FIVE COOL
ENTRANCE THEMES
Let's be honest - we here at WCW Wednesdays rag on the company's choice in music... quite a bit, in fact.
Not only did we systematically take apart the Slam Jam 1 and Mayhem: The Music albums in separate columns last year, we've also poked more than a little fun at the various rip-off theme songs that were used from time to time (for example, Hulk Hogan's "American Made" was a poor man's "Real American", while themes for Chris Jericho, Diamond Dallas Page and Raven clearly knocked off popular songs by Pearl Jam and Nirvana.
But it's not all bad! Here are a list of five WCW theme songs that were quite novel and remain iconic tunes to this day.
Goldberg
Bill Goldberg's original WCW theme song ("Invasion" by Christian Poulet and Jean-Yves Rigo) is so popular that when the WWE 2K17 commercial aired, all you needed was the pound of the drums and the low bass to know who was being summoned out of the police compound. Even when WWE tried to re-create the song in 2003 with a Jim Johnston-penned knockoff, it wasn't able to capture the intensity of the original theme.
Eddy Guerrero
While we'd be complete idiots to debate the merits of Eddie Guerrero's awesome WWE theme songs ("Latino Heat", "Lie, Cheat, Steal"), his WCW theme, written by Jimmy Hart and Howard Helm, was fantastic, too. The song (simply titled "Eddy Guerrero") has a little bit of menace to it, while still remaining catchy and a little bit stereotypical... which was just what he needed during his initial heel run in WCW.
Hollywood Blondes
What does The Hollywood Blondes' entrance theme have to do with the persona of two Hollywood stars? Absolutely nothing. But then again, neither Stunning Steve Austin or Flyin' Brian Pillman were actually from Hollywood, so the whole concept raises some questions. Still, it's hard not to love the repetitive heavy-metal riff and increasingly pronounced drums throughout the song, which quickly became a part of the team's overall appeal.
Big Van Vader
Some people may prefer Vader's WWF theme song "It's Time" (actual lyrics: "What - time - is it? It's time. It's Vader time (time time)"), but I'm a sucker for his original WCW theme, which for some reason was called "Afro Rock" by MCT Library. The theme is a nod to Vader's run in Japan and kind of sounds like something out of a classic Godzilla or King Kong movie, if those movies were made in 1993.
Sting
No.... we are NOT honoring "A Man Called Sting" here (see the aforementioned Slam Jam 1 review for our views on that). This is the song called "Crow" that was written by Jimmy Hart. It is actually the perfect tune to bring a flawed, brooding viligante superhero to the ring, which is exactly what Sting was attempting to portray during the Monday Night Wars. And this is another example of where, when Sting came to WWE, they kept tinkering with his song to the point where it just wasn't the same afterwards.
There are, of course, more than just five cool WCW theme songs... but we're saving more of them should we decide to revisit this theme again down the road.