Theme song downgrades

[LaGoosh]

I'm going to go with an entire promotion. PROGRESS felt like some kind of British reincarnation of ECW with all the great proper music that would play throughout the shows. Once they got too much attention and they had to switch to original themes (all of which were terrible and generic sludge) I lost interest immediately. 

[ReturnOfTheMack]

1 hour ago, Statto said:

FWIW, I'm the opposite on Orange - I don't mind Pixies, but Jane is the theme I prefer. I think maybe solely because it reminds me of his 1st International Championship run when he was the best opening match wrestler in history for a few months. 

I think the recent switch back to Where is my Mind coincided with him switching to black shirt & denim because he was angry at the Death Riders & therefore more serious, but now he's gone back to Jane & blue denim / white shirt as he's got over the attempted murder. 

I think sometimes they just push the wrong button, though. 

We need the Puddles Pity Party version for when OC hits a full depression.

 

Edit: of Where Is My Mind

Edited March 14, 2025 by ReturnOfTheMack

[RedTwoster]

The best of WWE 2000s entrance music, and the worst in WWE commentary all in one clip:

Victoria felt like a huge star when All the Things She Said was her entrance theme, and - on a separate note - her partnership with Stevie Richards was an underrated pairing.

And eventually, she switched to this…

An enormous drop, and another example of a song defining someone down; although the way she was booked didn’t help much either. 

EDIT: Just realised @SaitoRyo also suggested this - sorry for double-handling, Saito!

Edited March 14, 2025 by RedTwoster

[FUM]

One I forgot to add to my list. Rollin’ for The Undertaker was terrible compared to American Badass. Was it as bad as You’re Gonna Pay? I’m not so sure, that may have been even worse. Could have a man there who has continually downgraded.

[air_raid]

4 hours ago, Carbomb said:

Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)

Oooh, you've fallen into the trap.

Voodoo Chile was the original song. It's 15 minutes long and meanders a bit. The day after, the Experience recorded Voodoo Child (Slight Return) which is the version that Hollywood used. To make things worse, the latter was actually released as Voodoo Chile as a single over here. As far as I know, there is no Voodoo Chile (Slight Return).

 

[Carbomb]

4 minutes ago, air_raid said:

Oooh, you've fallen into the trap.

 

 

Thanks for that, a school Friday!

[Merzbow]

2 hours ago, SaitoRyo said:

I would also add Victoria going from Tatu's All The Things She Said

I'd imagine that was a licensing issue or something similar (aka money), Tatu's management and everything was a complete clusterfuck and WWE only had a years deal for the song.

[Chico Torres]

Lex Luger going from the Narcissist theme to some generic Stars and Stripes shite was disappointing. Both of which were a massive downgrade from his epic NWA/WCW overdrive theme.

[air_raid]

4 hours ago, Chico Torres said:

Lex Luger going from the Narcissist theme to some generic Stars and Stripes shite was disappointing.

That suggests the Narcissist theme wasn’t rubbish though?

[CTXRussomark]

The real answer here is Demolition. From one of the best themes of all time to a generic heel instrumental with no real justification. 

That shitty knock-off WWE Goldberg theme completely undermined his first WWE run as well. 

[davertfnewman]

I think the justification for the Demos was it was no long just "the Ax" and "the Smasher", it was Crush too, plus soon it wouldn't be Ax any more. Just stripping them of a lot of the cool factor by taking the iconic music away and putting the masks on them.

For me, it's Double A going from this in the early nineties as a super heel...

To this when he comes back as part of the worst Horsemen group ever with Roma...

Even Flair was having to come out to it at Worldwide tapings in his purple robe for six-mans.

[air_raid]

The other thing with Demolition was that they had been given an ass kicking theme to complete their new image as the WWFs Road Warriors complete with music that made you shit yourselves that an ass kicking was on the way. As soon as they landed your actual Road Warriors the race was on to de-emphasise Demolition as quickly as possible and hitch the wagon to a new gravy train, plastic shoulder pads and all.

The irony being Ax & Smash reliably sat near the top of the cards for nearly 3 years, and the WWF got about half that out of LOD before Hawk failed his drug test and they realized maybe this wasn’t the permanent anchor to their tag division that they’d hoped for.

Edited March 15, 2025 by air_raid
Search and destroy you, running - we’ll find you

[davertfnewman]

I think with LOD it was a case of the star that shines twice as brightly burns half as long. More people know who they are, but there are some of us who consider Demolition better.

[Tim Healys Chutney Spoon]

Hangman Pages new theme just doesn't sit well with me compared to the one we all know and love. Wonder if it may be part of a larger plan of 'this is my face theme and this is my heel/tweener theme'

[air_raid]

18 minutes ago, davertfnewman said:

I think with LOD it was a case of the star that shines twice as brightly burns half as long. More people know who they are, but there are some of us who consider Demolition better.

It’s a great question, to be honest.

Ax and Smash had belting matches with the Rockers and the Harts, and the (admittedly very few, maybe one each) matches I’ve watch LOD wrestle either team, were nothing memorable, but that’s probably because they were blighted by a wonky face vs face dynamic that the Demos weren’t when they were tangling with Bret & Anvil or Shawn & Marty. Conversely, the Roadies had great rugged matches with the Steiners and SST which I thought were far better than when Demolition had to wrestle men on their level in the rough n tough stakes like the Powers of Pain or the Bulldogs - though I was impressed at the vulnerability they showed against the Twin Towers or Andre/Haku. Who had the better matches with Tully & Arn? Not sure… I don’t know whether I liked that Ax & Smash gave the Brain Busters more shine bell to bell, or that it felt more like a robbery when the Horsemen escaped with their hides.

In terms of who I’d go back and watch more often, it may very well be Demolition. They were more versatile, when you consider they were rough tough baddies for years but genuinely loved for about a year of their face run. I’ve waxed lyrical often about the succession of monster pops that greet the entrances of the Hulkamaniacs at Survivors 89, when the crowd are just calming down from Jake appearing and then Derringers masterpiece starts up.. I get chills just thinking about that pop, they were the coolest fuckers alive coming out with the belts. Even if it’s juxtaposed to a match where each will get pinned by a Power, so you think they might lose the tag belts when you go to a house show over Christmas. It speaks for what a presentation they must have been, that while I started watching wrestling around the peak of popularity here, trading cards, Hasbros, the buildup to Wembley, and LODs image was everywhere, that when I watched in rapid succession Mania 6 and then Survivors 90 and 91 which featured Hawk & Animal prominently, I immediately gravitated to the Ax & Smash version of Demolition even though all I had was what I saw on those tapes, and what I learned from trading cards - that they’d won a six man at SummerSlam 89 but lost the belts to the Harts at 90, which I surmised might not have been too long before “The 4th Annual Survivor Series.” So… childhood bias. Maybe it wouldn’t have happened if I’d twigged Smash was Repo Man!

…. just kidding, @DavidB6937