8 Def Rebel WWE Themes That That AREN’T Complete Garbage
Music used to be a Fed fastball, but in the worst era ever for entrance themes, what still shines?
Jordynne Grace was the latest of many within WWE to find herself with a new theme for 2025 that felt infinitely inferior to the one that came before.
An all-to-common occurrence over the last several years, the change was greeted with a familiar air of disappointment and disinterest from an audience saddened by the demise of something they'd enjoyed as a key part of a performer's presentation. In Grace's case, Def Rebel had been tasked with replacing the much-loved siren-heavy anthem that has greeted her since her TNA days; a reality check of working for a market leader that will always want to own as much as possible about a wrestler. But once upon a time, this wasn't such a bad thing - Titan turned out so many iconic tunes that it was often too jarring for a wrestler to walk the aisle without them post-WWE.
Those days drift further into the past. Every Royal Rumble over the past few years has generated similar conversations about the bulk of the 60 themes failing to hit the mark, Def Rebel trending on socials for all the wrong reasons, and the likes of Sami Zayn and Asuka being referenced as ones fortunate enough to get their old classics back, or Cody Rhodes and CM Punk being lucky enough to keep what they'd had before.
Musically, the creative and commercial boom of the mid-2020s may well have not happened. It's a bleak time aurally, save for these scant exceptions...
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8. Gunther
(Listen here)
Aside from being a talent levels above almost everybody else in wrestling in all the normal categories, Gunther has also set about proving that cream really can rise to the top in WWE even if the market leader wants to change just about everything about you.
When WALTER first agreed to work with the company, it was on the grounds that he would only do European dates in order to keep his independent schedule going. Dethroning NXT UK Champion Pete Dunne at TakeOver: New York and representing the black and gold brand at 2019's Survivor Series were the first signs that plans could well be changing, and the a lengthy run as NXT UK Champion saw 'Der Ring General' migrate over to the US with the belt in tow by 2021.
WALTER became GUNTHER in 2022 in the latest change that convinced fans that one of the best wrestlers in the world stood absolutely no chance under Vince McMahon's creative, and they were almost proven right when the future record-setting Intercontinental Champion found himself on the cusp of an anti-US gimmick shortly before the former chairman resigned in disgrace for the first time.
Relatively speaking, the theme changing was the least of his concerns, but it turned out to be one of the many success stories that came within his polished repackaging once Triple H got the creative reins. Taking a different tone entirely to the Symphony No. 9 strains that had proven perfect once upon a time, the new song had a remarkably effective sting that looped enough to reiterate the message of fear and terror without ever being loud enough in the mix to become obnoxious.
Crucially (and unlike so many Def Rebel efforts), it gives the listener several immediate hits for the requisite sensory overload when he arrives on the scene. The second half of the theme is as much about repeating what went well rather than waiting for the good bit.