Former WWE Star D'Lo Brown Comments On Current State Of Wrestling Theme Music

Over the last few years, WWE has seen a decent amount of criticism put towards their music department, with the work of composer Def Rebel being cited as below average. It's an opinion that is shared by some in the business as well, including former WWE star D'Lo Brown. During a recent appearance on "The Coach and Bro Show," Brown lamented the quality of the modern day wrestling theme song, and unfavorably compared it to the music created for wrestlers in the Attitude Era, music Brown believes got fans more engaged with the performer.

"You knew who was coming out in the first hundredth of a second when someone's song hit," Brown said. "'If ya smell!' [The] gong. The glass breaking. 'Are you ready?' You knew who was coming out. Music is synonymous with that entrance. Today's music has become kind of generic. And there's no pop the minute the music hits, because now people have to wait for that person to come through gorilla, and then they've got to ID who it is, and by then, he or she are halfway down the ramp. 

"And that takes away from that...the minute your music hits, and the house lights up and the crowd goes crazy. And the adrenaline's flowing. That's gone, because music is just that important. And I will never undersell the importance of a guy like Jim Johnston, who was great at matching the music with the talent. You could...every music literally went with every guy or girl. And today, everybody's coming out to, like, generic elevator music."

For his part, Johnston has agreed with Brown's sentiments, having issued his own criticism of the current standard of wrestling theme songs. In a 2023 interview, the former WWE composer stated that, while the new music was produced better than his stuff from the 80s, 90s, and 2000s, he felt that most WWE theme songs were emotionless.

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "The Coach and Bro Show" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription