How AEW Might Be Secretly Changing The Game
Across the squealing soft rock of Shawn Michaels' 'Sexy Boy', the energetic judder-riffing of the Ultimate Warrior's 'Unstable', and Steve Austin's dangerous, chaotic 'Hell Frozen Over', Johnston and Hart between them soundtracked an era you can hear as much as you can see when you look back upon it.
This was an enforced move, or a move enforced by Vince McMahon's thriftiness, anyway. The licensed music revolution of the early 1980s proved prohibitively expensive as the national wrestling war played out amidst other revolution of cable TV and its attendant exposure. But before pro wrestling at large dropped the licensed tracks that became vogue after the Fabulous Freebirds popularised the trend, that sh*t was over as f*ck once upon a time. Over as f*ck.
They were rock stars coming out to Lynyrd Skynyrd. The Road Warriors made their way to the ring backed by Black Sabbath's 'Iron Man'. That was particularly inspired; the lurching doom of the opening sunk in the stomach of the hapless pricks who had to eat their stiff, reckless sh*t. The monumental riff that followed stirred a primal feeling in the audience satisfied by the bone-crunching power moves. The Junkyard Dog used Queen's 'Another One Bites The Dust', and it was awesome - a menacing strut with a vital mischief with which JYD got over as hell in Mid-South.
Tony Khan was an ECW guy growing up - this is no coincidence - and ECW used licensed audio by effectively leveraging their cult popularity.
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