The Top 7 WrestleMania Musical Performances

The man known as Elias has had an up & down tenure on the Raw roster. Good times, bad times, you know he’s had his share. He’s got a big opportunity in front of him, as we found out on Monday night that Elias will be the headlining musical act at WrestleMania. Since it’ll be a seven-plus hour show, there’s even a chance that he’ll get a full song in.

OK, probably not.

WrestleMania has seen plenty of musical performances over the years. Many of them have served as restroom breaks. Some have stood out from the crowd. Here’s what I consider to be the seven most magnificent WrestleMania musical performances.

7. Nita Strauss (WrestleMania 34)

You’ll see a bit of a trend with most of my selections. I feel that the best WrestleMania musical performances are the ones introducing wrestlers. Instead of killing the crowd and giving them an excuse to go to the restroom, the song can pump the crowd up for the match they’re about to see. Shinsuke Nakamura’s entrances tend to do that anyway, so adding guitarist Nita Strauss to the mix last year just pushed all the buttons.

16:34 into the above video is where you can see the highpoint of Nakamura’s stint on the main roster. It was all downhill from there, to be honest.

6. Rev Theory (WrestleMania XXX)

I was pretty sick of Randy Orton by the time this show rolled around. There had been more than enough matches with Orton & Daniel Bryan in the months prior to WrestleMania XXX, and adding Batista to the mix wasn’t something that appeared to freshen things up. I was glad to be wrong, as the main event delivered a satisfying conclusion & both Orton & Batista had their working boots on.

Orton also got a live performance for his entrance, which you knew had to make Batista jealous.

https://youtu.be/wNCS3OkFgfs

Poor Big Dave. He should at least have had Rocket Raccoon accompany him to the ring or something.

5. Run DMC (WrestleMania V)

If Vince McMahon was to induct another musical act into WWE’s Hall of Fame, Run DMC would have a pretty good argument. They had an impact on multiple eras of WWE, apparently because they were the only rap act Vince knew about. WrestleMania V featured a live performance that I couldn’t find footage of on YouTube, so I’m going to tell you to jump on the Network & go to the 1:02:30 mark of WrestleMania V.

Gorilla Monsoon wasn’t a big fan, saying that a little bit of the song went a long way with him. Jesse Ventura liked it though. Since we can’t listen to it here, I’m going to hook you guys up with the music video to Run DMC’s version of the DX theme.

https://youtu.be/MMOR6xJ_Xac

We got Triple H, Stephanie McMahon & Tori representing DX, with the Hardy Boyz doing random moves off a balcony. I don’t know what to say other than it totally fits the time period.

4. Motorhead (WrestleMania 21)

Those who know me know that this is my kind of music here. I’m all about the metal, and it doesn’t get much more metal than Lemmy & the boys. I would love nothing more than to put Motorhead #1 on top of any list they could possibly be involved with. Unfortunately, I don’t think Lemmy ever bothered learning the words to a song he recorded once and played live twice in his life, so his two WrestleMania performances weren’t quite as epic as I hoped.

WrestleMania 21’s performance had more of the correct words from my memory, so that one makes the list.

3. Salt-N-Pepa (WrestleMania XI)

Lawrence Taylor’s first, last & only match is what most people remember WrestleMania XI for. Part of the pageantry was noted R&B girl group Salt-N-Pepa re-working their hit “Whatta Man” to fit LT. I looked for it on the Network and for some reason it’s been edited out of their version of WrestleMania XI. I can only assume that either they don’t want to pay Salt-N-Pepa their proper royalties, or somebody took offense to them wanting to have LT’s baby.

As an alternative, here’s the music video to “Whatta Man”, which is making something of a comeback due to its usage in Captain Marvel.

https://youtu.be/8-WFNbMohTQ

2. Living Colour (WrestleMania 29)

It’s become increasingly rare to hear actual songs used as wrestling theme music. None of the major wrestling companies want to pay royalties, and the companies that do use real music typically leave it off their DVD/mp4/whatever release. It was a major upset when CM Punk convinced WWE to let him come out to Living Colour’s “Cult of Personality” as he had during part of his time with Ring of Honor. It became an even bigger deal when they showed up to perform it live at Metlife Stadium.

The saddest thing about Punk’s MMA career flaming out? We don’t get to hear “Cult of Personality” on more UFC shows.

1. Mark Crozer and the Rels (WrestleMania XXX)

We saw the highlight of Shinsuke Nakamura’s WWE career at the beginning of this countdown. It’s only appropriate that we close things out with the highlight of Bray Wyatt’s WWE career.

Did Bray ever come off as more dangerous & cool than he did prior to his WrestleMania XXX match with John Cena? Things have never been the same since that night in New Orleans. Perhaps he needs to bring these guys back whenever WWE welcomes him back to television.