Entrance envy. It happens. Even the Superstars who have the most identifiable themes in all of WWE — the John Cenas, Randy Ortons and Daniel Bryans of the world — have personal favorite songs that they’d consider entering the ring to.
Watch John Cena's heroic entrance at WrestleMania 29 on WWE Network
Don’t believe us? Well, we’ve got proof: WWE.com asked 10 Superstars and Divas whose entrance music other than their own they’d like to have. Then, just for fun, we edited videos showing how it might look if, for example, AJ Lee skipped into action to the sound of … well, read on and you’ll see!
There’s obviously a great deal of mutual respect between the all-time record-holder for World Title reigns, Ric Flair (16 reigns), and the runner-up, John Cena (15). But The Champ’s admiration for The Nature Boy extends well beyond Flair’s incredible accolades. According to the Cenation leader, if he could pick anyone else’s song, it’d be Flair’s theme, Richard Strauss’ “Also Sprach Zarasthura,” which was made famous by the 1968 Stanley Kubrick sci-fi classic, “2001: A Space Odyssey.”
Cena’s rationale for wanting the song was straight and to the point: “Watch the movie.”
Daniel Bryan may not garner too many comparisons to fellow former WWE Champion the late Ultimate Warrior, given their wildly different ring styles. That doesn’t mean the “Yes!” Man doesn’t appreciate the jagged, racing excitement of the WWE Hall of Famer’s famous theme song.
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“I came out to it once in the independents and it was awesome,” Bryan revealed. “There’s just so much energy, and it fires up the crowd so much.”
Few Superstars’ songs are as identifiable as Randy Orton’s “Voices,” by Rev Theory, which The Viper describes as “badass.” That said, Orton’s favorite entrance music today is the song he calls “the baddest music we’ve got”: Rusev’s theme.
Download Rusev's theme, "Рев на лъвът (Roar of the Lion)," on iTunes
“I like the marching beat when he comes out and that bass hits. It makes me bob my head,” WWE’s Apex Predator said. “When Rusev’s music hits, if I’m in the back and I can hear it out in the arena when I’m getting ready, it motivates me, believe it or not. So I’d pick that — minus the Russian tones to it, which are included throughout the music.”
Santino Marella hasn’t always been on “Stone Cold” Steve Austin’s good side, but that doesn’t mean The Milan Miracle doesn’t recognize a killer entrance tune when he hears it. The sound of glass shattering has long been the signal that a can of whoop ass was about to be opened. But maybe it’d work just as well as the prelude to a Cobra strike?
“I would like to have the one from ‘Cold Stone’ Steve Austin, because when the glass breaks, you know that stuff’s about to go down,” Santino explained in his own special way.
Jack Swagger boasts a triumphant-sounding entrance song that’s almost as infectious as his “We The People” credo. Yet, The Real American admitted his favorite Superstar entrances are the ones that pack impressive, galvanizing bursts of noise.
“At the beginning they start small and then there’s a big explosion, and then the music is just pumped, and you’re feeling it,” Swagger said. “You can’t help if you’re a fan in the audience coming to your feet, and the one that comes to mind is The Animal, Batista’s.”
Swagger even digs Batista’s theatrics that go along with this song: “When he hits the machine gun stance, I go crazy every time for that.”
When you think about Dolph Ziggler’s unbridled athleticism, flamboyance and predilection for show-stealing, it doesn’t come as a surprise that The Showoff would pick The Showstopper’s theme song. Shawn Michaels’ entrance “embodies everything about being a top-shelf sports-entertainer,” Ziggler said, noting its universal appeal.
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“There’s entertainment, there’s seriousness, there’s something you can latch on to,” he said. “There’s everything you could possibly want.”
But would Ziggler attempt to sing vocals like Michaels did on his track?
“I would love to,” he said, before quipping, “It wouldn’t be my finest hour, but I’m used to that.”
The youngest Divas Champion in WWE history didn’t hesitate in naming the Superstar’s theme song she’d like to have as her own. “Edge’s song,” Paige replied instantly.
“Every time it came on, it got me excited and I was singing along to it,” The Diva of Tomorrow said, before explaining why. “It’s completely badass, and I think it suits me because I think of myself as quite the badass.”
Fandango has had his share of run-ins with Chris Jericho, even notching his first pay-per-view victory over the legendary Ayatollah of Rock ‘n’ Rolla at WrestleMania 29. Still, WWE’s resident dancing destroyer fancies any song that makes him want to move — even if it does belong to Y2J.
“I like the way the music goes out and the pyro hits,” Fandango conceded. “I’d actually listen to that song even if it wasn’t a wrestling entrance theme song.”
The way Kofi Kingston leaps into his entrance — leading arena-wide boom-claps to the sound of Collie Buddz’s “S.O.S.” — is as much a part of The Dreadlocked Dynamo’s Superstar DNA as his elastic, blink-and-you-missed-it in-ring attack. It’s hard to imagine him arriving to the ring to any other music. If he did, however, the song trumpeting his arrival would be Marc Mero’s old theme song.
“It had that awesome heavy guitar riff,” Kingston recalled. “Plus, he used to do the Shooting Star Press, and I thought he was really athletic and cool. His music was definitely something I had on CD back in the day.”
In naming her choice, The Black Widow not only opted for a relatively obscure song; she also articulated a case that gets right at the heart of this dream-entrance concept.
“I’m not sure I would still use it to this day, but I have to stay true to 12-year-old AJ, who used to use Hardcore Holly’s entrance music for my Create-a-Wrestler in every ‘SmackDown! vs. Raw’ video game,” she said. “That was always my go-to.”