Ah, one of the very best parts of being a wrestling fan that, like all the other best parts of being a wrestling fan, doesn’t involve any wrestling.
The history books are full of absolutely banging wrestler entrance themes, Undertaker, Kane, Austin, Rock, The Brood, and we’ve even just lost some really good ones in the past few months, Aleister Black’s WWE theme, Johnny Gargano’s Rebel Heart, they just changed Sami Zayn’s theme into a crushingly generic create your own wrestler rock nothing, but don’t let that trick you into thinking that the golden age of entrance music is long gone.
With AEW, New Japan and even in WWE, some all-timers are still knocking around, and after a run of fairly negative lists, let’s celebrate some positives from the current wrestling product, and, like Mojo Rawley, God rest him, get seriously hyped.
I’m Adam hailing from partsFUNknown and these are our 15 Best Current Wrestling Themes.
15. Bianca Belair
Tune. All the NXT graduates have the best themes, courtesy of CFO$, a pair of composers, John Paul Alicastro and Michael Conrad Lauri, a pair that tragically no longer work with WWE after a legal dispute between them, WWE and Arcade Songs, their publisher.
A crying shame, because under CFO$, WWE were churning out iconic hits with a regularity not seen since Jim Johnston’s heyday, including a lot of honourable mentions on this list, Asuka, Finn Balor, Becky Lynch, but Bianca Belair’s tops all three in terms of sheer hype and swagger.
Belair has been an obvious megastar ever since she first arrived in the big dub, due to her poise, signature look and of course, an entrance theme that never stops never stopping.
14. Kazuchika Okada
A big part of a really good entrance theme is a signature sting. A sound right at the beginning of the theme to pop everyone huge before the music even kicks in.
The Rock’s if ya smelllll, Austin’s glass shatter, Edge’s “you think you know me”, and then there’s this, Kazuchika Okada’s coin, a little metallic flick that lets everyone know the rainmaker, the ace of New Japan, is in the building.
What follows is a terrific entrance theme, godlike and grand, befitting the man who makes a point of having the best entrances in the industry every single year.
It has the thumping beat and flamboyant guitar of a classic video game fighter, which makes sense because he is in Yakuza 6.
13. Sasha Banks
Sasha Banks has had two themes in her WWE career and both of them rule.
Her first, Sky’s the Limit, had one of the best melodies in the business for a time, instantly catchy, joyous enough to be babyface, arrogant enough to be heel, perfect for the boss.
And then, circa 2019, WWE asked, sure, what if this theme, but what if we bred it with Samoa Joes and created something that sounds like something a Mafia Elephant would have accompanying it to the ring.
The sheer amount of evil bass and brass is almost comical, but Banks styles it out to create something with even more swagger and intent than before.
Also, Sasha got her little cousin a gig working on it, which is very nice of her, family needs to love after each other.
12. Orange Cassidy
There’s a couple of benefits to AEW being run by a madly enthusiastic son of a billionaire.
First, it means they can bankroll some of the best wrestlers in the world, and provide actual alternative career opportunities to WWE, and second, it means they can throw money at licensed music by actual bands.
AEW’s roster has some true bangers on it, Jungle Boy’s Tarzan Boy is a crowdwork delight, Darby Allin’s I Fell is as effortlessly cool as the man himself, but special mention has to be made of Orange Cassidy’s, mostly because I’m a big fan of Pixies.
Tony getting out the chequebook to give OC “Where Is My Mind” is a wonderful move, it’s a beautiful song, perfect for his character, serene but full of subtle aggression, just brilliant brilliant.
11. WALTER
LOVE a bit of classical music in my wrestling.
Damien Sandow’s hallelujah chorus by Handel, Randy Savage’s pomp and circumstance, Bryan Danielson’s “Ride of the Valkyries” (I don’t actually like his new AEW theme sorry don’t @ me) the Flairs with their various versions of Also Sprach Zarathustra, and then there’s this, the theme for all of Imperium, but especially their uber ring general, WALTER.
Dvorak’s “Symphony No. 9” from the new world, and that new world is governed by a final boss, and the final boss will chop your f**king tits off.
The song reeks of intelligent cruelty, and unstoppable violence, which are the top two qualifications on WALTER’s linkedin profile.
10. Rhea Ripley
I’m not sure if this’ll be a controversial inclusion, because who the hell knows what the internet thinks about anything anymore, but purely for my own tastes, this song RULES.
It genuinely is in contention for the best women’s theme ever, maybe alongside Lita’s classic theme and Io Shirai’s occasional theme Scary Mask, which why isn’t that her theme song all the time, please.
The vocals on Ripley’s theme are by Ash Costello and talk about killing it, and also her own vocal cords. Great sting with this is my brutality, and the rest of the track absolutely THUNDERS along.
Shame the Mania 37 performance didn’t quite capture the song’s fury.
9. Minoru Suzuki
How does such a big horrible punch bastard have such a romantic power ballad for a theme, and why does it work so well?
It’s a beautiful bit of 80s cheese rock, which really undersells the fact that Minoru Suzuki is on his way to the ring to, first kick a young lion in the goddamn head, and then elbow you until you become Dean Ambrose again.
The only person in new japan to have a better theme was Jushin Thunder Liger and sadly that’s now retired, leaving this as king of the mountain.
Frankly, if you don’t bellow Kaze Ni Nare then are you even breathing?
Well probably and you just don’t know that much about Japanese wrestling and that is absolutely fine, but if that’s the case, listen to this sound because it’s great.
8. Adam Cole
Who am I to argue with the iTunes music charts I guess. Nobody, that’s who I am. As soon as Adam Cole Baby debuted in AEW, his new theme, you know it’s all about the boom, rocketed to the top of the metal charts, for a pretty simple reason.
It’s f**king EXCELLENT.
In some ways a tuning up of familiar Undisputed Era riffs, in other parts its own new braggadocious beast, it’s lightyears ahead of what NXT had him coming out to in his final months, and it’s nice for him to have a song that’s as enthusiastic about his own name as Adam Cole Baby is.
Really great sting, stupidly catchy, it’s a home run straight out of the gate.
7. Finn Balor
And speaking of amazing theme songs for amazing former NXT Champions. Quick sidebar before we talk about Catch Your Breath, isn’t it f**king mad that Bobby Roode doesn’t have Glorious anymore.
I actually checked recent smackdowns and even in singles matches he’s been coming out to the Dirty Dawgs new theme and it’s shite.
Otherwise, obviously, it’d be on the list, por CFO$, having all their songs slowly stripped away from the product, f**king hands off Finn Balor’s though, it’s as glorious as bobby used to be.
Brooding, grandly orchestral, imposing like an actual boss fight, and with the perfect hooks for legit one of the best call and response bits of crowdwork ever.
It would be the best theme music to ever come out of NXT, if not for…
6. Shinsuke Nakamura
God Nakamura’s really been through the wringer in WWE, hasn’t he?
I actually had to remind myself that he was Intercontinental champion that’s how bizarrely background his character has become, but at least his theme music’s better than ever.
A million Pat McAfees can’t be wrong. From the moment he stepped foot into Takeover Dallas the song was over like rover and even though they tried to dampen the crowd’s love for it with a vocals during his heel run, the crowd would not be dampened.
If anything the presence of Jack Black and Waluigi’s lovechild Rick Boogs has made the theme even more epic. You keep vibing Pat.
5. Kenny Omega
The words final boss are thrown around a lot when it comes to wrestlers’ entrance themes, and it makes sense, there’s a rich vein of themes that exist to sell pure threat, impending doom, and world-shattering menace.
Kenny Omega used to have one of those, Devil’s Sky, his New Japan theme.
Everyone knows that Kenny Omega is one of wrestling’s biggest nerds and has got a thing for old Sephers from Final Fantasy 7 and that was the perfect mix of choral-orchestral threat.
And then he made everyone cross by ditching it for Battle Cry, his AEW theme, but bloody hell, it really grows on you, to the point where I will die on the hill that it’s better than his New Japan.
It sounds like a metal version of a mega man boss theme and it’s wonderful. However, if you are missing a bit of Sephiroth in your wrestling look no further than.
4. Roman Reigns
The Tribal Chief has out One-Winged Angeled Kenny Omega and that must really sting, but who cares Roman’s new music is ASTONISHINGLY good, probably the best bit of new music WWE has put out in a decade or maybe more.
Roman is going to be pushed as the greatest of all time and if you’re going to do that, this is the kind of music you give them.
The final bossest of final boss tracks, its got a harpsichord bit in it. No for real, after the John Williams duel of the fates meets Hans Zimmer intro, after the piano tinkling straight out a classic horror movie, there’s a harpsichord section, outrageous!
There’s strings, explosions, its so silly, so grandiose and oh I love it to death. As long as he keeps this theme, long may roman keep winning.
3. Chris Jericho
It’s a song so good it’s single-handedly keeping Chris Jericho over.
Ok sure Y2J’s a legend, no hot takes here, but as good as he is, his theme tune is a million times better, especially now that he’s a babyface and fans don’t feel like they’re betraying heel/face alignments by bellowing it with all their heart.
Hearing the AEW fans singing the excellent Judas by Chris Jericho’s ok band Fozzy, it feels special, it has that same tribal joy of AEW fans getting to enjoy something just for them.
This late in his career, after Break the Walls Down, Raw is Jericho, the list, stupid idiot, just when you thought Jericho couldn’t add anything beloved and refreshing to his act, he drops the second greatest theme in AEW history, to give his relevance and presence on the show a boost.
2. CM Punk
Doesn’t quite feel right calling this the best AEW theme currently going after its years as Punk’s WWE theme, but at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter.
Cult of Personality by Living Colour absolutely rules, and if anything Punk’s reignited love of pro wrestling has transferred onto the theme itself, become a true anthem of wrestling triumph.
Beyond that it’s simply a very, very good song indeed, rousing, catchy, perfectly suited to the incendiary nature that CM Punk cough used to have cough, but above all else it made Oli Davis cry, and such things are to be celebrated.
Welcome back CM Punk, welcome back Cult of Personality.
1. Edge
Course it f**king is, it’s a f**king banger.
Metallingus by Alter Bridge, and especially WWE’s edit with the “you think you know me” sting followed by the storm of drums, oh man it was and remains, the greatest entrance theme of all time.
On this day, I see clearly.
And to hear it again during the 2020 Royal Rumble, man, moments don’t come much more special than that.
I imagine a lot of people will be very angry about some of the stuff missed off this list, but if you disagree about number one, I will personally put you in the bin.
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