Let the Music Do the Talking

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Jan 2, 2003

How many times have they changed the Dudley Boyz theme music? The Undertaker, since ditching the gothic gimmick, has had four themes already. They tried to change Kurt Angle's music shortly after the demise of the Invasion fiasco, but the audience wouldn't have. Still, the guitar-enhanced version of "Medal/I Don't Suck" is on the WWE Anthology. Same thing happened to Chris Jericho around Survivor Series. Luckily that didn't take either, but again, the new version is available on CD and not the real theme.

Every time you blink, someone in the WWE has new music. For some wrestlers that's good. Having a song by a known band or artist can helps make a character more noticeable. But sometimes it's not good. Particularly when the new song only contains a fraction of the key elements that identify the character as different from other wrestlers. Sometimes the shifts aren't so much good or bad as they are unnecessary. Why change the music that we associate with a character unless the character has changed in some way?

Here are some examples of what I'm talking about. The most recent change in them music was Victoria's. Granted the generic angry guitar riff didn't do much for her character. In fact, it was hard to distinguish from the music of her co-hort, Steven Richard. However, as much as the song "All the Things You Said" by Russian spice girl clones, Tatu is different, it doesn't do anything for her character. Listening to the lyrics, you get the idea that it seems to have been written about one girl's problem with another girl. It fits her current storyline, but not really her character. She's a lunatic. Ozzy's "Paranoid" or something like that would fit better. The change doesn't help, unlike Trish Stratus, whose new song, "Time to Rock and Roll" is about self-empowerment, which is essential to both her character and status as a baby face.

Test is another wrestler whose music didn't need a change. At the time of the Invasion, Test's music shifted from one generic theme to another. It was unnecessary and did nothing for except erase the bass line that most Testicles (though they weren't called that at the time) associated with him.

Matt Hardy, after jumping to Smackdown and turning heel, was in need of a good theme and got one. Monster Magnet's "Live for the Moment" fits his new attitude (or should I say, has Mattitude) and completely separates him from not only his previous alter-ego but also his brother Jeff, who still uses the original Hardy theme. While we're talking about him, it too is clearly time for Jeff to not only take on a new character (he doesn't have to turn heel, but he needs something new) but also a new theme to go with it.

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