10 Reasons AEW Is Still The Undisputed Best Wrestling Promotion
6. The Music
Have you heard Damage CTRL's theme?
Jesus wept. It is horrendous, a deeply generic rap rock composition in which the lead vocalist rhymes cage, rage and stage in - yes! - a boring loop with so few dynamics to it. It isn't intimidating or rousing. It's just there, doing nothing to do anything to the crowd.
Music is such an integral part of the pro wrestling experience. A match is automatically over if an over character struts out to something memorable, iconic and anthemic and they aren't overawed by it. A great theme isn't a cheat code - despite excelling in a different comedy role subsequently, Fandango's theme only took him so far - but the talent matches its power, magic happens.
WWE has absolutely zero excuse for its lazy nothing sh*te, either. They are the richest promotion in the history of the world by an unfathomable distance, and should know damn well the power that music wields. It was built on the triumphant strains of 'Real American' and rebuilt with the shattered glass of Jim Johnston's magpie magic.
If they can't find a decent in-house producer, they should pay for licensed themes. They aren't short of money, and AEW has reiterated just how effective the tool is.
'Jane' is a swaggering anthem that makes you feel cool just by listening to it; that goes double for 'Wild Thing'; Brody King's self-penned themes, plural, are somehow as hard as he is.
AEW is actually thrice as good as WWE in this department because Mikey Rukus has produced the best crop of in-house themes since Jim Johnston.