Musician Ian Abel On Which AEW Talents He'd Like To Write Theme Songs For

Musician Ian Abel of the Ian Abel Band was on a recent episode of The Wrestling Inc. Daily. Abel's music has been used for the promo packages in some big AEW matches, and Wrestling Inc. Managing Editor Nick Hausman asked Abel how he thinks music can correctly or incorrectly affect a live pro wrestling show.

"I'll talk about correctly. Incorrectly, I'd have to think about it," Abel admitted. "Correctly, it comes right to a story about how I had been to a couple WWE things when I was younger, but now I'm older. I'm in college. RAW's coming through. My little brother is seven years younger than me. He's really into wrestling. So we take him to go see Monday Night RAW. They're filming. It's going to be incredible, and it said, 'Undertaker's in action.' And now, he's my favorite wrestler. I'd never seen him before, and bringing it all the way back to music being a part of wrestling, this is just his theme song.

"We're having a good time, but at the very end, the lights go out. You hear the dong, and I'm yelling. Dude, I lost my voice in a matter of 30 seconds. I jumped up, spilled my drink. I think I elbowed my dad. I'm going nuts because The Undertaker, I've never seen him. The kid came out of me, and needless to say, the lights came up and he actually wasn't there. He was just in action. There's someone in the ring that moved. After the third time, I finally realized he wasn't showing up. But music in pro wrestling, when you you hear Undertaker's, the lights go out.

"You hear the gong go off, or I was in Texas for WrestleMania when they were doing the three on three. It's just a quick beat down, but you're in Dallas. The glass smashes. Out comes Stone Cold. I'm getting chills thinking about it right now. Certain things are just iconic, and they blend together. Rock – Stone Cold My Way, you hear that song and you immediately go to that because pro wrestling, when done beautifully or done correct, is just beautiful story telling. It's no different than the score of Star Wars."

Hausman then asked if Abel has been asked to write a theme song for any of the AEW wrestlers. Abel named two wrestlers he would love to write a song for.

"I've talked a little bit to them. It'd have to be the right person," Abel noted. "This is not most likely to happen, but the wrestler that I think I would fit best with would probably be Hangman Adam Page. But he's already got cool music. I would love to write, and I've said a bunch of times, I'll say it again, I would love to write Anna Jay a really dope theme song cool. I know it's out there, but I think Anna Jay is going to be a superstar. She's on her way up.

"I think she's gonna be great. I'd love to write her a song, but I'm also really happy with the trajectory I'm on of just adding bangers to incredible matches. You don't want to taint it too much, but I would entertain being a wrestlers theme song. That's crazy to say, but I do really enjoy being like, yeah, I had two songs, and they were both for pretty historic moments in this early beginnings of the company."

Abel also spoke on his history as a pro wrestling fan. He revealed his favorite wrestler growing up and how he would watch wrestling growing up.

"I grew up in Louisville, so we have OVW here," Abel stated. "I remember seeing Undertaker on TV once, and it shook me as a little kid. I was like, 'What is this? He's putting people in coffins? He's dead?' You're a young kid. You have no clue where the line is. It's all blurred lines at that point. So I'm sitting there like, 'This is insane!' So I'm tuning in every week to watch The Undertaker kill somebody. Attitude Era and then the Monday Night Wars with WCW as well. Prime time in my youth for that one so I'm just glued to the TV with the return button on the remote."

Abel then talked about his experience watching OVW. He discussed the big names that would come in and the unique, local experiences he would have going to OVW shows.

"I've been to OVW shows when I got into high school when I was able to," Abel recalled. "My father started a business, and I was always in sports. We didn't do any OVW shows when I was a kid. If my parents knew OVW was the thing to go to, I'm sure they probably did, but me and a couple buddies, we'd go see shows at the high school. Ever since I turned 16, it's all been a blur before that. I remember going to the shows and remember it being awesome, and it was different because I've never been to a smaller show like that. I don't remember any big names at the shows that I went to.

"A couple of my buddies were here when Brock Lesnar came through and when The Big Show was healing, or I guess Paul Wight now. He was in OVW while he was healing up. OVW in Louisville, it's crazy because everyone talks about it in that circle. If you're a wrestling fan and you're in Louisville, you have friends that talk about it and go to the shows and things like that. You kind of have to find them sort of, or you go to a show and you go, 'Oh my gosh, that's the dude from my math class! What are you doing here?' He's like, 'My cousin's a wrestler,' and you're like, 'No way! That's amazing! Can we get his autograph?'"

You can follow Ian on Twitter @IanAbelBand. The full audio and video from Ian's interview can be found below.