Jan. 1, 2026

Ken Anderson on His WWE Entrance Themes, Working with Dale Oliver in TNA, Aces and Eights Theme

Mr. Kennedy, Mr. Anderson, Ken Anderson. You know him by many names. Whatever you know him by, he's a great dude with some awesome stories about wrestling, his awesome entrance themes in his time in WWE and TNA, and his favorite themes in pro wrestling. We also talk about what Vince McMahon's vision of entrance themes was, as well as talk about the songs that represent the heart an soul of Ken Anderson the most.

Also...Avenged Sevenfold wrote a theme for him??? Where's that at?

Enjoy today's episode!

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Do you like wrestling? Do you like music and stories from the road? Join John Kiernan, wrestling entrance theme song composer, and professional musician of over 10 years for stories and interviews with your favorite wrestlers, rock stars, and personalities!


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John Kiernan is a wrestling entrance theme song composer with over 150 themes written for wrestlers in various promotions such as NJPW, WWE, ROH, MLW, and many more. As a professional musician, a veteran in the podcasting space, an avid pro wrestling fan and wrestling personality by way of creating the soundtracks for your favorite wrestlers, John Kiernan forges his latest podcasting venture into diving into stories of music, stories from the road, and wrestling from all walks of life from your (and his) favorites of all time.



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Speaker:

something came across my TikTok the other day or Instagram feed of the guy who did the

song.

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was like, POV, you're scrolling TikTok and a song that you did like 10 years ago that got

thrown away, is now like trending worldwide and everybody knows it.

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I saw that.

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now for this episode, that's going to be part of the promotional material for it is either

you or me when Mr.

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Anderson's on the show and then that's it.

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You know this man by many names.

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You know him as Ken Anderson.

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You know him as Ken Kennedy.

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You also know him as the gentleman from the Academy, the School of Professional Wrestling.

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I am joined today by the one and only Ken Anderson.

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How you doing?

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Good, John, how are you doing?

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doing good.

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had to put the school over.

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You know, I love it when I bring people on who have wrestling schools and are doing so

much.

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Who have done so much in the industry, but also have wrestling schools like Brian Myers

with Creative Pro out over here uh on the East Coast by me.

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So definitely want to go ahead and give the shout out to you.

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How long has the school been around?

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We've been open since 2016, so we're coming up on almost 10 years here, which is crazy.

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How's it feel to run a school for professional wrestling too?

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And it's not a question I've asked anybody before, but you know, you've given so much to

the industry in so many ways with your work and then through the school, that's gotta be a

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completely different thing altogether.

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You know, it's really rewarding and...

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I guess, ah you know, everybody says like giving back or whatever, like yes, I feel like

it's giving back, it's, I've had such an amazing run.

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I've been all over the world, the stuff that I have been allowed to do and the people whom

I've been in the presence of.

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uh I just, I want other people to experience that.

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I really do.

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I want to share it with as many people as possible.

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And so when my students start having those firsts, their first match, their first extra

work at WWE or AW or TNA, you know, they have their first enhancement match or dark match.

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Like those are things that really, really stand out to me.

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So that's, that's basically what I'm, what I'm in the game for.

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And, and I, you know, there were certain things that I didn't like about the business.

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And they always say like, be the change that you want to see, know, like don't complain

about it.

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Just do it.

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Do something different.

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oh

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That's what I was going to say.

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It's got to be interesting for you too, because again, with a lot of where your students

have gone, it's like, okay, they've been in all these different places.

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And even some of these places like you were talking about, AEW, that may have not been

around during, you know, like the time of Mr.

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Kennedy, right, for example.

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But, you know, you have all of these students that are now going down the halls that

you've traveled, all the roads that you've traveled to.

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And, you know, you're probably seeing them have...

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some of the same places.

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yeah, I was there and I did this here.

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But also there are probably these new stories, these new people and just these new

experiences that you're like, hey, it wasn't like that before.

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And for whatever side of the coin that's on, that's gotta be cool for you to be like, it's

like a full circle moment too.

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And like you hit the nail on the head.

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are so many places now that weren't available to us.

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um Just look at the amount of wrestling schools out there.

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There's a ton and there's good wrestling schools.

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You know, when I broke in, um there were probably four or five different wrestling schools

that I could have reached out to.

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I, for whatever reason, I was lucky enough to call the right one.

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because had I called those like there were, there were some, you know, there's some people

who get into the business.

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They'll go to a wrestling school.

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They spend a week or two taking bumps.

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They have somehow find their way onto a show.

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They have one or two matches or they, you know, they wrestle once, once a month for 12

years and they, know, and then they open a wrestling school and they don't know.

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You don't know what you don't know.

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Um,

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So I was, had I called one of those other schools, we wouldn't be having this discussion,

maybe.

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So, yeah.

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It's interesting too.

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And you know, it's funny cause kind of tying all that together.

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Um, I had Brian Myers on the show who I've done a couple of entrance themes for in a

couple of different capacities.

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And with him kind of tying into that in an interesting way, he goes, you know, back when I

had gotten released from WWE during the COVID time, that was the first time that I came

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back onto the Indies and everyone was having a custom entrance theme.

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Right.

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And he's just like, before that, that wasn't even a thought you would get whatever's on

the radio.

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You hope they don't get sued, but now you're talking about.

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you're getting into at that time, 2020, 2021, all that kind of stuff.

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And now all of these wrestling companies have streaming to one way or another, right?

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A lot of them are on fight.

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A lot of them are on, you know, new TV, things like that.

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We just saw that TNA got picked up by AMC, right?

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All this kind of stuff.

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So it's like the industry really has changed over the tenure, right?

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And to be able to be part of a school, do all the things that you're doing and just see

this big industry shift in all these different ways is just

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a night and day difference.

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And for you, that's a bit of a segue for us to have a little bit of a conversation about

entrance themes.

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You've had lots of awesome ones, which we're going to get into in a couple minutes here.

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But for you in the industry and for you being around as long as you have, what are some of

the most important things in an entrance theme for you?

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I personally think it's gotta be catchy.

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It's gotta be something that people enjoy.

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um

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I'll tell my students, know, like for me, when I'm in the gym, I like a variety of music,

right?

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I'll listen to everything from Frank Sinatra to Cannibal Corpse and everything in between.

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And there's a lot of people who, by wrestling, you know, they'll select a song for their

entrance that fires them up.

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And it tends to be like some kind of generic sounding, know, like some metal riff.

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to me that ends up to the crowd.

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It just sounds like noise.

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It's not like, it has to be something that's like catchy and topical.

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Do you know what I mean?

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Yeah, yeah, totally.

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It's one of those things where, like you said, sometimes it's something that they're

listening to or maybe something they got from a library.

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And it's just like, okay, cool, it gets the job done.

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But when you get something catchy and you get something that the crowd can really feel and

get into, it changes the dynamic and it can still hype you up as a performer.

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it sometimes goes into conversations I have with talent.

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I'm like, hey, it's cool when you have a song that you like as a person.

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but it's also gotta be something that the crowd's gonna dig on too.

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It's gotta be something that highlights you, but it's gotta be something that the second

it hits or within the first second or two, or even like just the long tail of it, the

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crowd's gotta be able to understand what it's about.

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You look at and I feel like things have completely shifted.

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Look at how many crowds are singing along with people's entrance music.

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The thing that just happened in the UK with Edgy's music.

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Like.

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It's really cool to see everybody sings with Cody's entrance.

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um Seth, you know, like they do the whole thing too.

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yeah.

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And so for you, what are some of your favorite entrance themes of all time that you've

gotten the opportunity to be part of and experience?

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My favorite, I think, of all time was I used to use pour some sugar on me when I was when

I was on the Indies.

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um Like my very first entrance music that I ever came out to was Power Man 5000 when

worlds collide.

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That was my first my first one.

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then I, you know, like I went through this phase where I was like,

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Probably every other month I was selecting a new song.

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I was just trying to figure out like what it is.

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I used to do host by Ramstein for a while and uh probably a bunch of other people did that

too at that time.

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Makes me laugh because Tommy Dreamer used to say that he used to get tapes all the time.

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People would send tapes to the office.

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When he was in charge of talent relations, bringing in new talent, he would always get

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What was that Eminem song that you got one shot, one opportunity?

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Like he said he would always get like every other tape that he would get would have that.

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It would be a music video set to that song.

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So indirectly, somehow eight mile Eminem is part of like the wrestling canon to some

degree, but maybe just overused a little bit too much in the demo reel, ladies and

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gentlemen.

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Oh yeah, he said he would like, he would put it in and if he heard that piano, that little

piano start, he would just chuck it in the pile.

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But my favorite, favorite song that I've ever used to this day was the TNA entrance that

Dale Oliver came up with.

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I still use it to this day.

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TNA has

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blessed me with uh allowing me to use it for my own podcast.

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I still use it on the, know, whenever anybody asks me, what's your entrance music?

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I always say it's Feedback by Dale Oliver.

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So.

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Yeah, that one to me was one of my favorites for you too.

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And you know, as someone who's followed your career over time from WWE to TNA and all

these different places for me, I remember hearing feedback for the first time when you

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made your entrance in and I was just like, this is great.

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And it, everything from obviously everything you do with the microphone, your Mr.

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All that kind of stuff.

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I'm not going to do it.

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I'm not going to do it today because I got the man, the myth, the legend standing right

here.

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Everything from that to just having that initial feedback, like you have the microphone

all the way to the beat.

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It's like the right amount of upbeat for what you were trying to do.

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And for the character you were trying to portray, whether it was as a babyface coming down

and all of a sudden taking the title off of Jeff Hardy, or whether it was given Sting a

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hard time, all those different things.

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To me, it was one of the coolest themes because it worked for you as a heel.

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It worked for you as a babyface, but it just...

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Highlighted your character of mr.

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Anderson and TNA.

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Yeah, that one's great and kind of in that vein you talked about Dale Oliver who is one of

the quintessential theme composers I would say in the wrestling industry and I think that

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over time he's really gotten the love that I wish he would have gotten earlier on too,

right?

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But you got the opportunity to have feedback written by him.

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What was some of the process of?

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Getting feedback and working with Dale Oliver

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So the first day that I got there, I remember, uh you know, he came up to me, we met, he

was super excited.

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Hey, I've got a great, what I think is a great song for you.

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And so he played it for me and immediately I was like, that's it.

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And then, so, okay, well, what do you, I just said, I feel like there always needs to be

something that happens that's an indication that, oh, it's so and so, right?

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You hear the glass breaking.

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It's Austin, you know.

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um So I wanted to have my version of that and I just.

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You know what about what about like some feedback or something like that and then we kind

of were playing around some ideas and then I think it was me that suggested like what if

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there's like a tap tap tap like somebody tapping on the microphone?

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And then the feedback and then since I'm

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probably going to hit my introduction.

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I don't wanna do it twice.

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Like I don't wanna have the full introduction in the song.

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Like WWE had the full thing, I think at one point they had me, Mr.

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Kennedy.

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And I didn't wanna do that again, I just wanted like part of it.

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So that was sort of the idea behind just giving them like a just.

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Give them some crack, you know, give them just a little taste of it.

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And then do you want some more?

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So that's kind of the idea.

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love that.

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And it's one of those entrance themes too.

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Like it's, you know, when you think of an entrance theme, you can have these themes that

have full lyrics or no lyrics or whatever the case may be.

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And I felt because of what you did with your promos and what you did with your entrance,

it was like, we don't need to have all that.

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It's just, again, make it strong, make it good.

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And then you could kind of cut in your promo wherever you are in the ring.

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Like there's some things that are so choreographed down to the second, like, you know,

Adam Cole's theme is a great example, which is

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Again, it works for him, but it has to be so, so on the money, so on the timestamp.

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With yours, I felt it was this piece of music that you had different points at which you

could get in the ring, you could lift the hand, you could have the microphone come down,

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you could do it from the stage.

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And it worked at every point, which is something really unique to you.

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And I gotta give Dale Oliver a lot of credit for that, for being able to look at your

entrance and be like, you know what, let's make something where it's flexible.

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Yeah, it really is like I just Steve Austin once told me like, don't never let him get me

pyro kid.

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You know, he was a big proponent like he was a big uh opponent of

187

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You don't want a whole bunch of bells and whistles.

188

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You know, he wore black trunks with no writing on them.

189

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Black trunks, black boots, black wrist tape.

190

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His meat and potatoes was in his work.

191

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that's sort of what I...

192

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Not to say that if somebody has pyro and uh flashy gear and all that stuff, like they're

not, that doesn't make them somehow uh less of a wrestler, but like sometimes...

193

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I feel like when people have all that extra, the extra bells and whistles, they're doing

it to make up for lack of something else.

194

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And I just want to, my work in the ring is hopefully what people mostly remember, you

know?

195

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yeah, totally.

196

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And also though, you think about like back then you had a lot of wrestling on TV, sure.

197

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But now the amount of wrestling you have on TV is insurmountable, right?

198

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As a fan of wrestling and being involved in the industry, I think it's a great thing.

199

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But like you have so much more now.

200

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And like we were talking about, I forget if we were saying it on pod or off pod before we

started recording, but everybody is streaming now, right?

201

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Every company.

202

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is on some sort of streaming service, whether it's YouTube, whether it's Fight, whatever

the case may be.

203

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So I think a lot of talent now isn't just thinking about, okay, cool, you're hitting the

ring, that's it.

204

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They're thinking about, everybody has some sort of hard cam.

205

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Everybody has some sort of way to create clips that are gonna go online.

206

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So for this, even if you don't have Pyro, you may have just a small video screen or

something, whatever the case may be.

207

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It's now not just about what's going on in the crowd.

208

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It's now like my entrance and my entrance theme by extension now has to be able to sit in

some sort of uh frame where, you know, with something like you had, again, I keep going

209

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back to flexibility specifically with yours and you brought up Stone Colds too.

210

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Stone Cold didn't need to wait for anything.

211

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He waited for the glass to break.

212

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He came down to the ring and that was it.

213

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You know, another thing too that like uh with entrances sometimes and I saw this Chris

Hero is a good example of this.

214

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Chris Hero had oh what was the song that he used?

215

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It's got a really long intro.

216

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It's like a minute long and he would wait behind the curtain.

217

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um And then when that when it hits, that's what he would come to the curtain.

218

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And I feel like people saw that and saw the success that he was having.

219

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And everybody started doing that.

220

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And when I got to WWE, it was like, if your music hit and people would try to do that,

they'd hide out behind the curtain, like, I'm gonna wait for just the right moment and

221

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Vince would be like, oh, nobody wants to watch a dead curtain.

222

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Nobody wants to watch a curtain.

223

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And so that's sort of my, I've always got that in my head.

224

00:17:33,824 --> 00:17:39,427

um When my music hits, I'm popping through that curtain right away.

225

00:17:39,662 --> 00:17:41,793

It's gotta be with the right character, think, too.

226

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You know, I think about like, Agunther now, right?

227

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And he's got that whole, like, swell of, like, the Jaws theme, which is the Dvorak theme

and whatnot.

228

00:17:49,438 --> 00:17:54,110

And it's like, it's a little bit different because the presentation is that, right?

229

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But it also, again, you hear that, and then it goes into it, right?

230

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But not everyone is like that.

231

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Sometimes it's exactly like you said.

232

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You just gotta hit and you gotta go.

233

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And, you know, we were talking about it a second ago about working with...

234

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Dale Oliver.

235

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And obviously then also we'll rewind the clock a little bit there and talk about Turn Up

the Trouble, which is your WWE entrance theme, right?

236

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Which was written by, if I'm understanding correctly, Jim Johnston.

237

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Again, WWE's composer.

238

00:18:23,555 --> 00:18:26,157

Need no introduction here, ladies and gentlemen.

239

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Let's talk a little bit about that theme too, because that's one that, again, a lot of

people become familiar with you with.

240

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And then there's one more I want to talk about a little bit later on, but...

241

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for turn up the volume, how did that one come to be?

242

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Because I've read a couple of articles that it was kind of like, you had some input, Jim

had some input, and then Vince was ultimately like, hey, kind of what are you thinking?

243

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Yeah, so um I went into Vince's office and he was like, let's talk entrance.

244

00:18:55,035 --> 00:18:56,275

And he's like, what do you like?

245

00:18:56,275 --> 00:18:59,716

And I said, um I'm a big fan of like ACDC.

246

00:18:59,716 --> 00:19:01,555

I said, I use pour some sugar on me.

247

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I like something, something like that.

248

00:19:04,957 --> 00:19:05,888

And he goes, okay.

249

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And then I think the next week he came back and uh he had a variation of turn up the

trouble, but it was very um like.

250

00:19:16,434 --> 00:19:23,866

Jim Johnson, some of Jim Johnson's music, he, I don't know if he was the one that did the

voice.

251

00:19:24,086 --> 00:19:30,908

Well, well, it's a big show and ass man and like that.

252

00:19:30,908 --> 00:19:34,159

was like, it was like that that sounded like that.

253

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And I, I've never been a fan of that.

254

00:19:36,630 --> 00:19:39,846

I was always, uh I was always, yeah.

255

00:19:39,846 --> 00:19:49,766

we had Joe Altier on the show who's from brand new sin and he ended up doing the one that

everyone knows now the world is the big the really like heavier version, right?

256

00:19:49,766 --> 00:19:51,686

But before that it was Michael Hayes on there.

257

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So I don't know if Michael Hayes ended up doing more but yeah, Michael Hayes is the first

voice on the big show on like the one when he came in as Paul White.

258

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Yeah.

259

00:20:00,711 --> 00:20:03,533

So that ass man, who's doing the ass man thing?

260

00:20:03,533 --> 00:20:04,710

Do you have any idea?

261

00:20:04,710 --> 00:20:10,770

that I can't tell you, but that's going to be, that's going to be in the, uh, in the

vault, ladies and gentlemen, we're going to have to find out.

262

00:20:10,887 --> 00:20:14,148

So like that to me sounded a lot like Sam Hagg, Sammy Hagar.

263

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And I was always a, you know, I was a David Lee Roth guy, not a Sammy Hagar guy.

264

00:20:19,609 --> 00:20:23,690

And I told Vince that and I remember like Triple H being in the room at the time.

265

00:20:23,690 --> 00:20:27,031

It was like we were all kind of hanging out in Vince's office chit chat.

266

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And he was like, did Triple H said, well, can I swear on here or is this?

267

00:20:32,073 --> 00:20:35,433

He was like, well, I'll just go tell Jim Johnson to go fuck himself.

268

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And I was like, no, no, no, no.

269

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I just don't.

270

00:20:39,545 --> 00:20:41,093

That doesn't fit for me.

271

00:20:41,093 --> 00:20:41,663

I like it.

272

00:20:41,663 --> 00:20:43,324

It just doesn't fit for me.

273

00:20:43,804 --> 00:20:52,267

And um yeah, so then the next week came back and he had uh the that turn up the trouble,

which is the one that we ended up going with.

274

00:20:52,327 --> 00:20:54,778

And I was like, you know, that's that sounds great to me.

275

00:20:54,778 --> 00:20:55,649

That sounds perfect.

276

00:20:55,649 --> 00:21:05,652

um So, yeah, it was like I feel like it had more of a who is the lead singer of ACDC?

277

00:21:07,733 --> 00:21:09,725

Like right now, right now, the.

278

00:21:09,725 --> 00:21:13,656

I'm going to, I hate the fact that Ryan Johnson's the most.

279

00:21:14,040 --> 00:21:14,613

Yup.

280

00:21:14,613 --> 00:21:15,393

think, you know.

281

00:21:15,393 --> 00:21:18,625

Yeah, like that kind of a sound to it, so.

282

00:21:19,229 --> 00:21:19,839

I love that.

283

00:21:19,839 --> 00:21:23,550

And you actually brought up something I haven't asked anybody about either.

284

00:21:24,050 --> 00:21:25,961

if you could give some insight, it's kind of interesting.

285

00:21:25,961 --> 00:21:30,212

Because you mentioned that it was you, Hunter, talking about this and whatnot.

286

00:21:30,212 --> 00:21:36,174

And I've never heard the thought of what Vince's thought was on Entrance Themes.

287

00:21:36,174 --> 00:21:39,195

It's not something I was even coming to this interview thinking about.

288

00:21:39,195 --> 00:21:48,167

But having read that article and hearing you talk about it, what was, if you have any

insight on it, what was Vince's view of Entrance Themes?

289

00:21:49,946 --> 00:21:53,839

I think ultimately he had to like it too, right?

290

00:21:53,839 --> 00:21:58,972

It had to be catchy to him, but he wanted me to be happy with it.

291

00:21:58,972 --> 00:22:00,533

He wanted, is it something that you like?

292

00:22:00,533 --> 00:22:04,205

Is it something that you are going to feel comfortable going out of the ring with?

293

00:22:04,586 --> 00:22:09,610

And really at the time, like I was, man, they were really rolling out the red carpet for

me.

294

00:22:09,610 --> 00:22:12,251

I was getting really good treatment.

295

00:22:12,251 --> 00:22:18,938

um He happened to take a shine to me early and

296

00:22:18,938 --> 00:22:23,929

I was very fortunate that he was even, because some people are just like, here's your

entrance music.

297

00:22:24,910 --> 00:22:26,369

You know, and they, they hate it.

298

00:22:26,369 --> 00:22:28,951

end up hating it and they don't have any input in it at all.

299

00:22:28,951 --> 00:22:34,393

So I was really, really lucky that he asked me at all.

300

00:22:34,673 --> 00:22:41,335

And then literally when, like I said, we went back and forth, it was like two or three

weeks that we sort of fine tuned it a little bit.

301

00:22:42,601 --> 00:22:42,943

Sure.

302

00:22:42,943 --> 00:22:48,804

And was it working kind of through Vince or was it working at all like with Jim Johnston

also?

303

00:22:48,889 --> 00:22:51,400

I had no interaction with Jim whatsoever.

304

00:22:51,400 --> 00:22:58,124

So it was literally just in Vince's office, me talking to Vince.

305

00:22:59,145 --> 00:23:03,637

that one time Triple H being there for the competition.

306

00:23:03,711 --> 00:23:09,710

that's interesting too, because it sounds like when you kind of go to TNA, you have a

little bit more involvement with their guy.

307

00:23:09,710 --> 00:23:15,631

Whereas in WWE, it's like it's kind of a person of a person and then you're getting these

uh roles back, right?

308

00:23:15,631 --> 00:23:16,592

Interesting.

309

00:23:16,592 --> 00:23:17,593

That's cool.

310

00:23:17,702 --> 00:23:18,962

Yeah, yeah.

311

00:23:19,062 --> 00:23:24,762

And I don't know what other people's experiences like with TNA.

312

00:23:24,762 --> 00:23:36,522

don't know how much, know, I don't know, to be honest, I don't know how many different,

there's probably some stuff that I know of that Dale Oliver has done that I just, I have

313

00:23:36,522 --> 00:23:39,262

no idea that Dale Oliver was the guy that did it.

314

00:23:39,262 --> 00:23:47,642

Then I will say that also in TNA, one of my, probably my second, second or third, I would

say it's my second favorite.

315

00:23:47,810 --> 00:23:59,498

entrance of all time was the aces and eights which was done by Serge, which was Dixie

Carter, Sergio Carter, I believe, like, that's Dixie Carter's husband.

316

00:23:59,498 --> 00:24:05,592

um You know, he sang it and that's a badass to him, to me.

317

00:24:05,991 --> 00:24:14,766

Yeah, and I was gonna ask you about that because for me, I get to talk a lot about like

the individual entrance themes and you know, I've written themes for stables and groups

318

00:24:14,766 --> 00:24:23,571

and whatnot like Primal Fear and it's, I love doing that, but it's like you now have to

think about three people or whatnot or the vision of the group and whatnot.

319

00:24:23,571 --> 00:24:27,152

And Aces and Eights to me, I loved that storyline as a fan.

320

00:24:27,152 --> 00:24:29,564

I loved that entrance theme and all that it implies.

321

00:24:29,564 --> 00:24:32,355

I thought it was like the perfect theme for Aces and Eights.

322

00:24:32,355 --> 00:24:35,867

I've talked to people before who were just like having an individual theme.

323

00:24:35,867 --> 00:24:41,141

is different than having a theme that represents me in a group, because you're not

thinking about it about you.

324

00:24:41,141 --> 00:24:43,933

You're thinking about it of you as part of the collective.

325

00:24:43,933 --> 00:24:46,846

You almost kind of have to take yourself out of it for a second.

326

00:24:46,846 --> 00:24:52,201

So I wanted to kind of get your input on how that one came about, because I always thought

that that was just Dale.

327

00:24:52,201 --> 00:24:55,331

I had no idea Surge had anything to do with that one.

328

00:24:55,331 --> 00:24:58,053

Yeah, that was Surge all the way, I think.

329

00:24:58,053 --> 00:25:00,755

Maybe maybe Surge and Dale worked on that together.

330

00:25:00,755 --> 00:25:02,507

But that was.

331

00:25:02,507 --> 00:25:06,450

uh Hey, what do you guys think about this?

332

00:25:06,450 --> 00:25:10,093

And instantly we were all like, that's it.

333

00:25:10,093 --> 00:25:11,754

That sounds great.

334

00:25:11,754 --> 00:25:17,519

And it was a little bit of a take off of, know, Aces and Nates was.

335

00:25:18,380 --> 00:25:22,173

Sons of Anarchy was huge at the time, very hugely popular on TV.

336

00:25:22,173 --> 00:25:25,105

And, you know, there was definitely a throw to.

337

00:25:25,647 --> 00:25:28,093

the opening to that show.

338

00:25:29,233 --> 00:25:29,913

Of yeah.

339

00:25:29,913 --> 00:25:31,384

I remember seeing that one too.

340

00:25:31,384 --> 00:25:38,876

And the thing that you guys did that was, I think, even more special just from an entrance

perspective, not even just talking about the theme, it was you guys came out from the

341

00:25:38,876 --> 00:25:39,516

crowd.

342

00:25:39,516 --> 00:25:48,219

You know, at some point you would come out from, obviously, the curtain, but most of the

time you came out from the crowd, which was even cooler too, because Dale Oliver can write

343

00:25:48,219 --> 00:25:53,519

anything, but I've always kind of seen him in more of like that country style, like that

Southern rock stuff.

344

00:25:53,519 --> 00:25:59,272

And I felt like as soon as he maybe got and Surge got this idea, it was like, that's it.

345

00:25:59,272 --> 00:26:00,923

This is, this is what he would write.

346

00:26:00,923 --> 00:26:01,213

Yeah.

347

00:26:01,213 --> 00:26:09,038

This is like the perfect theme and you guys coming out from the crowd and you guys having

all these awesome backstage segments and whatnot.

348

00:26:09,038 --> 00:26:19,143

was like, I think about perfect entrance themes, not just as a well-written song, but

what's like the perfect personification of this group, the Aces and Eights.

349

00:26:19,143 --> 00:26:23,047

And I don't think you could have gotten any better personally as an entrance theme.

350

00:26:23,047 --> 00:26:24,782

than Dead Man's Hand, yeah.

351

00:26:25,989 --> 00:26:28,969

Can I tell you what my favorite entrance music of all time is?

352

00:26:28,969 --> 00:26:33,929

The thing that like, it's just probably going to come as a surprise.

353

00:26:33,929 --> 00:26:40,529

This is the kyan-tai music like who ended up being punaki's music.

354

00:26:40,729 --> 00:26:42,389

That jazzes me up man.

355

00:26:42,389 --> 00:26:43,889

That really fires me up.

356

00:26:43,889 --> 00:26:45,289

I don't know why.

357

00:26:45,329 --> 00:26:49,789

That and my second favorite is probably Gangrel's music.

358

00:26:49,789 --> 00:26:50,569

The Brood.

359

00:26:50,569 --> 00:26:52,560

a night and day difference between those two.

360

00:26:52,560 --> 00:26:56,829

What a parallel or what a what an A to Z.

361

00:26:58,092 --> 00:26:58,863

That's awesome.

362

00:26:58,863 --> 00:27:01,664

And you know what, too, everyone talks about Gangrel's theme.

363

00:27:01,664 --> 00:27:08,126

Like when I talk about what are some of their favorite entrance themes, I think Gangrel

has been mentioned on this show a good amount of times.

364

00:27:08,126 --> 00:27:10,687

And even some of the boys I play with and it lives, it breathes.

365

00:27:10,687 --> 00:27:12,768

They did a cover of it a while ago.

366

00:27:12,768 --> 00:27:13,879

That was more of it.

367

00:27:13,879 --> 00:27:18,801

I can't even say it was an EDM mix because like it was originally like electronic and

whatnot.

368

00:27:18,801 --> 00:27:19,657

So it's just

369

00:27:19,657 --> 00:27:20,877

their take on it.

370

00:27:20,877 --> 00:27:25,217

But yeah, that one I haven't heard the kind I won on this show yet at all.

371

00:27:25,257 --> 00:27:26,937

But that one's awesome.

372

00:27:26,937 --> 00:27:27,997

That's a pop.

373

00:27:30,658 --> 00:27:32,599

It's just like, I don't know.

374

00:27:32,599 --> 00:27:33,400

It's fun.

375

00:27:33,400 --> 00:27:34,641

It's like it.

376

00:27:35,162 --> 00:27:41,727

I think that I think that entrance music should be it's interactive.

377

00:27:41,727 --> 00:27:42,858

It's crowd interactive.

378

00:27:42,858 --> 00:27:44,600

It's like, who's it going to be?

379

00:27:44,600 --> 00:27:45,930

Who's it going to be?

380

00:27:47,172 --> 00:27:54,549

you know that the Royal Rumble that happens every year you get you get 30 of them every

year for the Royal Rumble.

381

00:27:54,549 --> 00:27:59,611

30 opportunities for the fans to pop and get behind their characters.

382

00:28:00,274 --> 00:28:00,784

I love that.

383

00:28:00,784 --> 00:28:06,038

And I love the fact that you brought up Kai and Tai though too, because like they leaned

into it all the way too.

384

00:28:06,038 --> 00:28:14,885

And I remember being young and being into like, I remember every time Kai and Tai would

come out, because they also had a point where they were supposed to be taken slightly,

385

00:28:14,885 --> 00:28:17,577

like just maybe for like a week, a little bit more seriously.

386

00:28:17,577 --> 00:28:19,488

And it could have worked there too.

387

00:28:19,488 --> 00:28:26,383

But like, as soon as they just went all in on how they ended up being portrayed over time,

again, perfect.

388

00:28:26,383 --> 00:28:28,014

Like chef's kiss on that.

389

00:28:28,361 --> 00:28:39,465

The comedy with them holding the microphone and speaking Japanese and having uh a...

390

00:28:40,025 --> 00:28:49,849

was Bruce Pritchard doing the voiceover over the loudspeaker like the old kung fu movies

was just amazing.

391

00:28:50,278 --> 00:28:51,179

I love that.

392

00:28:51,179 --> 00:28:56,518

And then also one thing before I ask you the last question before we're wrapped up today.

393

00:28:56,518 --> 00:29:04,186

I had read somewhere also that there was some talk about Avenged Sevenfold, who's one of

my favorite bands of all time.

394

00:29:04,186 --> 00:29:08,288

One of my top three reasons that I play music and the style that I do.

395

00:29:08,288 --> 00:29:10,989

That they were coming up with something for you at some point.

396

00:29:10,989 --> 00:29:12,904

What is that story?

397

00:29:14,064 --> 00:29:20,999

I heard that they were coming up with something uh that they actually came up with it that

they sent it to W.

398

00:29:20,999 --> 00:29:23,260

I think WWE paid for it even.

399

00:29:23,621 --> 00:29:32,446

And it was tabled like I read an interview recently with the lead singer and I think he

said he doesn't even know where it is.

400

00:29:33,067 --> 00:29:37,270

But it's literally like it's a lost track nobody can find it.

401

00:29:37,270 --> 00:29:39,762

if anybody can find that it would be it would be amazing.

402

00:29:39,762 --> 00:29:42,184

I'd to hear it.

403

00:29:42,184 --> 00:29:44,155

See, I think we were, yeah.

404

00:29:44,196 --> 00:29:51,642

There was another group, I swear to God there was another group that did a variation of my

entrance music.

405

00:29:51,642 --> 00:29:55,825

Cuz Turn Up the Trouble was only half of my WWE run.

406

00:29:55,825 --> 00:30:02,489

There was another song after that and it was like, it wasn't a bench seven fold.

407

00:30:02,956 --> 00:30:05,992

It was somebody like, it was a bigger name band though.

408

00:30:07,378 --> 00:30:08,919

Let me see real quick.

409

00:30:11,258 --> 00:30:12,352

Yeah, I-

410

00:30:14,532 --> 00:30:15,989

I swear it was some-

411

00:30:17,758 --> 00:30:20,138

Let me do this, Ken Kennedy themes.

412

00:30:21,218 --> 00:30:23,438

Everything is turn up, turn up.

413

00:30:23,958 --> 00:30:28,198

No, not John Kennedy, Ken Kennedy, WWE themes, let's see.

414

00:30:28,198 --> 00:30:30,618

I was seeing if AI could pull it up.

415

00:30:31,078 --> 00:30:33,258

Turn up the trouble by Airborne.

416

00:30:33,744 --> 00:30:34,933

Airborne, that's it.

417

00:30:34,933 --> 00:30:37,578

Airborne did a variation of Turn Up the Trouble.

418

00:30:38,546 --> 00:30:39,247

That's awesome.

419

00:30:39,247 --> 00:30:40,058

Airborne sick.

420

00:30:40,058 --> 00:30:41,630

I haven't heard that name in a minute too.

421

00:30:41,630 --> 00:30:45,395

I had no idea they did a version, but airborne is so good.

422

00:30:45,395 --> 00:30:55,637

And that's almost a little bit more in line kind of with the, the sort of synergy of, you

know, pour some sugar on me, at least from like the type of band, you know, maybe not the

423

00:30:55,637 --> 00:30:58,010

song exactly, but like the type.

424

00:30:58,594 --> 00:31:03,476

Yeah, so like when I came, I came back from from an injury, I believe.

425

00:31:03,517 --> 00:31:13,462

And it was, you know, my first entrance music that I had the turn up the trouble was, you

know, it started with a Mr.

426

00:31:13,462 --> 00:31:14,823

Kennedy.

427

00:31:14,823 --> 00:31:18,945

And then when I came back, it was just Kennedy.

428

00:31:18,945 --> 00:31:23,187

And then it would go into and I believe that was the Airborne song.

429

00:31:24,388 --> 00:31:27,029

When you do that, so.

430

00:31:27,966 --> 00:31:28,787

That's awesome.

431

00:31:28,787 --> 00:31:29,858

Shout out to Airborne.

432

00:31:29,858 --> 00:31:32,250

I haven't heard about you guys in a while, but awesome.

433

00:31:32,250 --> 00:31:36,904

And for you, when you came up with that iconic now, Mr.

434

00:31:36,904 --> 00:31:45,482

Right, when you came up with that, was that something that was, cause you hear all the

time in wrestling, it's like, oh, just, you were just driving in the car one day and here

435

00:31:45,482 --> 00:31:45,943

it is.

436

00:31:45,943 --> 00:31:47,894

Or was that something that you always had?

437

00:31:47,894 --> 00:31:49,916

Like, how did that come to be?

438

00:31:50,295 --> 00:31:58,709

So it's a weird, it's a weird marriage of like all these different things happening.

439

00:31:58,730 --> 00:32:04,473

for one, it started out, was, I used to announce basketball games when I was in high

school.

440

00:32:04,473 --> 00:32:14,419

And I used to like as a sophomore, I think I started in my sophomore year and I did it

throughout the rest of my high school run.

441

00:32:14,419 --> 00:32:18,981

um And I would hit the last name twice when I was.

442

00:32:19,117 --> 00:32:27,837

When I was calling out the opponents names, I would just throw them away, kinda like John

Smith, Bob Edmonds.

443

00:32:27,837 --> 00:32:34,357

And then when I would do, I would do a big introduction for every single one of our

players and I would always hit their last name twice.

444

00:32:34,537 --> 00:32:41,537

And then I go away from high school, I get into the wrestling business, completely forget

about all that, don't even think about it.

445

00:32:41,537 --> 00:32:47,656

And then fast forward to like 2005, early 2005, I'm...

446

00:32:47,656 --> 00:32:55,938

I'm at OVW, Paul Heyman has just taken over for the pencil for OVW television.

447

00:32:56,439 --> 00:32:59,910

And he says, hey, tonight, go out there, cut the ring announcer off.

448

00:32:59,910 --> 00:33:03,321

was Dean Hill was the ring announcer at OVW at the time.

449

00:33:03,321 --> 00:33:07,362

He was also doing color commentary too with Al Snow.

450

00:33:07,362 --> 00:33:14,026

Cut the ring announcer off, you know, run him down and then you do your own introduction

and make it big and then.

451

00:33:14,026 --> 00:33:19,219

Paul sort of did like this and then he kind of hit what I do today.

452

00:33:19,780 --> 00:33:21,601

And he goes, do your own version of that.

453

00:33:21,601 --> 00:33:28,805

And then in the moment when I'm in the ring, just something clicked and I hit my last name

twice.

454

00:33:29,526 --> 00:33:38,993

And when I came through the curtain, the boys were all like, when you said your last, we

popped when you said your last name twice, man, keep doing that.

455

00:33:38,993 --> 00:33:43,071

And then you know that as a wrestler,

456

00:33:43,071 --> 00:33:44,762

the boys are usually the most cynical.

457

00:33:44,762 --> 00:33:50,056

Like if we see something that pops us, it's probably gonna work with the people.

458

00:33:50,578 --> 00:34:02,488

And so it just, from that point on, five weeks later, I started doing it every week, five

weeks later, Dreamer called me and said, hey, they wanna see you at TV this week for

459

00:34:02,488 --> 00:34:03,608

SmackDown.

460

00:34:03,629 --> 00:34:04,780

They want you to do your gimmick.

461

00:34:04,780 --> 00:34:06,972

They want you to do your whole introduction gimmick.

462

00:34:06,972 --> 00:34:08,252

They wanna see it.

463

00:34:08,453 --> 00:34:11,433

And so I went there and uh with the...

464

00:34:11,433 --> 00:34:15,585

The plan was I was just gonna wrestle Funaki on a dark match.

465

00:34:15,806 --> 00:34:19,388

At the end of it, I was gonna still do my intro at the beginning.

466

00:34:19,628 --> 00:34:23,090

But at the end of it, he was gonna super kick me, one, two, three.

467

00:34:23,090 --> 00:34:25,511

And I was in gorilla position.

468

00:34:25,612 --> 00:34:30,134

We were supposed to be up first and I'm doing push ups.

469

00:34:30,155 --> 00:34:34,557

We're getting ready, like we're five minutes away from this thing kicking off.

470

00:34:35,518 --> 00:34:37,725

And Dave Ligana comes walking around the corner.

471

00:34:37,725 --> 00:34:39,936

And he said, hey, there's been a change.

472

00:34:39,936 --> 00:34:42,717

And immediately I thought, they cut my match.

473

00:34:42,717 --> 00:34:43,757

OK.

474

00:34:44,338 --> 00:34:48,599

And he said, we have to come up with a finisher for you because you're going over.

475

00:34:48,599 --> 00:34:49,619

You're going to win the match.

476

00:34:49,619 --> 00:34:53,958

uh This is now going to be a televised match, so you're not going to go first.

477

00:34:53,958 --> 00:34:56,662

You're going to be on like third or fourth.

478

00:34:56,662 --> 00:34:59,613

And then he stuck his hand out and he said, welcome aboard.

479

00:34:59,613 --> 00:35:07,176

And I was just like, you know, so I tell the story when people ask me, it's crazy.

480

00:35:07,492 --> 00:35:14,532

I started saying my last name twice and that five weeks later I was on TV.

481

00:35:14,573 --> 00:35:15,361

That's why.

482

00:35:15,361 --> 00:35:16,421

so simple, isn't it?

483

00:35:16,421 --> 00:35:21,456

It's something where it's just like, again, what kind of character you're trying to

portray.

484

00:35:21,456 --> 00:35:31,465

And a lot of people who have their name in their entrance somewhere, it's like, I remember

hearing an interview with Adam Cole and he's like, I was on the Indies and this one guy

485

00:35:31,465 --> 00:35:33,718

just kept saying his name over and over and over.

486

00:35:33,718 --> 00:35:41,564

And he's like, you know, in the Indies, if you just say your name over, if no one else, if

anyone doesn't remember anything else from the show, they're always gonna remember his

487

00:35:41,564 --> 00:35:42,088

name.

488

00:35:42,088 --> 00:35:42,478

for you.

489

00:35:42,478 --> 00:35:48,042

You're like, I'm gonna say it twice and everybody's going to remember me plus everything

else that you did too.

490

00:35:48,042 --> 00:35:51,104

And it was just like, I remember seeing that just over the years.

491

00:35:51,104 --> 00:35:53,526

And I was like, that's so brilliant.

492

00:35:53,526 --> 00:35:55,647

And it's something so simple.

493

00:35:55,647 --> 00:36:01,982

And especially when you were, you know, when you're coming out, you're giving the crowd a

hard time, like, all right, get it over.

494

00:36:01,982 --> 00:36:03,493

And then they're still with you.

495

00:36:03,493 --> 00:36:09,977

When you say it, my favorite time that you ever did it was when you turned on bully Ray

during ACEs and eights.

496

00:36:09,977 --> 00:36:11,624

And it was just like,

497

00:36:11,624 --> 00:36:13,576

he's on the floor, he's out.

498

00:36:13,576 --> 00:36:14,957

And this was obviously Mr.

499

00:36:14,957 --> 00:36:15,657

Anderson.

500

00:36:15,657 --> 00:36:17,289

And you're like, name, Mr.

501

00:36:17,289 --> 00:36:17,999

Anderson.

502

00:36:17,999 --> 00:36:21,142

And then you get like real in his face and you're like real mad at him.

503

00:36:21,142 --> 00:36:28,889

I was like, I never thought that that could be like the most vicious thing in the world,

but you made it the most vicious thing in the world at that point too.

504

00:36:28,889 --> 00:36:30,953

So again, ACE choice.

505

00:36:30,953 --> 00:36:41,193

At that point too it was funny because it had been like a year and half since I'd done it

because the ACES and H thing lasted for as long as it did.

506

00:36:41,713 --> 00:36:47,192

So I just I hadn't done it in so long so it was like built up inside of me.

507

00:36:47,192 --> 00:36:48,929

I need to get this out.

508

00:36:49,640 --> 00:36:50,391

I love that.

509

00:36:50,391 --> 00:36:53,573

So we got one more question before you leave my friend.

510

00:36:53,573 --> 00:36:56,095

And I ask everybody before they leave.

511

00:36:56,095 --> 00:37:02,199

And just so the crowd knows, I didn't used to tell people this and people thought it was

the hardest question in the world.

512

00:37:02,199 --> 00:37:04,561

Maybe it is even when we let people know in advance.

513

00:37:04,561 --> 00:37:12,636

But I'm gonna ask you today, if you had to put three songs on a playlist that represent

you as a person, what would those three songs be?

514

00:37:13,127 --> 00:37:22,674

So, um Freebird has always been like, it was my dad's favorite song growing up.

515

00:37:22,674 --> 00:37:26,537

It's just something that I've always loved.

516

00:37:26,537 --> 00:37:33,112

I love that big long piece in the middle towards the end.

517

00:37:35,154 --> 00:37:37,864

Devari and I used to, we used to,

518

00:37:37,864 --> 00:37:39,244

road trip a lot.

519

00:37:39,244 --> 00:37:45,184

We'd go back and forth from Minnesota to Wisconsin to Illinois to, you know, all over the

place.

520

00:37:45,184 --> 00:37:47,744

And that song would always come on late at night.

521

00:37:47,744 --> 00:37:59,044

We'd be driving back like two o'clock in the morning and we would crank that and he would

like drive and he'd drive to the music and he'd be turning the, we'd probably, you know,

522

00:37:59,044 --> 00:38:00,844

today I wouldn't do it today.

523

00:38:00,844 --> 00:38:06,484

I wouldn't take that many risks, but so Freebird,

524

00:38:06,856 --> 00:38:10,276

I'd say angry again by Megadeth.

525

00:38:10,276 --> 00:38:10,736

I don't know.

526

00:38:10,736 --> 00:38:19,916

just sometimes I like Booker T once said, you know, sometimes I like to get mad, you know,

like sometimes you just got to get it out.

527

00:38:19,916 --> 00:38:22,236

You got to get pissed off a little bit.

528

00:38:22,396 --> 00:38:25,236

And I don't know.

529

00:38:25,236 --> 00:38:29,956

I this this really is a hard hard question to ask.

530

00:38:29,956 --> 00:38:31,376

What did you say?

531

00:38:31,896 --> 00:38:32,996

I need an answer.

532

00:38:32,996 --> 00:38:33,896

Tiny.

533

00:38:34,336 --> 00:38:35,616

No, no, I was asking my wife.

534

00:38:35,616 --> 00:38:36,335

I'm sorry.

535

00:38:36,335 --> 00:38:37,702

Oh, sorry.

536

00:38:38,704 --> 00:38:42,284

Tiny Dancer by Elton John.

537

00:38:43,504 --> 00:38:54,744

There's a scene from a movie where they're all in the bus, they're in the band, they're

all in the bus and they all start, they're kind of mad at each other.

538

00:38:55,204 --> 00:38:56,784

Do know what I'm talking about?

539

00:38:57,944 --> 00:38:59,444

What is that movie?

540

00:39:00,203 --> 00:39:03,548

I forget, I see the scene in my head, but I forget the movie.

541

00:39:03,548 --> 00:39:03,929

Yeah.

542

00:39:03,929 --> 00:39:04,631

uh

543

00:39:04,631 --> 00:39:08,935

know, somebody starts singing and then everybody kind of jumps in.

544

00:39:08,935 --> 00:39:13,938

That I would say and or something fun and stupid.

545

00:39:13,938 --> 00:39:22,034

Like there's a German group, I don't know the name of the group, but they have a song

called Coincidence.

546

00:39:22,034 --> 00:39:23,445

Do know what I'm talking about?

547

00:39:24,178 --> 00:39:26,979

I haven't heard it, but that's a great name for a song.

548

00:39:28,413 --> 00:39:29,114

Listen to it.

549

00:39:29,114 --> 00:39:31,396

Like I love stupid stuff like that sometimes.

550

00:39:31,396 --> 00:39:33,397

Like I just get it stuck in my head.

551

00:39:33,838 --> 00:39:39,381

For the longest time I would play that over and over and over again every time we had our

kids.

552

00:39:40,102 --> 00:39:42,894

And to the point where they hate the song now.

553

00:39:42,894 --> 00:39:45,726

And my wife actually hates this song too.

554

00:39:46,347 --> 00:39:47,327

I just.

555

00:39:47,808 --> 00:39:48,769

Well, but that's fun.

556

00:39:48,769 --> 00:39:51,383

with the meme where the guys and like the blue room and everything.

557

00:39:51,383 --> 00:39:55,258

Everyone's like, there's a dopey song, but like it's now part of our life.

558

00:39:55,258 --> 00:39:57,282

And now it's on my son's playlist.

559

00:39:57,282 --> 00:39:58,283

It's on my playlist.

560

00:39:58,283 --> 00:40:00,216

And now I'm just like, okay, blue room.

561

00:40:00,216 --> 00:40:01,049

Here we go.

562

00:40:01,049 --> 00:40:04,232

Is that the one where he's dancing or whatever?

563

00:40:04,232 --> 00:40:05,353

What is that from?

564

00:40:05,353 --> 00:40:06,633

What is that from?

565

00:40:07,695 --> 00:40:09,415

It's Jon Hamm, right?

566

00:40:09,816 --> 00:40:11,137

It's Jon Hamm.

567

00:40:11,585 --> 00:40:12,406

Okay.

568

00:40:12,406 --> 00:40:15,958

And I was just like, asked my wife, I'm like, this is like a song we listened to in the

nineties.

569

00:40:15,958 --> 00:40:16,840

And she's like, yeah.

570

00:40:16,840 --> 00:40:18,622

I'm like, was it a song we listened to the nineties?

571

00:40:18,622 --> 00:40:19,973

And she's like, no.

572

00:40:19,973 --> 00:40:24,617

So I have no clue what the song, I love the song, but it wasn't something I grew up with.

573

00:40:24,617 --> 00:40:25,788

So I don't know.

574

00:40:25,805 --> 00:40:28,026

In fact, just saw uh

575

00:40:28,024 --> 00:40:33,807

something came across my TikTok the other day or Instagram feed of the guy who did the

song.

576

00:40:33,807 --> 00:40:47,634

was like, know, POV, uh you're scrolling TikTok and a song that you did like 10 years ago

that got thrown away, is now like trending worldwide and everybody knows it.

577

00:40:48,611 --> 00:40:49,531

I saw that.

578

00:40:49,531 --> 00:40:54,866

now for this episode, that's going to be part of the promotional material for it is either

you or me when Mr.

579

00:40:54,866 --> 00:40:57,278

Anderson's on the show and then that's it.

580

00:40:59,641 --> 00:41:00,542

I love it.

581

00:41:00,542 --> 00:41:04,115

Well, Ken Anderson, thank you so much for making the time with us.

582

00:41:04,115 --> 00:41:06,247

Thank you so much for making the time to chat with us today.

583

00:41:06,247 --> 00:41:11,031

I know how busy your schedule must be and to be able to chat with you about entrance

themes for a little bit.

584

00:41:11,031 --> 00:41:11,702

been a pleasure.

585

00:41:11,702 --> 00:41:12,492

Thank you.

586

00:41:12,492 --> 00:41:13,063

I appreciate it.

587

00:41:13,063 --> 00:41:16,247

This has been one of the most interesting interviews that I've done in a while.

588

00:41:16,247 --> 00:41:18,302

So I really, really appreciate it.

589

00:41:18,302 --> 00:41:22,014

I'd love to have you come on my podcast as well if you'd be down.

590

00:41:22,095 --> 00:41:24,380

So, all right.