By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
The following press release was issued to promote The Mount Rushmore of Wrestling podcast.
PARTS UNKNOWN–In professional wrestling, entrance music is tailored to incite an audience reaction, to be instantly recognizable, to generate a feeling of rage or excitement, and to last through the annals of wrestling history, if not beyond.
For Nate Merz, the Ultimate Warrior’s iconic guitar-rock theme song “didn’t make the cut list.”
On the latest episode of The Mount Rushmore of Wrestling podcast, “The Mount Rushmore of Entrance Music,” Merz and his co-host, Eric Nelson, debate the merits of several pro wrestlers’ theme music as they choose their individual top four.
One of Nelson’s picks, the Ultimate Warrior’s “Unstable,” written by legendary WWF/WWE music producer Jim Johnston, wasn’t even under Merz’s consideration.
“He only had a, maybe, five-year run,” says Merz of the Warrior, a short tenure which disqualified “Unstable” from his running. Nelson countered that Warrior’s stint lasted from 1987 to 2014, “minus about 22 years,” a fuzzy statistic that was quickly ignored.
On the other hand, Nelson questioned two of Merz’s choices, the Undertaker’s “Graveyard Symphony,” and Ric Flair’s “Also Sprach Zarathustra.” After Merz gave a well-thought-out rationale for each, Nelson essentially dismissed both as just “a collection of sounds.”
“These aren’t songs, they aren’t music,” chirped Nelson, based on the conventional structure of popular tunes. Undertaker’s and Ric Flair’s 30-year-plus and 50-some-year careers, respectively, seemed lost on the overly principled Nelson.
New episodes of The Mount Rushmore of Wrestling podcast are available every Thursday, anywhere listeners get their podcasts. Eric Nelson, has-been musician and former PWTorch.com columnist, and Nate Merz, a recent two-time Tecmo Bowl champion in the U.S., welcome debates on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, all at the handle 123Rushmore.
Powell’s POV: The podcast concept sounds fun and here’s wishing Eric and Nate the best of luck with it. The Tecmo Bowl champion line jumped out at me. Long before there was a Montreal Screwjob, there was the Tecmo Screwjob. My buddy Rob and I had Tecmo Super Bowl sessions that would go all night with each of us playing a full season. Rob had a 16-0 regular season with his beloved Rams and was on the verge of completing the perfect season. With seconds left in the championship game, the only thing Rob had to do was punt the ball and let the final seconds expire. The game had another idea. The nondescript punt returner turned into an unstoppable force with a speed burst that would make Tyreek Hill jealous. The punt returner took it to the house with no time left on the clock and ruined Rob’s dream season. It led to an epic meltdown that included Rob cussing out Playstation, Tecmo Bowl, and the no-name punt returner while destroying his controller. The story still comes up nearly every year when Rob and I get together for our annual fantasy football draft.
Too bad Dolph’s entrance wasn’t on the list probably.