What songs would make for good entrance themes?

[Liam O'Rourke]

Yeah, I'll echo that - so many times on these small shows there will be this painfully slow "epic" build only to see some guy with no distinct look or vibe come trundling out in a t-shirt or coat, as if the music alone, that he's been practising walking to for the last five years on his trips to the Spar for a loaf of bread, is going to cover the painful lack of substance the rest of the act has.

Another trope is, as you say, if people coming out to a song they like, not a song that's right. My kinda belief on this is that it should almost feel like the song itself is booming out of the person themselves, an extension of the vibe they're giving off. Think of Rock when he's in the Corporation, sauntering out to that song, it fits him like a glove. Ric Flair slowly gliding to the ring to the classic tune, Austin marching with that Bulls on Parade style beat. All the best themes and entrances feel like the song is blasting out of their arsehole, but indy guys take that literally and find some shitty metal song that they think kicks ass, but people couldn't pick out of a police line-up. You can excuse it to a degree if there is no personality to begin with, but even guys that have certain characters that would fit something whacky don't. There was a tag team of good looking guys in a place near me that the crowd would heckle as gay, and they would play to it. I pitched "Wham Rap" to them as a theme song, because it's hilarious and would have really added something, but instead they came out to some useless metal durge that, years on, I can't even remember, other than the feeling of utter disappointment when I saw the entrance they vowed would be better than my suggestion.

[Carbomb]

22 minutes ago, Liam O'Rourke said:

Another trope is, as you say, if people coming out to a song they like, not a song that's right. My kinda belief on this is that it should almost feel like the song itself is booming out of the person themselves, an extension of the vibe they're giving off. Think of Rock when he's in the Corporation, sauntering out to that song, it fits him like a glove. Ric Flair slowly gliding to the ring to the classic tune, Austin marching with that Bulls on Parade style beat. All the best themes and entrances feel like the song is blasting out of their arsehole, but indy guys take that literally and find some shitty metal song that they think kicks ass, but people couldn't pick out of a police line-up. You can excuse it to a degree if there is no personality to begin with, but even guys that have certain characters that would fit something whacky don't. 

There are two reasons for that, from what I've seen. One is very simple: they think the song's cool, and they think the sense of "cool" they get from the song will be felt in the same way by the audience and thus they'll have that aura in the crowd's eyes.

Second reason is that they don't seem to get "evolved" gimmicks, that have had the benefit of being on television for years so that the crowd know who they are. Prime example is Triple H: if he were to debut with the gimmick he had in, say, 2005, nobody would know what the hell he was supposed to be. But because he debuted as a snob, and the fans got to watch his gradual evolution (pun unintended) into the degenerate, then the Game, then the franchise player, then the Cerebral Assassin, then the WWE power exec, he was able to hook people's interest and keep it. It's also why he can have awesome entrance themes like "My Time", "Time To Play The Game" or "Bow Down To The King".

The generic metal indie guys' problem is that they want to rush forward to being the Game or the Cerebral Assassin without realising that there needs to be a load of story and ground-work first before you can get to that stage, and they want the cool entrance music before the crowd have had a chance to understand the gimmick/character behind it.

[BomberPat]

Absolutely - and that's part of the problem I have with the "be yourself, turned up to 11" mantra. People always point to Steve Austin and The Rock as examples of that working, but they both needed extended periods of not being Steve Austin and The Rock first.

For me, the worst thing you can tell a performer in the early stages of their career is to "be themselves". Because early in your career you're going to take criticism far more personally, and you're going to get a lot of it, and if your wrestling persona is just you in tights, you're going to take any criticism of your persona and your work as a criticism of yourself. If you're playing a character, you can externalise that, separate the persona from you, and tweak it accordingly. Then, once you have some experience of performing and know what you're doing, you know how to be yourself, and you know which bits to turn up to 11. You can't just show up on day one being yourself but louder.

 

Again, it's people not having enough of a grasp on their gimmick - or having one at all - or the importance of music. A couple of years back, we had to repackage a tag team whose gimmick had got a bit confusing; they were comedy babyfaces, who started doing a Wyatt Family parody, and then once they'd been doing that for a while it wasn't really clear whether they were supposed to be heel or face, or what they were all about, so we decided we'd tweak it, keep some of the elements of the Wyatt schtick, but make them more explicitly a comedy act again, which ended up with them becoming a hillbilly stable, with a new manager. But four of us spent the better part of two hours in the pub debating what entrance theme they would use, because we recognised that was going to be a vital part of getting the new schtick over. So it can be very annoying when I see some guys that have clearly just picked the first cool song that came to mind, with no thought as to what response it might elicit from the audience, or how well it fits them.

For the record, the hillbilly team got this, to which the manager/the ring announcer would encourage the crowd to clap along, the team would high-five every kid they could find in the audience, and dosey-do with each other, and any willing audience member. Got over the gimmick, while also being high energy, getting the crowd involved, and immediately telling the crowd that what they were about to see was silly and fun;

 

[Jazzy G]

I had this when I backyarded with my compatriots. When I was Ed Anderson. My original gimmick was that I was a bit of a Jarrett type. I had an old t0shirt from promoting the movie EdTV that said "Ed's A *" on the front, so the gimmick was "I'm Ed, and I'm a star." Then I realised I was a larger, more hirsute gentleman and figured I'd gatecrash the Anderson wrestling family, so much working of arms etc and the occasional Spinebuster, which everybody loved. Anyway, I ended up collared with this. The few arpeggiator is the "Here comes Ed Anderson" and then when the first chord chimes in I'm out through the little entranceway we'd constructed. It worked well enough.

I actually commissioned one of my old Uni mates to compose me some entrance music as well, which sounded great but was never used.

I was an awful wrestler physically, apart from the Spinebuster, but people said I had decent psychology. It was shits and giggles.

[Mush]

Don't know why but I always liked Linkin Park - No More Sorrow as a wrestling entrance music.

The intro could be edited a little bit and have a HHH-like entrance with the lights, then when it really kicks in the walk to the ramp.

A post-heel turn theme maybe. Not sure if the lyrics work, I just love the intro!

[Wrasslin]

Zero. Smashing Pumpkins makes for a great one I think.

[Carbomb]

Y'know, the Transformers soundtrack has some great tunes for entrance themes. @BomberPat will appreciate this, I think.

A classic "power and paint" monster tag-team gimmick in the style of LOD/Powers of Pain/Demolition would suit this track perfectly. Hell, even the track's title - INSTRUMENTS OF DESTRUCTION - could actually be the team's name!

 

[The Maestro]

If I was a wrestler, I'd definitely come out to one of these Moroder bangers. Get the fans going

 

[Otto Dem Wanz]

 

This would be my choice, I can hear the hardcore nerds at Full Sail chanting the keyboard riff during the chorus already.

[Keith Houchen]

1 hour ago, Otto Dem Wanz said:

I can hear the hardcore nerds at Full Sail chanting the keyboard riff during the chorus already.

Whilst doing the Andy McCluskey dance.

[Jon-Carr_92]

Put a smile on my face with that suggestion. I've gotten majorly into 80s synthpop lately. Saw OMD last year at Wychwood. They were pretty good. I can actually imagine the idea of that now. A crowd in general singing the synth hook in addition to the lyrics.

On the topic of The Transformers Movie as mentioned above, my brother mentioned he saw one guy use The Touch by Stan Bush and thinking about it. The right sort of babyface could carry that one brilliantly. Like with Higher Love which I suggested, it times itself quite right. I think a good limit is a song that can easily fade out between the first chorus and first few lines of the second verse.

[air_raid]

32 minutes ago, Jon-Carr_92 said:

On the topic of The Transformers Movie as mentioned above, my brother mentioned he saw one guy use The Touch by Stan Bush and thinking about it. The right sort of babyface could carry that one brilliantly.

Jimmy Jacobs used to come out to The Touch when his gimmick was "adorable midget thinks he's Bruiser Brody." I thought it worked.

[firstnameunknown]

On 25/02/2018 at 9:36 PM, jazzygeofferz said:

Something about this blasted out through a massive PA as somebody stomps down to the ring ready to open the proverbial tin of whoop-ass. There's a good metal cover by a band called Klone that could work a little better. The sound at the beginning would be akin to the old countdown or the Undertaker's gong sound in that it'd get people's ears pricked up knowing something was going to happen.

 

No better answer in this thread. Am actually astounded I’ve never heard anyone in wrestling or MMA use this. It’s catchy, it’s unique, it’s menacing, it’s perfect.

[Carbomb]

Good call on Giorgio Moroder there - cinematic, dramatic stuff always works well for wrestling.

Talking of dramatic stuff, in keeping with my assertion that classical is the most "big-time", Marc-Antoine Charpentier's Te Deum Prelude would be perfect for a British version of the Nature Boy gimmick, or an aristocrat. There are lots of different versions at varying speeds and with different arrangements, but I find the one below to be the best I've heard so far:

 

I also recently discovered Evening of Roses by Sheku Kanneh-Mason - it's a beautiful piece, very melancholy, but just imagine this as the entrance music for a psychopath in the style of Waylon Mercy. Chilling.

 

[AshC]

On 2/27/2018 at 2:49 PM, Liam O'Rourke said:

I pitched "Wham Rap" to them as a theme song, because it's hilarious and would have really added something

Tried to have someone come out to Wham Rap before, only for the fella doing the music to cue up the wrong track. As a result, they came out to this. And it worked.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LN8wbJFCS0

Wrestling, eh.