980s through roughly the mid to late 1990s.
Only one
restriction for this list—the song must be composed specifically for the
wrestler(s) using it. So for example The
Sandman’s use of Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” was excellent, but that song
existed long before he ever used it.
Ditto Ricky Steamboat and “The Alan Parsons Project” song. Unfortunately this rule also nixes some
classics like Randy Savage’s “Pomp & Circumstance” or Ric Flair’s “Also
Sprach Zarathustra”, but on the bright side there are plenty of great themes even without those classics.
Honorable
Mentions: Bret Hart, Harlem Heat, Razor Ramon, Ted DiBiase, Kurt Angle
10. New World
Order
Hulk Hogan’s
joining of The Outsiders in 1996 created the greatest stable in the history of
the wrestling business. The nWo’s theme
became synonymous with the brash, bad boy attitude that made them hated by many
in the ‘90s. Who could forget the
Hulkster, beard dyed black, sauntering out to this theme and playing the spray
painted championship belt like a guitar?
9. The Fabulous
Rougeau Brothers
One of the most
overlooked tag teams of the era, Jacques and Raymond Rougeau were one of WWF’s
top heel teams in the 1980s. The real
life brothers from Montreal used a gimmick where they’d pretend to support
America, even waving tiny American flags as they came to the ring, but they
clearly did not have real allegiance to the USA. A fun fact about their theme music is that
they pretend to be patriotic “All American Boys” while singing in English, but
when they switch to French they are actually dissing the USA.
8. Strike
Force’s “Girls in Cars”
Tito Santana and Rick Martel were among the WWF’s most exciting wrestlers in
the late 80s. When they combined to form a new tag team called "Strike Force", a hip, flashy entrance theme was needed. In 1987, Strike Force got just that with Robbie
Dupree's “Girls in Cars” off of the WWF Piledriver album. They typically entered arenas to an
instrumental version, but the version with lyrics and the song’s music video
are so deliciously ‘80s that they must be savored in their original
brilliance. If you’re anything like me,
you’ll never forget the 8-bit version of the song which served as Ted DiBiase’s theme (Ted didn’t have
entrance music in those days) in WWF Wrestlemania for the NES. It would get stuck in your head for hours.
7. Goldberg
Storming onto
the scene in a big way in the late 1990s (the twilight years of the Golden
Age), Bill Goldberg had maybe the hottest stretch of months that any wrestler
has ever had in the entire history of the wrestling business. Crowds packed arenas and tuned in to Nitro
week after week to watch this new phenom destroy his next victim and build his
undefeated streak. A large part of the
Goldberg mystique was his entrance, complete with sparks flying and Bill
snorting smoke out of his nose like a bull.
His theme had a distinctly military influence with all those drums
pounding. It got everyone in the arena
psyched up and ready for battle.
6. Demolition
One of the greatest tag teams of the Golden Age, Demolition’s thundering “Pain & Destruction” was one of the heaviest, hardest rocking wrestling themes of all time. Sung by rocker Rick Derringer, the track’s heavy drum sound, electric guitar and raspy vocals formed an intimidating soundtrack as the face-painted and spiked leather-clad Ax and Smash made their way to the ring. Perhaps better yet were the foreboding lyrics—“Run and we’ll find you”, “There’s no place to hide”, “Pain and destruction is our middle name.” Demolition looked like a cross between bad ass bikers and clowns from hell, and Deringer’s theme contributed to what every wrestling fan thought upon seeing them—“Wow, I wouldn’t want to mess with these guys…”
5. The Crow
Sting
Probably my
favorite WCW angle of all time, Stings journey from a blonde, happy-go-lucky
babyface to a dark, silent, and mysterious figure of the shadows was a central
storyline in 1997. He’d appear in the
rafters, wearing a trench coat and carrying a baseball bat, face completely
expressionless. Occasionally he’d come
down from the rafters, lay out one wrestler or several, only to disappear again
into the darkness—and he never said a word.
The enigmatic nature of the character was captivating, and fans couldn’t
wait to finally get some answers on what had happened to Sting, what he was
thinking and what he would do next. When
he finally did wrestle, Sting used this theme, which was a great fit for his
character’s dark and mysterious persona.
It is a simple piece of music, but a perfect fit.
4. The Ultimate
Warrior
Has there ever
been a more fitting wrestling theme than the Warrior’s “Unstable”? The pounding drum and blaring guitar form a
simple but frenetic entrance theme, perfect for Warrior’s “sprint to the ring
and shake the ropes” routine. In recent
years it has become common for fans to make fun of Warrior for (a) not being a
great wrestler and (b) being a little bit crazy, but you can’t knock his
success. Crowds went wild for him and his
gimmick was actually interesting. The
moment you heard those drums hit “DUN…DUN DUN DUN….” you knew you were going to
be entertained.
3. Hulk Hogan
You knew it was just a matter of time before we got to this, right? Arguably the most iconic entrance theme in the history of wrestling “Real American” was the theme song of Hulkamania, a movement which took wrestling to heights it had never seen before and which created the business as we know it today. The guitar work is great, but the lyrics are what make Real American special. They nicely summed up what Hulkamania was all about—patriotism, courage, persistence, justice, and doing the right thing. Like much of what Hulk said and did in those years, Real American gave Golden Age kids some values to believe in.
2. Jake the
Snake
Jake Roberts was
one of the best talkers in the history of the industry. I tend to remember his work as a babyface
(though he was a great heel too), feuding with the likes of Andre the Giant,
Rick Rude and Ted DiBiase. But Jake
wasn’t just your run-of-the-mill good guy.
He had an edge, and a mystique—a sort of “dark charisma.” His theme seems to capture that same
essence. It has a distinctly 80s sound,
resembling something out
of Miami Vice or even a slowed down version of the theme from Knight Rider,
but with an element of mystery mixed in for good measure. It was a great tune and a great fit for the
Snake, who will go down in history as one of the greatest characters of all
time.
1. Mr. Perfect
A classic. By the first note, everyone in the arena knew
that Mr. Perfect was on his way to the ring—and therefore, that they were about
to be treated to an excellent match. The
base drums and cymbals conjure up images of ancient Greece or Rome, perhaps the
Gods and Goddesses. It was an excellent
fit for Mr. Perfect's gimmick—a man who was infallible and who possessed
athletic ability beyond that of the mere mortal. You might even say it was the Perfect theme song for the Perfect wrestler (yea, that was cliche but I had to do it).
Would love to hear from you about who we underrated, who overrated or who we missed altogether. Leave a comment or tweet us @GoldenAge4Kids.
