The Greatest Professional Wrestling Concept Album EVER: Track By Track

Killer Lyrics: Let all the trash rain down / From way up in the rafters / I’m walking out of here in one piece / Don’t care what comes after.

The piano packs the emotion, from the stripped back opening section to all the instruments eventually subtly melding without muddying the vocals. The Piano outro solo is an emotive end to the track and emphasises the personal poignancy of the wrestler who has turned for the sake of his career and legacy.

The narrator is a babyface who fears “dying” in the ring. It’s never quite clear if he means bombing during a match or his literal death, likely both. He dwells on how being “an upstanding, well-loved man about town” with moral convictions has brought him nothing. His heel turn is a successful one evidenced by the rain of trash and the President of the fan club’s tears.

Darnielle discussed the art and appeal of heel turns during an interview with The Guardian:

“That’s expressing a very real urge […] You might at some point be frustrated with the fact that you always have to be good, and you might be thinking “Well, I wish I could just be a bad person.” But of course, you don’t want to be a bad person, because you would live a miserable life and have no friends. In wrestling you can vicariously watch somebody ally with the darkness.”