WWE ANTHOLOGY: PART ONE (FED YEARS)

Any of you who have indulged in wrestling themes via Youtube have no doubt seen the cover above. That's the real legacy of the next release. I've always assumed it was Chris Jericho and really it doesn't get much better than Break the Walls Down, so I'd be okay with it. The comments section had someone ask and the sole reply said Scott Steiner, and it might be right. I can just barely make out the chain mail. Evidently this was a 3-disc set (System is it considered DELUXE?) chronicling the fed years, Attitude and "NOW". No doubt gonna be some repeats, but we'll roll with it. Gonna focus just on the fed (WWF) disc to start. Going into this I thought it was gonna be Golden-Attitude-Modern, but sure whatever.

So we start out with easily a GOAT contender both in the worker and the theme, REAL AMERICAN. Couldn't pick a better #1 track. Play it and pretend you don't know it word for word. I'll wait...

Not gonna touch on ones we've discussed before, but #2 is Bret. Same deal as Hogan and I'm okay putting him there both in terms of being a star and the music. He ain't quite there, but it's close.

We get the Bushwhackers theme. "I mean, it's alright" - for those that follow memes and such.

We get Randy Savage next, but not his theme... the song for him and ElizaBETH's wedding. Fuck bruh wrestling weddings are just the best.

Million Dollar Man - it's a great wrestling theme and there's no mistaking it for what it is. Will I listen recreationally? No, but I won't turn it off. Originally typed it as "Million Dollar Money"...

Jake had a theme. I'm sure it worked for the time, but I forgot I was even doing "this" when it was on...

Razor's we've already talked about. It's too cool for school.

No Holds Barred theme from the movie... it doesn't really belong but it has that stank to it that I'm gonna let it slide.

ULTIMATE WARRIOR - As soon as it hit I started bobbing my head and it made me think of a some random talking heads appreciating old themes.

Brother Love is a skip.

Honky Tonk Man - Yes sir. It's called "Cool Cocky Bad" - describe a wrestling heel in 3 words.

123 Kid I believe was on one the ones before. Another skip honestly.

Bertha Faye I have no attachment to as a fan. Will just comment that I refer to my 12' ladder at work as "Bertha".

Flash Funk I think is another repeat. It's whatever. I never really gave the guy a shot as I only knew of him through the JOB Squad minus a random indy match here and there.

Sunny repeats. But yeah I did.

Lex Express I feel like I want to like it, but I can't.

Shawn Michaels up next and don't worry kids it isn't from Volume 2 <_<

Los Boricuas is a heel theme because it's not English.

(Original) Mankind is a theme I listened to a lot via WWF Warzone through CAW.

Smoking Gunns I already said I didn't like.

Yoko can't be mistaken unless you assign it to any asian worker. Yoshi Tatsu... please tell me we're gonna reach him one of these days. Big fan of that one.

SID we all know is great, no reason to dwell on it.

TELL ME A LIE oh you mean like your smile and your back? Classic wrestling right here alongside Kevin Nash's My Sacrifice video.

Owen Hart's Enough is Enough I believe from his NOD days. I like the actual music but HATE all the lines said throughout it. I think they took it out for his Blackhart theme. Or is it the other way around? The music itself is great.

With My Baby Tonight it can grow on you.

Sable again as I think they insist on releasing her song every other album so it's here.

Bret's You Start the Fire follows and I'm not sure what it's from or for. Initial listen I'm leaning towards skip but feels like it can wear you down into the sharpshooter.

Diesel Power is back. It's a repeat from the 1st or 2nd review and I'll leave it up to the 'tube.

Man this just reminds me of the steaming hot summer of 1992!

Damn right.

Repeats with both Dude Love and NOD.

Corporate Ministry if I'm not mistaken this one is one of those cult classics... could've sworn it was beloved amongst certain sectors of the IWC. It ain't bad but I'd probably just prefer to listen to No Chance or Taker's theme. Just some trivia from wiki...

Joey Abs made his debut by joining The Mean Street Posse; he wasn't a member of the Corporate Ministry, but debuted under the Corporate Ministry banner.

We get a song for Dude Love called THE DUDESTER to close out the disc in what can only be seen as odd. My memory banks can't pinpoint where it's from, but I suppose it works as an entrance if it was used there. Prefer the classic one. Strangely it was only a few songs ago. Shoulda stacked them.

*** - As a solo disc I'm not sure I liked it. Especially for the time it came out (2002) there's no reason to even bother with a comp set when you can just use Limewire and burn a CD with your proper tracks. That's a thing I did for my bus rides and when I drove Dad's car. Nu metal, wrestling music (mostly nu metal) and anime openings was my stuff. The stuff that wasn't on older sets wasn't worth it other than Hogan and 90% of Owen's. I was hyped when it started and then it went downhill as Mitch would often say about pancakes.

Also just on the offchance it doesn't pop up in a future release... Bis Bossman both his classic and corporate enforcer. Oh man. Yeah my YT feed is basically gonna be nothing but this by now.

Slightest detour, but @ness including YouTube comments has reminded me of the YouTube clip of Sting's 3rd WCW Theme which has a pinned comment of:

I fucked 3 fat hookers to this song

Which is, not much, strictly as a non sequitur. However, something happens when you read that comment as the song is playing, an alchemy of one of the funniest things ever written.

Jan 28, 2024 21:52:02 GMT Kilgore said:

Slightest detour, but @ness including YouTube comments has reminded me of the YouTube clip of Sting's 3rd WCW Theme which has a pinned comment of:

I fucked 3 fat hookers to this song

Which is, not much, strictly as a non sequitur. However, something happens when you read that comment as the song is playing, an alchemy of one of the funniest things ever written.

You’ve got to read this comment immediately after the cowbell to get its full impact

Jan 28, 2024 21:52:02 GMT Kilgore said:

Slightest detour, but @ness including YouTube comments has reminded me of the YouTube clip of Sting's 3rd WCW Theme which has a pinned comment of:

I fucked 3 fat hookers to this song

Which is, not much, strictly as a non sequitur. However, something happens when you read that comment as the song is playing, an alchemy of one of the funniest things ever written.

He does this, he does that. He's big as a bull and he's quick as a cat.

My cousin, who I'm pretty sure owned the WCW album with the Sting theme, swore his theme went "Man called Sting, Sting called man." If only that were true.
================
Aww yeah. I was hoping @ness got to this one. The magnum opus of WWE releases in my opinion. Why? Because of the depth. A Youtube playlist I found had 84 songs listed from this triple discer. Even if you want to dismiss half of them as filler, that still leaves you with a whopping 42 listenable tunes. The average "perfect album" had what, 10 out of 10, maybe 12 out of 12. 42 > 12. Quantity over quality. Plus it covered the 80s, 90, and "Today" making it basically the soundtrack of my life. You know I cruised around town blaring the choicest tunes at maximum volume. Picking favorites would be too time consuming so I'll only put over REAL AMERICAN right now and the oddities of Deadly Game, No Holds Barred, and California. 

Seeing the Los Boricuas theme pop up means Storytime. My cousin went through a phase of singing "heads up high, touch the sky" during one of his weekend visits in 97-98. I finally caved and asked where it was from. He said "Los Boricuas theme." Yep, my cousin was a Los Boricuas theme mark. Not a Los Boricuas mark. Those don't existed. Just a mark for the theme. So I remembered that moment with amusement when I got Anthology and I too became a Los Boricuas theme mark. It's a catchy tune! That part where it goes from Spanish rapping to Spanish singing is pretty sweet. 

Thought Anthology might have been my last WWE Music purchase. Nope. There was one more. Let's see if Ness takes it that far.

WWE ANTHOLOGY: PART TWO (WE GOT ATTITUDE)

Let's get into this, although I'm pretty sure "Attitude" was basically "the music" 3-5... I'm gonna score everything into a few categories. If I had Tiktok skillz I'd make a video of this. Gonna shake this bitch up.

HATE IT BLOCK

BRAWL 4 ALL - Just as the video says. I'd probably listen to most anything else however. Feels like it's excellent character select screen music though.

WM ALL DAY LONG - Another weird Ness memory is remembering some background music from an interview (Steph?) "ooooooohhhh California" that's it. Probably the only person who remembers it and honestly this is the first I've heard it since that Sunday.

MONTREAL REDUX - No idea Survivor Series 98 had a theme. Was my first live PPV. Pretty forgettable and I clearly need more tiers.

REGALNOMICS - It's a meme to like this song. After the first 5 seconds I'm out. My only memory of this run was him accepting a ho from Godfather and then falling for the bait to... wrestle. Gross.

SEXUAL CHOKRIT - Yeah it's whatever. Hall of Pain it is not.

D'VON - Some might disagree but I really don't care for this one. Their instrumental one though... I'd have to weigh that one over.

THUMBS IN THE MIDDLE BLOCK

RATHER BE IN CHYNA - Already said I enjoy the song, but I can't put it alongside the greats. That's insane.

IN THE ZONE - Shamrock just has a great theme.

JUST A PUPPET - Edge thinks he's so mysterious.

ALL ABOARD - Pretty recognizable but otherwise not much to it.

FAST COUNT OF DOOM - Somehow I didn't realize the "DX remix" was for Tyson. I didn't start until Deadly Games. Feels like a fusion dance between DX and X-Pac.

TWO WORDS FOR YA - I actually think it would score higher if the track contained Road Dogg's part. Feels like a karaoke track.

WHY IS IT SPELLED VEN(U)IS? - My friend asked me once a month why The Big Valbowski spelled it with an I. Like why do you think dude? Just okay.

LATINO HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAT - It's impossible to say without doing it in celebration of Lawler Mania. King needs way more credit in establishing Eddy in WWE.

MOONSAULT - Was it just me or did Lita have the heaviest gravity fall for her top rope finisher? I swear she sank like a stone. Got an okay theme, long enough for a diva's entrance.

OWEN 3:16 - Surprised they added the Austin novelty song here. Not bad.

DOIN' IT 4 ROCKY - Bad Man is a guilty pleasure. I will fight you. Most underrated song I've heard in 20 minutes.

THE ****-****3/4 BLOCK

Suck It - Not my most favorite to listen to as I usually have to be in the "mood" for it. Something just dawned on me after hearing it for decades on end... break it down and break the walls down. Was "it" the wall?

AUSTIN 3:16 - Don't really like the name of this song, sounds like it fits better elsewhere but it's a classic that just feels like it's missing a piece. A very small one, but still great.

SHATTERED DREAMS - In terms of wrestling themes it's damn near spectacular. Really the only thing that separates it from the final tier is I can't see myself listening to it on repeat.

CHEST PROTECTHERRRRR - If I was motivated enough to have a 5th category taking place between okay and great... it might go there. But since we don't. Always mark for any theme that says ass.

MEDAL SUPERIOR - Kurt's release on this set sounds different than normal. Must've remixed it to be more in tune with the You Suck chant. Still one of the better themes.

NO CHANCE - It might get higher rating with me if it had more replayability. I find I can't listen to it over and over like others.

ROODY POO - Different version of Rock's theme from the last volume it was on. Feels like it was from his 01-02 sporadic era.

TURN IT UP - Perfect closing credits music.

PROVE ME WRONG 4 REAL OR I'LL MAKE YOU TAP - Benoit's original WWF theme has a lot going for it. Rabid. Shooter. Whatever.

DO YA? - YES! BOBCORE sighting. Caught me by surprise as I was typing up the previous entry.

THE LITTLE EXTRA BLOCK

ASSMAN - Is there another theme that brings the people together like this?

GOBLET - Gangrel's entrance should just loop in reverse it's so good. The ring don't even matter.

BRAINS OUT KNEES DOWN - Probably the only thing Kane has ever achieved the perfect snowflake for.

AN ILLEGAL CHOKE - About the only good thing to come of his run. Although he had decent lines with early Cole. He actually ACKNOWLEDGED we turned out backs on the Rock.

WHO'S SLEEPIN' WITH WHO? - I really prefer it even if they bastardized it by having his laydees come out to it.

MICKEY MOUSE TATTOOS - Might be recency bias, but the Minustry Taker theme has really stepped up it's game from what I remember.

WOULD YOU PLEASE... STHU! - Chris Jericho ends disc two on a high note. You were stopped and dropped by the walls of JERICHO.

**** - Most of the good stuff is already owned if you had the previous discs but in terms of content there's a lot more here. I'd say 20/30 are unskippable so that's something.

WWE ANTHOLOGY: PART THREE (NOW... err THEN)

Final disc starts out with a familiar "signature" before Raw or Smackdown. I'm sure the others had it, but wasn't included in the playlist I used.

We start out with Brock Lesnar, which feels fitting for the brand split era. Might be one of the few guys who got it right from jump. Granted they strapped the rocket from the same day, but still you would've figured they'd have tinkered with it like nearly all stars do. Heyman working that magik...

We get an instrumental for Taker, and while it's not bad... if you know the future song it just feels off. And apparently it's on the disc too. Why even have this one unless it's a space issue? Disc 3 is half the size (prob cuz it released in 2002) of the other parts so I guess padding was needed.

CHRISTIANNNNNNNNNNNN! CHRISTIANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN! Yes this is what we're talking about. Christian for my taste always had great theme music and that includes TNA. Other than his generic rock theme I could revisit all of them. Oddly enough this one is probably my least listened to.

BISCH... we're just hitting HIT after HIT. The No Chance of the brand split era. Love it.

Dvon is here to TESTIFY. It's a cute theme for a cute summer gimmick. Feel like there could've been more here, but we know what his was there to do... introduce the star.

Blame owning the DVD, but I loved the Summerslam 2002 theme. One of the greatest shows of all time. When an Eddy/Edge match is one of the weaker ones you know you're in for the GOODS.

We get Rey's original WWE theme. He isn't a booyaka quite yet, but it just SOUNDS like Smackdown during that time.

What Rey did for the cruisers I guess we can say Trish did for the laydees. This is her song with words... I've always liked it, but I also really liked her T&A theme. There's something "extra" about a good wrestling theme that isn't a song. It's just the rules.

Hurricane is a theme that's fun to listen to every once in a while. WOOSH.

I think he used it for like 30 seconds, but I really liked Jericho's King of My World. I also liked his song from WWE Originals. Jericho mark or just a geek with bad taste?

While it was time for her to have her own theme... but man is it cringe. Whenever Steph's music hits, it just sounds off to me. Not gonna call it the biggest piece of dog shit... but it's certainly in the same aisle.

Torrie had a theme, but being she's a diva unless she won her monthly bikini contest you're not likely to hear it long so it's whatever.

So there's something weird coming up. It's a HHH song, but I doubt he ever came out to it. It uses his pre-My Time instrumental (love that one), calls it The Game so it was AFTER Motorhead... why? Maybe he just had it in his contract to have one on every album. I suppose if they can release The Last of Us 30x, why can't there be another pointless HHH theme?

I refuse to believe it's just me, but remember that Taker song I mentioned? YOU'RE GONNA PAY! Love this song and can't tell if it's so bad it's good or genuinely good but I can't admit it. BAD ASSES ALWAYS KICKING ASS! This was during that "we don't know what to do with Taker" era, least it felt like that.

Billy Gunn (and Chuck I guess) of course always managing to have a great theme. Honestly though the first 10 seconds are pretty great, but hearing it more... maybe less so. Still I can't tell if it's just a "real" song or a "cheap" wanna Nsync deal for wrestling. Like did J Double just grab some kids and force them to sing this? I love the idea of DIS BUSINESS having fake songs. I love that their whole run ended in this scene:

So we get "The End" a song they used a lot for PPVs, specifically something like Armageddon. Still got it memorized apparently.

Anthology closes out with Shane's Here Comes the Money song. Really love the first 20 seconds which is about when he gets in the ring. I don't hate the actual song proper, but it has such a great wrestling entrance hook that it goes downhill when that ends.

***3/4 - Deciding on snowflakes is kinda goofy. I like more than half of this disc and honestly the skips could be tolerated at extreme scenarios (passively listening or cassette tape).

Overall: **** - Value is value and regardless of cost it's hard to beat having so many themes to listen to. It does beg the question, are wrestling themes a genre? I wonder if TNA ever released anything like this, I'm certain they had a FEW contenders. Honestly I didn't really like dudes just coming out to random ass songs. Like when Jimmy Rave was coming out to House on the Rising Sun. Fuck you dude. RIP. Dude gimme that Chris Masters theme before some of these regular songs.