7 bands the WWE Universe love because of WWE

Music is a big part of WWE, which is played at pay-per-views, shows, and of course and most importantly, entrance music.

WWE has their own music team that provides most of these, with Jim Johnston doing so from 1985 - 2017, and CFO$ from 2012 - present. The majority of theme music for superstars is generally handled by WWE's team, but pay-per-views and weekly shows, as well as the odd superstar theme, are provided by mainstream bands.

While fans may have already heard of said bands outside of WWE, it is often when hearing them on WWE TV that WWE fans start to listen to more and more of their songs, and eventually even become fans. Here are 7 of such bands that fans have fallen in love with, through WWE.

#7 Papa Roach

Papa Roach hit the mainstream in 2000 with their ultra-successful debut album, 'Infest'. The band was pretty well known before WWE ever used any of their songs but a lot of WWE fans still didn't pay them much attention until 2006, when WWE used their latest single, 'To Be Loved...' as the new theme music for Monday Night RAW.

'To Be Loved...' became very popular among WWE fans and remained the RAW theme for 3 years. The bands most recent single and number #1, 'Born For Greatness', was revealed to be the new official main theme for RAW this past January.

#6 Fozzy

This one may seem obvious to include, but it isn't that much when you think about it. WWE legend Chris Jericho joined up with Stuck Mojo band members, Rich Ward and Frank Fontsere, in 1999, to form a comedy rock cover band named Fozzy.

Chris dubbed himself 'Moongoose McQueen' and refused to acknowledge that Moongoose McQueen and Chris Jericho were the same people.

The band gave themselves a satirical back-story that they had signed with a record company to move to Japan to be huge rock stars, but the company went out of business, leaving them stranded for 20 years, while all their demos were snatched and recorded by other bands.

WWE began to promote Fozzy a little bit in 2002 when the band released their second album Happenstance, when Stephanie McMahon implied she was a fan in a backstage segment to promote the album's release. This was followed by a live performance from Fozzy on an episode of RAW in August, 2002.

We wouldn't hear much about Fozzy again on WWE TV until 2005 when WWE used the band's first written single, 'Enemy', as the theme for the No Way Out pay-per-view. It would also serve as the theme for TNA's Bound For Glory in 2006 and today remains the bands most popular song around WWE fans.

Those who are actually fans of Fozzy love the song too, but prefer others as their favorite. Many WWE fans don't seem to like Chris as a singer, which I believe is due in large part to their desire to see him more often in WWE. The first album Fozzy wrote, their 3rd album 'All That Remains', has received mixed reviews from critics.

However, the four albums they have released since then have all be critically acclaimed and have even been praised by rock/metal giants Corey Taylor and Iron Maiden.

#5 Drowning Pool

Drowning Pool was one of the most used bands for WWE in the early 2000's. The band's biggest hit, 'Bodies', was not only their most used song from WWE, but also possibly the most used mainstream song in company history as it was used as the theme music for three WWE pay-per-views, SummerSlam 2001, and the ECW One Night Stand events of 2005 and 2006, it was used as the entrance theme for the Alliance when they all entered together and it was used as the intro theme of WWE's ECW brand from 2006 - 2008.

The band's song 'Sinner' was also used for Vengeance 2001 and 'Tear Away', as one of the themes for WrestleMania X8. The band also appeared at WrestleMania X8 for a live performance.

Even after lead singer Dave Williams' premature death in 2002, WWE has continued to use Drowning Pool with their other lead singers, such as the song 'Step Up' for WrestleMania 20 and the song 'Rise Up' as the theme music for WWE Smackdown from 2004 - 2008. Truly WWE played an instrumental part in the popularity of Drowning Pool.

#4 Saliva

Saliva is a very much used band throughout the 2000's in WWE. The band's first exposure with WWE came in late 2001 when their song 'Click Click Boom' was used as the theme music for No Mercy that year. Their song 'Superstar' was next featured as one of the themes for WrestleMania X8, which would also feature a live performance for the band.

The Dudley Boyz also used the song 'Turn The Tables', as their theme for a while, which was written by the band for the sole purpose of being used as their theme.

WWE would later use the bands next biggest hit, 'Always', as the theme for Survivor Series 2002, which included a live performance during the show of the song at WWE's The World restaurant. The band's next biggest hot, 'Ladies and Gentlemen' was used as a theme for WrestleMania 23, while the song 'Hunt You Down' was used for No Way Out 2009. Saliva's song 'Don't Question My Heart' would be used as the theme music of WWE's ECW brand from 2008 - 2010.

#3 Creed

Creed could have come in at the number #1 spot on this list, had they not already been a huge band at the time WWE used them. In fact, Creed was the biggest band in America at the time, and thus, probably the world. Despite being so big, Creed never found as much success in the UK and throughout Europe, as they did in the US, so WWE would have been how most of their International fans would have been first introduced to the Grammy winners.

When a wrestling fan thinks of Creed, they think of one song, 'My Sacrifice'. The band's Grammy-nominated number #1 was used for more than a dozen different WWE Desire tribute videos in late 2001 and early 2002, and became very popular among WWE fans.

WWE has used several other Creed songs for tributes on weekly shows and DVD's, most notably the band's biggest song 'Higher', in tribute to Eddie Guerrero. WWE also used a Creed b-side album song, 'Young Grow Old', as the theme for Backlash 2002, and it would also feature on WWE's Forceable Entry CD.

#2 Shinedown

Another band that found many international fans through WWE, Shinedown was doing pretty well in the U.S before WWE came along. In 2005, WWE would use the band's big hit 'Save Me' as the theme for WWE No Mercy in 2005. They quickly rebounded just five months later when WWE used their follow-up single 'I Dare You' as one of the themes for WrestleMania 22.

WWE would then use several songs from Shinedown's next album, 'The Sound of Madness'. They started first with the album's first single, 'Devour' as the theme for Night of Champions 2008.

They followed up with Shinedown's biggest song, 'Second Chance' being used as the theme for the 2008 Tribute To The Troops special and the third consecutive single from the album, also called 'The Sound of Madness', being used as a highlight video for WrestleMania 25 in 2009. A popular b-side to the album, 'Diamond Eyes', was used as the secondary theme for WrestleMania XXVII, and as WWE Main Event's opening theme from 2012 to 2014.

WWE would also use singles from the band's next album, Amaryllis (Jerry Lawler would struggle saying this). The song 'Adrenaline' would be used for Extreme Rules 2012, and the lead single, 'Cut The Cord', from the following album 'Threat To Survival', would also be used for Hell in A Cell 2015.

Most recently WWE used the song 'Enemies' as the intro theme for RAW from 2016 - 2018.

#1 Alter Bridge

Has there ever been a more kick-ass theme than Alter Bridge's 'Metalingus', for Edge? I don't think so!

The second time we have had Mark Tremonti, Brian Marshall and Scott Phillips on this list, the former members of Creed quickly formed Alter Bridge with singer Myles Kennedy in early 2004, shortly after the Creed split.

Edge revealed in an interview he had been hanging out with Mark in his house when the guitarist sang 'Metalingus' for him (before Myles joined).

Edge loved it so much, that he took a recorded version of the song to WWE and requested it to be used as his new entrance theme, and WWE happily obliged.

While the band got some publicity as the former members of Creed, it was WWE's use of 'Metalingus' that really helped Alter Bridge get on track. Fans questioned who the band was so often online that WWE invited them to appear on an episode of RAW in 2005 in a backstage segment with Edge.

WWE has also used the songs 'Find The Real', for the Royal Rumble 2005, 'Rise Today' for Unforgiven 2007, 'In Loving Memory' as a tribute to Eddie Guerrero, and more.