6. Ric Flair - Also Sprach Zarathustra (Richard Strauss)
For a wrestler as timeless as 'The Nature Boy', a piece of music best known for depicting the dawn of humanity couldn't be more fitting. Popularised in Stanley Kubrick's sci-fi movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, Richard Strauss' tone poem became irrevocably linked with Flair when he became one of the earliest grapplers to use entrance music. After the wrestler was forced to reinvent himself following a near-fatal plane crash in 1975, The theme possessed all the requisite pageantry and glamour to add the finishing touches to Flair's new, cultured 'Nature Boy' gimmick,. A glittering, gold-laden career followed, and when the WWF snapped up Flair in 1991, his legacy was recognised as he was positioned opposite Hulk Hogan as wrestling's 'real' world champion. Yet he didn't have his 'real' theme music. WWF, always knowing better, produced a chintzy synthesised facsimile of Strauss' illustrious opener. It was of course, worse. Thankfully, Flair wasn't; he put in one of the all-time classic performances as he won the other 'real' world title at Royal Rumble 1992. If only he had had the proper fanfare to celebrate. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6RoasSoLK0
Benjamin was born in 1987, and is still not dead. He variously enjoys classical music, old-school adventure games (they're not dead), and walks on the beach (albeit short - asthma, you know).
He's currently trying to compile a comprehensive history of video game music, yet denies accusations that he purposefully targets niche audiences. He's often wrong about these things.
