Top Ten Musical Wrestlers
I’m going to let you in on a secret… okay not so much a secret but maybe just low key on this site is the fact that I LOVE pro wrestling. American pro wrestling, lucha libre, Japanese pro wrestling, I love it all when it’s good. Even when it’s bad, pro wrestling can be fun. But what many of you out there might not realise is that rock and wrestling are rather connected. Ever since Cyndi Lauper showed up in the WWF there has always been a musical presence in pro wrestling and with Wrestlemania coming up, I thought I’d take the next two weeks of lists to explore those connections. This week I look at the top ten musical wrestlers; whether it be through gimmick or in real life, music became heavily involved with them.
10) The West Texas Rednecks
This was a stable made up of some really solid hands in the ring (including Curt Hennig and Barry Windham). The idea was they were a bunch of country music loving bad guys to combat a face stable called…
9) The No Limit Soldiers
Remember rapper Master P? I barely do but there was a time period where he was everywhere. Rapper, producer, label owner and athlete. Toronto readers might remember P tried out for the Toronto Raptors on one or two occasions. But where the Raptors didn’t play him in regular season, World Championship Wrestling was happy to. So using P’s brand name of No Limit, the face (or good guys) stable No Limit Soldiers was born… and didn’t really connect with fans. P blamed the racial make-up of the crowd.
8) The Demon
Dale Torborg was a wrestler in WCW with a pretty crappy gimmick until WCW head Erich Bischoff struck a deal with Gene Simmons and Kiss. Torborg became The Demon, Simmons’s make-up alter ego and from there things went down hill due to a lot of political issues back stage. What’s more interesting is the fact that The Demon was only the first in what was supposed to be a stable called The Warriors of Kiss with each wrestler having a gimmick tied to the Kiss make-up. The contract also guaranteed The Demon would have a “main event” match at a pay per view. Now there is an example of Simmons trying to create brand protection.
7) The Insane Clown Posse
I know you’re first thought, “Those guys aren’t wrestlers” and you’d be wrong… more or less. ICP are big wrestling fans to the point of being trained wrestlers. They’ve worked in a number of federations (including the WWE, WCW and ECW) as well as starting their own federation, Juggalo Championship Wrestling.
6) John Cena
During the height of Eminem’s mainstream fame, John Cena was set as the white rapper wrestler complete with a theme song done by himself. Cena also released a full rap album. And to be fair, this gimmick helped Cena get to the place he has today, at the top of the card.
5) Macho Man Randy Savage
Probably my favourite wrestler ever, Savage released an… interesting rap album that included a diss track on Hulk Hogan… I hate to speak ill of the dead but this is awful. Savage has good flow but it’s just the entire diss is weird considering pro wrestling is predetermined. If you need to wash the taste out of the above song, go to youtube and watch Savage / Steamboat from Wrestlemania 3.
4) Hulk Hogan
We’ve all read the stories of Hogan wanting to play in Metallica as well as The Rolling Stones but what a lot of people don’t know (and for good reason) is that Hogan did release an album called Hulk Rules … and it is terrible. If this is any indication, Metallica and The Stones dodged very large bullets.
3) The Honky Tonk Man
Wayne Farris was a bit of a journey man wrestler (having decent runs in a few promotions) when he came to the WWF and put on the Elvis inspired jumpsuit and gimmick to become the greatest intercontinental champion of all time. He was like Elvis but mysteriously, he shied away from singing in the ring… but he did use his guitar… to smash guys in the head.
2) Chris Jericho
A legit rocker, Jericho grew up wanting to be two things, a pro wrestler and a rock star and with his band Fozzy, he has achieved both. At first, most of the curiosity about Fozzy was due to Jericho’s connection to wrestling but in the past few years they’ve become an entity unto themselves, touring pretty relentlessly and have opened for Metallica as well as played many concerts and festival gigs over the years which considering Jericho’s status as a wrestler, is to be admired. He’s not doing this because he has to do it, he does it because he wants to.
1) Jimmy “The Mouth Of The South” Hart
The manager with the big mouth is also the only one on this list with a legit hit. In his teenage years, Hart was a member of The Gentrys who had a hit with the song Keep On Dancing. It reached #4 on Billboard’s Hot 100 in 1965. Since then Hart has kept his hand in music in other ways. Besides helping Hogan with Hulk Rules, Hart also worked on the theme songs for wrestlers The Honky Tonk Man, Shawn Michaels, The Fabulous Rougeau Brothers among many more.
Next week, one more wrestling themed list regarding top ten wrestling themes… I even brought in some experts on this one. STAY TUNED!
Absolutely fantastic article – Kudos, Brent! I personally would have found room for The Misfits, who were part of the Vampiro angle in WCW (But that's a mood point)… Looking forward already to next week, where I had better see mention of Junkyard Dog's "Grab Them Cakes"!