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Jim Johnston, the man who composed WWE entrance themes for 32 years, says The Ultimate Warrior’s music is among his easiest creations.
From 1985 to 2017, Johnston wrote music for almost every Superstar on the WWE roster. He was responsible for many themes in the 1980s, including the “Unstable” track that The Ultimate Warrior used throughout his runs in WWE.
On this week’s edition of SK Wrestling’s UnSKripted, Dr. Chris Featherstone spoke to Johnston about his three decades working with WWE. Discussing The Ultimate Warrior’s theme, Johnston said he knew exactly what to create when he saw the Superstar’s entrance:
“Warrior was one of the easiest ever because he was so intense with the rope thing, and he just shot out from backstage. There was nothing subtle about it. He was just frenetic, you know, with the rope thing. That’s an obvious cue, you know, it’s like this [tapping on the table]. It’s just relentless, and that translates to a guitar. It’s very straight ahead, it’s what he’s doing [running].”
Watch the video above to find out Jim Johnston’s thoughts on the music he created for The Ultimate Warrior, The Undertaker, and many more. He also gave his opinions on modern-day WWE theme songs.
The Rock and The Ultimate Warrior had very different WWE entrance themes
While Jim Johnston found it easy to create The Ultimate Warrior’s theme, he could not say the same for The Rock. The musician tried “a bunch of different things” for the eight-time WWE Champion but nothing seemed to stick:
“A lot of times when you write something suddenly something sticks. Like, ‘Oh, that feels like Rey Mysterio.’ With The Rock I tried Rock ‘n’ Roll, I tried general… not hip hop exactly, but some kind of urbanized beats.
“It really felt like to go into those kind of things limited him because it was just a piece of the puzzle of that guy. The Rock’s the most charismatic man I have ever met in my life. It’s like some sort of weird science thing.”
Despite his initial struggles, Johnston ended up creating one of the most iconic WWE themes of all time – “Electrifying” – for The Rock. The legendary Superstar’s voice was even added to the start of the theme, along with his catchphrase, “If ya smell what The Rock is cooking.”
Please credit SK Wrestling's UnSKripted and embed the video if you use quotes from this article.
