Gangrel Reveals The Inspiration For His Theme Song, Recalls Elevator Getting Stuck On His Foot First Time

Gangrel and The Brood’s entrance music is an iconic part of the Attitude Era, and the WWE alumnus revealed the inspiration for his theme song and a painful flub in his first entrance in a new interview. Gangrel spoke with Chris Van Vliet and revealed that the entrance theme came after he gave WWE The Toadies’ alt-rock 1994 hit “Possum Kingdom.” He noted that when he first heard it he immediately heard many of the same elements from the song, albeit remixed and changed, in the song. He also recalled the elevator getting stuck on his foot in his first live entrance on the August 16th, 1998 episode of Sunday Night Heat. You can check out highlights and the full video below, along with Gangrel’s entrance and “Possum Kingdom” to do your own comparison:

On what he thought when he first heard his entrance theme: “Well, I thought they stole it from the Toadies’ ‘Possum Kingdom.’ Nobody hears it but me, but I know I gave them that music to listen to. So the first time I heard it was a dry rehearsal under the ring on a Sunday, like literally an hour before the show. And it kicked in, but I could hear the underlying things from ‘Possum Kingdom,’ and the reverse masking, and all the stuff they did in it. They just jammed some things up and slowed some things down…

“But I heard that. But then I got up, it kicked in, and then the fire. I couldn’t just hear the music, it was the fire, it was the combination of everything. And then it was like, ‘Oh, that was pretty cool.'”

Gangrel on the elevator for his ring entrance being stuck: “Oh, I had a moment alright. [laughs] Well, that first night, Sunday Night Heat. If you watch it back, you will see they clip away and come back. So, we did one dry rehearsal, right? For the show, first time ever, they said, ‘The elevator has a shimmy in it. It has a ‘Boom boom,’ and it will go up, give it a second.’ Well, that dry rehearsal didn’t have all this fog, and the dark arena and all this other stuff, and people there. So I get in there, and the music goes. And I could see the fire start going. And you know, I don’t know if it was me swaying, but I thought I felt the ‘shimmy.’ I thought I felt the elevator do the thing.

“So I went to turn and step and go off. Well, it wasn’t done. So my foot planted as I was turning, inbetween the elevator and the stage so it shut. So I’m stepped over in the flames, going [hums the theme song as he mimics pointing at his foot], holding the goblet. So they cut away, there’s fames burning up around me. And that’s why I ended up, when they got it down I hobbled to the ring and my foot was black and blue for months. They all said, ‘Oh, that’s a great vampire swag you have when you walk. And I go, ‘No, that was just a hurt foot and a grizzled knee walk.’ [laughs]”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Chris Van Vliet with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.