BY MIKEY MIGO
I've seen and mentally wrote MANY columns in my head about music in professional wrestling. It's normally someone's picks as the "most impactful" or their favorite entrance music of all time. It's always an interesting read, but there's only so many times one can read someone write about how Hogan's "I'm a Real American" or the DX theme gave them "chills as a kid". It's all pretty weird how we as a collective community of wrestling fans romanticize the little parts of the show like the music one uses to enter a ring. None the less, Wrestlemania is right around the corner and my wrestling spirits are up.
Since the 80's with the "Rock-n-Wrestling" era in full force, contemporary music has been apart of the professional wrestling scene. Professional wrestling officially became part of the entertainment business. Granted its still participated by most outsiders as a tongue-in-cheek event. You know like when you watch RAW when they show a celebrity in the crowd. These actors, athletes, and famous folk either look semi-embarrassed to be there or they'll grab the person next to them and mock the sport with a silly headlock or overly worked punches. Only on occasion will someone from the outside embrace the sport and actually add to the situation at hand. Maybe it's a network tie-in, a sponsor's spokesperson, or someone shilling their current movie or album, it's become more and more acceptable to market towards that coveted "rasslin demo".
WWE is loved by a lot of people though. Arnold and Sly are frequent guests and it's always something that you see a small batch of respectfuls come back to. There seems to always been one of two RAW events a year that ZZ Topp are in attendance for. You see Shaq in the crowd about as often as they bring Hogan or Piper back. Ben Stiller has been on WWE not too far back, Drew Carrey was in the Royal Rumble, and of course Mike Tyson, Lawrence Taylor, a few of the 1985 Chicago Bears, and others involved with past Manias. Let's not forget Pete Rose's ongoing feud with Kane. Sorry, I'm trailing off… we're talking about the music. Music has a place in professional wrestling and it's a proven fact many times over.
In the mid-90's, it's been said that part of ECW's success was that they were channeling the "grunge" music style with their wrestlers using current and popular music in a concert-like atmosphere. It's hard to argue the atmosphere when you think back to Bam Bam Bigelo throwing the ever so little Spike Dudley into the crowd. Instead of chaos ensuing from something like this, they crowd actually lifted him and passed him around in one of the coolest crowd surfing moments I've ever witnessed. I also remember Rob Zombie, Billy Corgan, Rage against the Machine, and others being on screen at ECW shows either participating or giving their "thumbs-up" to the product. These tie-ins gave ECW an added boost to their edginess and overall youth-credibility. The great matches, storylines, and wrestlers aside; the use of contemporary music was a key ingredient of defining ECW's product personality.
Towards the last days of WCW, they tried to do incorporate music into their shows. They had that DJ guy who would "mix" during commercials and what not; they had "Demon" come out as a "unofficial" member of KISS, and hell even MASTER P got involved with that whole "No Limit Solider" fiasco. Apparently those running WCW at the time had no idea what the pulse of the youth was.
Still, the WWF or WWE as we'll refer it to for the rest of this piece has always had an edge on the other companies. Going back to the early 80s with the dawn of the McMahon Junior regime, it's always been acceptable and almost coveted to be featured on and to participate at Wrestlemania.
The first Wrestlemania's musical involvement was a bit, how do I say,"Flamboyant." While they had the likes of Mr. T and Muhammad Ali on board, the timekeeper for the main event was actually Liberace. So yeah, musically Wrestlemania didn't start with so much of a bang. Still, things would begin to snowball from there.
Some well known musicians would actually take on the role of a Bobby Hennan or a Mr. Fugi for the night as they'd escort/manage/valet for the WWE's superstars. For "Rock-n-Wrestling" we had Cyndi Lauper come out with Wendi Richter, Ozzy Osbourne manage the British Bulldogs, and even Alice Cooper show support for Jake "The Snake" Roberts. Even more recently, which I guess would be the "Attitude" Era was the "Law and Order" alumni and gangsta rap pioneer Ice-T coming out with The Godfather and D-Lo Brown. It's pretty safe to say that each of those musicians is iconic and respectable.
This is Wrestlemania. It's a classy show so they must kick off the show with the National Anthem, "America the Beautiful". This is where they get fancy and bust out the heavy hitters. We've seen Ray Charles, Gladys Knight, Willie Nelson, Little Richard, Reba McEntire, Boys II Men, Ashanti, Michelle Williams, and others all give their own renditions of the anthem to thousands live and millions watching at home or in their local pub. This past year, I had the pleasure of seeing and hearing Miss Aretha Franklin belt out a beautiful rendition of America's rally call. I can still remember her singing it at the third installment of the event twenty years ago. The whole environment, the energy, and the know that you're sitting in a arena waiting for history to take place is a lot to handle. Then they put someone like Aretha Franklin out there to just toy and slap around your emotions. If you're a wrestling fan and don't get choked up when you're part of a live Wrestlemania crowd then you're not much of a fan at all.
Still, the music world's involvement is much bigger than just the occasional "walk out with a wrestler, wave at the crowd, and get in one spot" stuff that a celebrity manager does or singing the national anthem. There have been quite a few performances over the years. Sometimes it's either a crossover promotional song, a wrestler's entrance theme, or sometimes it's just because the song and/or artist is popular at the moment the WWE wants in on the action. We've seen legends like Motorhead twice, Run DMC, Salt-N-Pepa, and Ice-T all rock the Wrestlemania stage. It's not just been the iconic figures at the helm of "The Grand Daddy of Them All". We've also seen some flavor of the months like Limp Bizkit, Saliva, Drowning Pool, and POD all get their chance to secure their place in wrestling history. Maybe it was the timing of my age, but still the one that stands out to me the most is Salt-N-Pepa's appearance. They did Lawrence Taylor's "What a Man" entrance and it's just stuck with me. I know they've had many successful hits and albums, but their Wrestlemania appearance is the first thing I think of when I hear their names. Weird what wrestling will do to ya.
This year we have Snoop Doggy Dogg involved with the Women Match. He's already an over the top character so it's only natural that after all these years of appearances and commercials that he'd be involved with the biggest show of them all. John Legend is a great vocalist and should a fine job with the anthem. It should be another good showcase this time out. I'm not be surprised to see some surprise appearances.
What will the future bring for Wrestlemania to come? I'm not really sure; maybe we'll see K-Fed, Eminem, Korn, Timberlake or some other music fixture get involved. Maybe we'll see some one like Flavor Flav, Bret Michaels, or even Britney Spears get involved. It seems they're always looking for attention and/or getting it for no reason at all. Hell, maybe Amy Winehouse will sing "America the Beautiful" next year in Texas.
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