Mr. Kennedy, Mr. Anderson, Ken Anderson. You know him by many names. Whatever you know him by, he's a great dude with some awesome stories about wrestling, his awesome entrance themes in his time in WWE and TNA, and his favorite themes in pro wrestling. We also talk about what Vince McMahon's vision of entrance themes was, as well as talk about the songs that represent the heart an soul of Ken Anderson the most.

Also...Avenged Sevenfold wrote a theme for him??? Where's that at?

Enjoy today's episode!

-

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About The Show:

Do you like wrestling? Do you like music and stories from the road? Join John Kiernan, wrestling entrance theme song composer, and professional musician of over 10 years for stories and interviews with your favorite wrestlers, rock stars, and personalities!

About the Host:

John Kiernan is a wrestling entrance theme song composer with over 150 themes written for wrestlers in various promotions such as NJPW, WWE, ROH, MLW, and many more. As a professional musician, a veteran in the podcasting space, an avid pro wrestling fan and wrestling personality by way of creating the soundtracks for your favorite wrestlers, John Kiernan forges his latest podcasting venture into diving into stories of music, stories from the road, and wrestling from all walks of life from your (and his) favorites of all time.

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something came across my TikTok the other day or Instagram feed of the guy who did the

song.

2

was like, POV, you're scrolling TikTok and a song that you did like 10 years ago that got

thrown away, is now like trending worldwide and everybody knows it.

3

I saw that.

4

now for this episode, that's going to be part of the promotional material for it is either

you or me when Mr.

5

Anderson's on the show and then that's it.

6

You know this man by many names.

7

You know him as Ken Anderson.

8

You know him as Ken Kennedy.

9

You also know him as the gentleman from the Academy, the School of Professional Wrestling.

10

I am joined today by the one and only Ken Anderson.

11

How you doing?

12

Good, John, how are you doing?

13

doing good.

14

had to put the school over.

15

You know, I love it when I bring people on who have wrestling schools and are doing so

much.

16

Who have done so much in the industry, but also have wrestling schools like Brian Myers

with Creative Pro out over here uh on the East Coast by me.

17

So definitely want to go ahead and give the shout out to you.

18

How long has the school been around?

19

We've been open since 2016, so we're coming up on almost 10 years here, which is crazy.

20

How's it feel to run a school for professional wrestling too?

21

And it's not a question I've asked anybody before, but you know, you've given so much to

the industry in so many ways with your work and then through the school, that's gotta be a

22

completely different thing altogether.

23

You know, it's really rewarding and...

24

I guess, ah you know, everybody says like giving back or whatever, like yes, I feel like

it's giving back, it's, I've had such an amazing run.

25

I've been all over the world, the stuff that I have been allowed to do and the people whom

I've been in the presence of.

26

uh I just, I want other people to experience that.

27

I really do.

28

I want to share it with as many people as possible.

29

And so when my students start having those firsts, their first match, their first extra

work at WWE or AW or TNA, you know, they have their first enhancement match or dark match.

30

Like those are things that really, really stand out to me.

31

So that's, that's basically what I'm, what I'm in the game for.

32

And, and I, you know, there were certain things that I didn't like about the business.

33

And they always say like, be the change that you want to see, know, like don't complain

about it.

34

Just do it.

35

Do something different.

36

oh

37

That's what I was going to say.

38

It's got to be interesting for you too, because again, with a lot of where your students

have gone, it's like, okay, they've been in all these different places.

39

And even some of these places like you were talking about, AEW, that may have not been

around during, you know, like the time of Mr.

40

Kennedy, right, for example.

41

But, you know, you have all of these students that are now going down the halls that

you've traveled, all the roads that you've traveled to.

42

And, you know, you're probably seeing them have...

43

some of the same places.

44

yeah, I was there and I did this here.

45

But also there are probably these new stories, these new people and just these new

experiences that you're like, hey, it wasn't like that before.

46

And for whatever side of the coin that's on, that's gotta be cool for you to be like, it's

like a full circle moment too.

47

And like you hit the nail on the head.

48

are so many places now that weren't available to us.

49

um Just look at the amount of wrestling schools out there.

50

There's a ton and there's good wrestling schools.

51

You know, when I broke in, um there were probably four or five different wrestling schools

that I could have reached out to.

52

I, for whatever reason, I was lucky enough to call the right one.

53

because had I called those like there were, there were some, you know, there's some people

who get into the business.

54

They'll go to a wrestling school.

55

They spend a week or two taking bumps.

56

They have somehow find their way onto a show.

57

They have one or two matches or they, you know, they wrestle once, once a month for 12

years and they, know, and then they open a wrestling school and they don't know.

58

You don't know what you don't know.

59

Um,

60

So I was, had I called one of those other schools, we wouldn't be having this discussion,

maybe.

61

So, yeah.

62

It's interesting too.

63

And you know, it's funny cause kind of tying all that together.

64

Um, I had Brian Myers on the show who I've done a couple of entrance themes for in a

couple of different capacities.

65

And with him kind of tying into that in an interesting way, he goes, you know, back when I

had gotten released from WWE during the COVID time, that was the first time that I came

66

back onto the Indies and everyone was having a custom entrance theme.

67

Right.

68

And he's just like, before that, that wasn't even a thought you would get whatever's on

the radio.

69

You hope they don't get sued, but now you're talking about.

70

you're getting into at that time, 2020, 2021, all that kind of stuff.

71

And now all of these wrestling companies have streaming to one way or another, right?

72

A lot of them are on fight.

73

A lot of them are on, you know, new TV, things like that.

74

We just saw that TNA got picked up by AMC, right?

75

All this kind of stuff.

76

So it's like the industry really has changed over the tenure, right?

77

And to be able to be part of a school, do all the things that you're doing and just see

this big industry shift in all these different ways is just

78

a night and day difference.

79

And for you, that's a bit of a segue for us to have a little bit of a conversation about

entrance themes.

80

You've had lots of awesome ones, which we're going to get into in a couple minutes here.

81

But for you in the industry and for you being around as long as you have, what are some of

the most important things in an entrance theme for you?

82

I personally think it's gotta be catchy.

83

It's gotta be something that people enjoy.

84

um

85

I'll tell my students, know, like for me, when I'm in the gym, I like a variety of music,

right?

86

I'll listen to everything from Frank Sinatra to Cannibal Corpse and everything in between.

87

And there's a lot of people who, by wrestling, you know, they'll select a song for their

entrance that fires them up.

88

And it tends to be like some kind of generic sounding, know, like some metal riff.

89

to me that ends up to the crowd.

90

It just sounds like noise.

91

It's not like, it has to be something that's like catchy and topical.

92

Do you know what I mean?

93

Yeah, yeah, totally.

94

It's one of those things where, like you said, sometimes it's something that they're

listening to or maybe something they got from a library.

95

And it's just like, okay, cool, it gets the job done.

96

But when you get something catchy and you get something that the crowd can really feel and

get into, it changes the dynamic and it can still hype you up as a performer.

97

it sometimes goes into conversations I have with talent.

98

I'm like, hey, it's cool when you have a song that you like as a person.

99

but it's also gotta be something that the crowd's gonna dig on too.

100

It's gotta be something that highlights you, but it's gotta be something that the second

it hits or within the first second or two, or even like just the long tail of it, the

101

crowd's gotta be able to understand what it's about.

102

You look at and I feel like things have completely shifted.

103

Look at how many crowds are singing along with people's entrance music.

104

The thing that just happened in the UK with Edgy's music.

105

Like.

106

It's really cool to see everybody sings with Cody's entrance.

107

um Seth, you know, like they do the whole thing too.

108

yeah.

109

And so for you, what are some of your favorite entrance themes of all time that you've

gotten the opportunity to be part of and experience?

110

My favorite, I think, of all time was I used to use pour some sugar on me when I was when

I was on the Indies.

111

um Like my very first entrance music that I ever came out to was Power Man 5000 when

worlds collide.

112

That was my first my first one.

113

then I, you know, like I went through this phase where I was like,

114

Probably every other month I was selecting a new song.

115

I was just trying to figure out like what it is.

116

I used to do host by Ramstein for a while and uh probably a bunch of other people did that

too at that time.

117

Makes me laugh because Tommy Dreamer used to say that he used to get tapes all the time.

118

People would send tapes to the office.

119

When he was in charge of talent relations, bringing in new talent, he would always get

120

What was that Eminem song that you got one shot, one opportunity?

121

Like he said he would always get like every other tape that he would get would have that.

122

It would be a music video set to that song.

123

So indirectly, somehow eight mile Eminem is part of like the wrestling canon to some

degree, but maybe just overused a little bit too much in the demo reel, ladies and

124

gentlemen.

125

Oh yeah, he said he would like, he would put it in and if he heard that piano, that little

piano start, he would just chuck it in the pile.

126

But my favorite, favorite song that I've ever used to this day was the TNA entrance that

Dale Oliver came up with.

127

I still use it to this day.

128

TNA has

129

blessed me with uh allowing me to use it for my own podcast.

130

I still use it on the, know, whenever anybody asks me, what's your entrance music?

131

I always say it's Feedback by Dale Oliver.

132

So.

133

Yeah, that one to me was one of my favorites for you too.

134

And you know, as someone who's followed your career over time from WWE to TNA and all

these different places for me, I remember hearing feedback for the first time when you

135

made your entrance in and I was just like, this is great.

136

And it, everything from obviously everything you do with the microphone, your Mr.

137

All that kind of stuff.

138

I'm not going to do it.

139

I'm not going to do it today because I got the man, the myth, the legend standing right

here.

140

Everything from that to just having that initial feedback, like you have the microphone

all the way to the beat.

141

It's like the right amount of upbeat for what you were trying to do.

142

And for the character you were trying to portray, whether it was as a babyface coming down

and all of a sudden taking the title off of Jeff Hardy, or whether it was given Sting a

143

hard time, all those different things.

144

To me, it was one of the coolest themes because it worked for you as a heel.

145

It worked for you as a babyface, but it just...

146

Highlighted your character of mr.

147

Anderson and TNA.

148

Yeah, that one's great and kind of in that vein you talked about Dale Oliver who is one of

the quintessential theme composers I would say in the wrestling industry and I think that

149

over time he's really gotten the love that I wish he would have gotten earlier on too,

right?

150

But you got the opportunity to have feedback written by him.

151

What was some of the process of?

152

Getting feedback and working with Dale Oliver

153

So the first day that I got there, I remember, uh you know, he came up to me, we met, he

was super excited.

154

Hey, I've got a great, what I think is a great song for you.

155

And so he played it for me and immediately I was like, that's it.

156

And then, so, okay, well, what do you, I just said, I feel like there always needs to be

something that happens that's an indication that, oh, it's so and so, right?

157

You hear the glass breaking.

158

It's Austin, you know.

159

um So I wanted to have my version of that and I just.

160

You know what about what about like some feedback or something like that and then we kind

of were playing around some ideas and then I think it was me that suggested like what if

161

there's like a tap tap tap like somebody tapping on the microphone?

162

And then the feedback and then since I'm

163

probably going to hit my introduction.

164

I don't wanna do it twice.

165

Like I don't wanna have the full introduction in the song.

166

Like WWE had the full thing, I think at one point they had me, Mr.

167

Kennedy.

168

And I didn't wanna do that again, I just wanted like part of it.

169

So that was sort of the idea behind just giving them like a just.

170

Give them some crack, you know, give them just a little taste of it.

171

And then do you want some more?

172

So that's kind of the idea.

173

love that.

174

And it's one of those entrance themes too.

175

Like it's, you know, when you think of an entrance theme, you can have these themes that

have full lyrics or no lyrics or whatever the case may be.

176

And I felt because of what you did with your promos and what you did with your entrance,

it was like, we don't need to have all that.

177

It's just, again, make it strong, make it good.

178

And then you could kind of cut in your promo wherever you are in the ring.

179

Like there's some things that are so choreographed down to the second, like, you know,

Adam Cole's theme is a great example, which is

180

Again, it works for him, but it has to be so, so on the money, so on the timestamp.

181

With yours, I felt it was this piece of music that you had different points at which you

could get in the ring, you could lift the hand, you could have the microphone come down,

182

you could do it from the stage.

183

And it worked at every point, which is something really unique to you.

184

And I gotta give Dale Oliver a lot of credit for that, for being able to look at your

entrance and be like, you know what, let's make something where it's flexible.

185

Yeah, it really is like I just Steve Austin once told me like, don't never let him get me

pyro kid.

186

You know, he was a big proponent like he was a big uh opponent of

187

You don't want a whole bunch of bells and whistles.

188

You know, he wore black trunks with no writing on them.

189

Black trunks, black boots, black wrist tape.

190

His meat and potatoes was in his work.

191

that's sort of what I...

192

Not to say that if somebody has pyro and uh flashy gear and all that stuff, like they're

not, that doesn't make them somehow uh less of a wrestler, but like sometimes...

193

I feel like when people have all that extra, the extra bells and whistles, they're doing

it to make up for lack of something else.

194

And I just want to, my work in the ring is hopefully what people mostly remember, you

know?

195

yeah, totally.

196

And also though, you think about like back then you had a lot of wrestling on TV, sure.

197

But now the amount of wrestling you have on TV is insurmountable, right?

198

As a fan of wrestling and being involved in the industry, I think it's a great thing.

199

But like you have so much more now.

200

And like we were talking about, I forget if we were saying it on pod or off pod before we

started recording, but everybody is streaming now, right?

201

Every company.

202

is on some sort of streaming service, whether it's YouTube, whether it's Fight, whatever

the case may be.

203

So I think a lot of talent now isn't just thinking about, okay, cool, you're hitting the

ring, that's it.

204

They're thinking about, everybody has some sort of hard cam.

205

Everybody has some sort of way to create clips that are gonna go online.

206

So for this, even if you don't have Pyro, you may have just a small video screen or

something, whatever the case may be.

207

It's now not just about what's going on in the crowd.

208

It's now like my entrance and my entrance theme by extension now has to be able to sit in

some sort of uh frame where, you know, with something like you had, again, I keep going

209

back to flexibility specifically with yours and you brought up Stone Colds too.

210

Stone Cold didn't need to wait for anything.

211

He waited for the glass to break.

212

He came down to the ring and that was it.

213

You know, another thing too that like uh with entrances sometimes and I saw this Chris

Hero is a good example of this.

214

Chris Hero had oh what was the song that he used?

215

It's got a really long intro.

216

It's like a minute long and he would wait behind the curtain.

217

um And then when that when it hits, that's what he would come to the curtain.

218

And I feel like people saw that and saw the success that he was having.

219

And everybody started doing that.

220

And when I got to WWE, it was like, if your music hit and people would try to do that,

they'd hide out behind the curtain, like, I'm gonna wait for just the right moment and

221

Vince would be like, oh, nobody wants to watch a dead curtain.

222

Nobody wants to watch a curtain.

223

And so that's sort of my, I've always got that in my head.

224

um When my music hits, I'm popping through that curtain right away.

225

It's gotta be with the right character, think, too.

226

You know, I think about like, Agunther now, right?

227

And he's got that whole, like, swell of, like, the Jaws theme, which is the Dvorak theme

and whatnot.

228

And it's like, it's a little bit different because the presentation is that, right?

229

But it also, again, you hear that, and then it goes into it, right?

230

But not everyone is like that.

231

Sometimes it's exactly like you said.

232

You just gotta hit and you gotta go.

233

And, you know, we were talking about it a second ago about working with...

234

Dale Oliver.

235

And obviously then also we'll rewind the clock a little bit there and talk about Turn Up

the Trouble, which is your WWE entrance theme, right?

236

Which was written by, if I'm understanding correctly, Jim Johnston.

237

Again, WWE's composer.

238

Need no introduction here, ladies and gentlemen.

239

Let's talk a little bit about that theme too, because that's one that, again, a lot of

people become familiar with you with.

240

And then there's one more I want to talk about a little bit later on, but...

241

for turn up the volume, how did that one come to be?

242

Because I've read a couple of articles that it was kind of like, you had some input, Jim

had some input, and then Vince was ultimately like, hey, kind of what are you thinking?

243

Yeah, so um I went into Vince's office and he was like, let's talk entrance.

244

And he's like, what do you like?

245

And I said, um I'm a big fan of like ACDC.

246

I said, I use pour some sugar on me.

247

I like something, something like that.

248

And he goes, okay.

249

And then I think the next week he came back and uh he had a variation of turn up the

trouble, but it was very um like.

250

Jim Johnson, some of Jim Johnson's music, he, I don't know if he was the one that did the

voice.

251

Well, well, it's a big show and ass man and like that.

252

was like, it was like that that sounded like that.

253

And I, I've never been a fan of that.

254

I was always, uh I was always, yeah.

255

we had Joe Altier on the show who's from brand new sin and he ended up doing the one that

everyone knows now the world is the big the really like heavier version, right?

256

But before that it was Michael Hayes on there.

257

So I don't know if Michael Hayes ended up doing more but yeah, Michael Hayes is the first

voice on the big show on like the one when he came in as Paul White.

258

Yeah.

259

So that ass man, who's doing the ass man thing?

260

Do you have any idea?

261

that I can't tell you, but that's going to be, that's going to be in the, uh, in the

vault, ladies and gentlemen, we're going to have to find out.

262

So like that to me sounded a lot like Sam Hagg, Sammy Hagar.

263

And I was always a, you know, I was a David Lee Roth guy, not a Sammy Hagar guy.

264

And I told Vince that and I remember like Triple H being in the room at the time.

265

It was like we were all kind of hanging out in Vince's office chit chat.

266

And he was like, did Triple H said, well, can I swear on here or is this?

267

He was like, well, I'll just go tell Jim Johnson to go fuck himself.

268

And I was like, no, no, no, no.

269

I just don't.

270

That doesn't fit for me.

271

I like it.

272

It just doesn't fit for me.

273

And um yeah, so then the next week came back and he had uh the that turn up the trouble,

which is the one that we ended up going with.

274

And I was like, you know, that's that sounds great to me.

275

That sounds perfect.

276

um So, yeah, it was like I feel like it had more of a who is the lead singer of ACDC?

277

Like right now, right now, the.

278

I'm going to, I hate the fact that Ryan Johnson's the most.

279

Yup.

280

think, you know.

281

Yeah, like that kind of a sound to it, so.

282

I love that.

283

And you actually brought up something I haven't asked anybody about either.

284

if you could give some insight, it's kind of interesting.

285

Because you mentioned that it was you, Hunter, talking about this and whatnot.

286

And I've never heard the thought of what Vince's thought was on Entrance Themes.

287

It's not something I was even coming to this interview thinking about.

288

But having read that article and hearing you talk about it, what was, if you have any

insight on it, what was Vince's view of Entrance Themes?

289

I think ultimately he had to like it too, right?

290

It had to be catchy to him, but he wanted me to be happy with it.

291

He wanted, is it something that you like?

292

Is it something that you are going to feel comfortable going out of the ring with?

293

And really at the time, like I was, man, they were really rolling out the red carpet for

me.

294

I was getting really good treatment.

295

um He happened to take a shine to me early and

296

I was very fortunate that he was even, because some people are just like, here's your

entrance music.

297

You know, and they, they hate it.

298

end up hating it and they don't have any input in it at all.

299

So I was really, really lucky that he asked me at all.

300

And then literally when, like I said, we went back and forth, it was like two or three

weeks that we sort of fine tuned it a little bit.

301

Sure.

302

And was it working kind of through Vince or was it working at all like with Jim Johnston

also?

303

I had no interaction with Jim whatsoever.

304

So it was literally just in Vince's office, me talking to Vince.

305

that one time Triple H being there for the competition.

306

that's interesting too, because it sounds like when you kind of go to TNA, you have a

little bit more involvement with their guy.

307

Whereas in WWE, it's like it's kind of a person of a person and then you're getting these

uh roles back, right?

308

Interesting.

309

That's cool.

310

Yeah, yeah.

311

And I don't know what other people's experiences like with TNA.

312

don't know how much, know, I don't know, to be honest, I don't know how many different,

there's probably some stuff that I know of that Dale Oliver has done that I just, I have

313

no idea that Dale Oliver was the guy that did it.

314

Then I will say that also in TNA, one of my, probably my second, second or third, I would

say it's my second favorite.

315

entrance of all time was the aces and eights which was done by Serge, which was Dixie

Carter, Sergio Carter, I believe, like, that's Dixie Carter's husband.

316

um You know, he sang it and that's a badass to him, to me.

317

Yeah, and I was gonna ask you about that because for me, I get to talk a lot about like

the individual entrance themes and you know, I've written themes for stables and groups

318

and whatnot like Primal Fear and it's, I love doing that, but it's like you now have to

think about three people or whatnot or the vision of the group and whatnot.

319

And Aces and Eights to me, I loved that storyline as a fan.

320

I loved that entrance theme and all that it implies.

321

I thought it was like the perfect theme for Aces and Eights.

322

I've talked to people before who were just like having an individual theme.

323

is different than having a theme that represents me in a group, because you're not

thinking about it about you.

324

You're thinking about it of you as part of the collective.

325

You almost kind of have to take yourself out of it for a second.

326

So I wanted to kind of get your input on how that one came about, because I always thought

that that was just Dale.

327

I had no idea Surge had anything to do with that one.

328

Yeah, that was Surge all the way, I think.

329

Maybe maybe Surge and Dale worked on that together.

330

But that was.

331

uh Hey, what do you guys think about this?

332

And instantly we were all like, that's it.

333

That sounds great.

334

And it was a little bit of a take off of, know, Aces and Nates was.

335

Sons of Anarchy was huge at the time, very hugely popular on TV.

336

And, you know, there was definitely a throw to.

337

the opening to that show.

338

Of yeah.

339

I remember seeing that one too.

340

And the thing that you guys did that was, I think, even more special just from an entrance

perspective, not even just talking about the theme, it was you guys came out from the

341

crowd.

342

You know, at some point you would come out from, obviously, the curtain, but most of the

time you came out from the crowd, which was even cooler too, because Dale Oliver can write

343

anything, but I've always kind of seen him in more of like that country style, like that

Southern rock stuff.

344

And I felt like as soon as he maybe got and Surge got this idea, it was like, that's it.

345

This is, this is what he would write.

346

Yeah.

347

This is like the perfect theme and you guys coming out from the crowd and you guys having

all these awesome backstage segments and whatnot.

348

was like, I think about perfect entrance themes, not just as a well-written song, but

what's like the perfect personification of this group, the Aces and Eights.

349

And I don't think you could have gotten any better personally as an entrance theme.

350

than Dead Man's Hand, yeah.

351

Can I tell you what my favorite entrance music of all time is?

352

The thing that like, it's just probably going to come as a surprise.

353

This is the kyan-tai music like who ended up being punaki's music.

354

That jazzes me up man.

355

That really fires me up.

356

I don't know why.

357

That and my second favorite is probably Gangrel's music.

358

The Brood.

359

a night and day difference between those two.

360

What a parallel or what a what an A to Z.

361

That's awesome.

362

And you know what, too, everyone talks about Gangrel's theme.

363

Like when I talk about what are some of their favorite entrance themes, I think Gangrel

has been mentioned on this show a good amount of times.

364

And even some of the boys I play with and it lives, it breathes.

365

They did a cover of it a while ago.

366

That was more of it.

367

I can't even say it was an EDM mix because like it was originally like electronic and

whatnot.

368

So it's just

369

their take on it.

370

But yeah, that one I haven't heard the kind I won on this show yet at all.

371

But that one's awesome.

372

That's a pop.

373

It's just like, I don't know.

374

It's fun.

375

It's like it.

376

I think that I think that entrance music should be it's interactive.

377

It's crowd interactive.

378

It's like, who's it going to be?

379

Who's it going to be?

380

you know that the Royal Rumble that happens every year you get you get 30 of them every

year for the Royal Rumble.

381

30 opportunities for the fans to pop and get behind their characters.

382

I love that.

383

And I love the fact that you brought up Kai and Tai though too, because like they leaned

into it all the way too.

384

And I remember being young and being into like, I remember every time Kai and Tai would

come out, because they also had a point where they were supposed to be taken slightly,

385

like just maybe for like a week, a little bit more seriously.

386

And it could have worked there too.

387

But like, as soon as they just went all in on how they ended up being portrayed over time,

again, perfect.

388

Like chef's kiss on that.

389

The comedy with them holding the microphone and speaking Japanese and having uh a...

390

was Bruce Pritchard doing the voiceover over the loudspeaker like the old kung fu movies

was just amazing.

391

I love that.

392

And then also one thing before I ask you the last question before we're wrapped up today.

393

I had read somewhere also that there was some talk about Avenged Sevenfold, who's one of

my favorite bands of all time.

394

One of my top three reasons that I play music and the style that I do.

395

That they were coming up with something for you at some point.

396

What is that story?

397

I heard that they were coming up with something uh that they actually came up with it that

they sent it to W.

398

I think WWE paid for it even.

399

And it was tabled like I read an interview recently with the lead singer and I think he

said he doesn't even know where it is.

400

But it's literally like it's a lost track nobody can find it.

401

if anybody can find that it would be it would be amazing.

402

I'd to hear it.

403

See, I think we were, yeah.

404

There was another group, I swear to God there was another group that did a variation of my

entrance music.

405

Cuz Turn Up the Trouble was only half of my WWE run.

406

There was another song after that and it was like, it wasn't a bench seven fold.

407

It was somebody like, it was a bigger name band though.

408

Let me see real quick.

409

Yeah, I-

410

I swear it was some-

411

Let me do this, Ken Kennedy themes.

412

Everything is turn up, turn up.

413

No, not John Kennedy, Ken Kennedy, WWE themes, let's see.

414

I was seeing if AI could pull it up.

415

Turn up the trouble by Airborne.

416

Airborne, that's it.

417

Airborne did a variation of Turn Up the Trouble.

418

That's awesome.

419

Airborne sick.

420

I haven't heard that name in a minute too.

421

I had no idea they did a version, but airborne is so good.

422

And that's almost a little bit more in line kind of with the, the sort of synergy of, you

know, pour some sugar on me, at least from like the type of band, you know, maybe not the

423

song exactly, but like the type.

424

Yeah, so like when I came, I came back from from an injury, I believe.

425

And it was, you know, my first entrance music that I had the turn up the trouble was, you

know, it started with a Mr.

426

Kennedy.

427

And then when I came back, it was just Kennedy.

428

And then it would go into and I believe that was the Airborne song.

429

When you do that, so.

430

That's awesome.

431

Shout out to Airborne.

432

I haven't heard about you guys in a while, but awesome.

433

And for you, when you came up with that iconic now, Mr.

434

Right, when you came up with that, was that something that was, cause you hear all the

time in wrestling, it's like, oh, just, you were just driving in the car one day and here

435

it is.

436

Or was that something that you always had?

437

Like, how did that come to be?

438

So it's a weird, it's a weird marriage of like all these different things happening.

439

for one, it started out, was, I used to announce basketball games when I was in high

school.

440

And I used to like as a sophomore, I think I started in my sophomore year and I did it

throughout the rest of my high school run.

441

um And I would hit the last name twice when I was.

442

When I was calling out the opponents names, I would just throw them away, kinda like John

Smith, Bob Edmonds.

443

And then when I would do, I would do a big introduction for every single one of our

players and I would always hit their last name twice.

444

And then I go away from high school, I get into the wrestling business, completely forget

about all that, don't even think about it.

445

And then fast forward to like 2005, early 2005, I'm...

446

I'm at OVW, Paul Heyman has just taken over for the pencil for OVW television.

447

And he says, hey, tonight, go out there, cut the ring announcer off.

448

was Dean Hill was the ring announcer at OVW at the time.

449

He was also doing color commentary too with Al Snow.

450

Cut the ring announcer off, you know, run him down and then you do your own introduction

and make it big and then.

451

Paul sort of did like this and then he kind of hit what I do today.

452

And he goes, do your own version of that.

453

And then in the moment when I'm in the ring, just something clicked and I hit my last name

twice.

454

And when I came through the curtain, the boys were all like, when you said your last, we

popped when you said your last name twice, man, keep doing that.

455

And then you know that as a wrestler,

456

the boys are usually the most cynical.

457

Like if we see something that pops us, it's probably gonna work with the people.

458

And so it just, from that point on, five weeks later, I started doing it every week, five

weeks later, Dreamer called me and said, hey, they wanna see you at TV this week for

459

SmackDown.

460

They want you to do your gimmick.

461

They want you to do your whole introduction gimmick.

462

They wanna see it.

463

And so I went there and uh with the...

464

The plan was I was just gonna wrestle Funaki on a dark match.

465

At the end of it, I was gonna still do my intro at the beginning.

466

But at the end of it, he was gonna super kick me, one, two, three.

467

And I was in gorilla position.

468

We were supposed to be up first and I'm doing push ups.

469

We're getting ready, like we're five minutes away from this thing kicking off.

470

And Dave Ligana comes walking around the corner.

471

And he said, hey, there's been a change.

472

And immediately I thought, they cut my match.

473

OK.

474

And he said, we have to come up with a finisher for you because you're going over.

475

You're going to win the match.

476

uh This is now going to be a televised match, so you're not going to go first.

477

You're going to be on like third or fourth.

478

And then he stuck his hand out and he said, welcome aboard.

479

And I was just like, you know, so I tell the story when people ask me, it's crazy.

480

I started saying my last name twice and that five weeks later I was on TV.

481

That's why.

482

so simple, isn't it?

483

It's something where it's just like, again, what kind of character you're trying to

portray.

484

And a lot of people who have their name in their entrance somewhere, it's like, I remember

hearing an interview with Adam Cole and he's like, I was on the Indies and this one guy

485

just kept saying his name over and over and over.

486

And he's like, you know, in the Indies, if you just say your name over, if no one else, if

anyone doesn't remember anything else from the show, they're always gonna remember his

487

name.

488

for you.

489

You're like, I'm gonna say it twice and everybody's going to remember me plus everything

else that you did too.

490

And it was just like, I remember seeing that just over the years.

491

And I was like, that's so brilliant.

492

And it's something so simple.

493

And especially when you were, you know, when you're coming out, you're giving the crowd a

hard time, like, all right, get it over.

494

And then they're still with you.

495

When you say it, my favorite time that you ever did it was when you turned on bully Ray

during ACEs and eights.

496

And it was just like,

497

he's on the floor, he's out.

498

And this was obviously Mr.

499

Anderson.

500

And you're like, name, Mr.

501

Anderson.

502

And then you get like real in his face and you're like real mad at him.

503

I was like, I never thought that that could be like the most vicious thing in the world,

but you made it the most vicious thing in the world at that point too.

504

So again, ACE choice.

505

At that point too it was funny because it had been like a year and half since I'd done it

because the ACES and H thing lasted for as long as it did.

506

So I just I hadn't done it in so long so it was like built up inside of me.

507

I need to get this out.

508

I love that.

509

So we got one more question before you leave my friend.

510

And I ask everybody before they leave.

511

And just so the crowd knows, I didn't used to tell people this and people thought it was

the hardest question in the world.

512

Maybe it is even when we let people know in advance.

513

But I'm gonna ask you today, if you had to put three songs on a playlist that represent

you as a person, what would those three songs be?

514

So, um Freebird has always been like, it was my dad's favorite song growing up.

515

It's just something that I've always loved.

516

I love that big long piece in the middle towards the end.

517

Devari and I used to, we used to,

518

road trip a lot.

519

We'd go back and forth from Minnesota to Wisconsin to Illinois to, you know, all over the

place.

520

And that song would always come on late at night.

521

We'd be driving back like two o'clock in the morning and we would crank that and he would

like drive and he'd drive to the music and he'd be turning the, we'd probably, you know,

522

today I wouldn't do it today.

523

I wouldn't take that many risks, but so Freebird,

524

I'd say angry again by Megadeth.

525

I don't know.

526

just sometimes I like Booker T once said, you know, sometimes I like to get mad, you know,

like sometimes you just got to get it out.

527

You got to get pissed off a little bit.

528

And I don't know.

529

I this this really is a hard hard question to ask.

530

What did you say?

531

I need an answer.

532

Tiny.

533

No, no, I was asking my wife.

534

I'm sorry.

535

Oh, sorry.

536

Tiny Dancer by Elton John.

537

There's a scene from a movie where they're all in the bus, they're in the band, they're

all in the bus and they all start, they're kind of mad at each other.

538

Do know what I'm talking about?

539

What is that movie?

540

I forget, I see the scene in my head, but I forget the movie.

541

Yeah.

542

uh

543

know, somebody starts singing and then everybody kind of jumps in.

544

That I would say and or something fun and stupid.

545

Like there's a German group, I don't know the name of the group, but they have a song

called Coincidence.

546

Do know what I'm talking about?

547

I haven't heard it, but that's a great name for a song.

548

Listen to it.

549

Like I love stupid stuff like that sometimes.

550

Like I just get it stuck in my head.

551

For the longest time I would play that over and over and over again every time we had our

kids.

552

And to the point where they hate the song now.

553

And my wife actually hates this song too.

554

I just.

555

Well, but that's fun.

556

with the meme where the guys and like the blue room and everything.

557

Everyone's like, there's a dopey song, but like it's now part of our life.

558

And now it's on my son's playlist.

559

It's on my playlist.

560

And now I'm just like, okay, blue room.

561

Here we go.

562

Is that the one where he's dancing or whatever?

563

What is that from?

564

What is that from?

565

It's Jon Hamm, right?

566

It's Jon Hamm.

567

Okay.

568

And I was just like, asked my wife, I'm like, this is like a song we listened to in the

nineties.

569

And she's like, yeah.

570

I'm like, was it a song we listened to the nineties?

571

And she's like, no.

572

So I have no clue what the song, I love the song, but it wasn't something I grew up with.

573

So I don't know.

574

In fact, just saw uh

575

something came across my TikTok the other day or Instagram feed of the guy who did the

song.

576

was like, know, POV, uh you're scrolling TikTok and a song that you did like 10 years ago

that got thrown away, is now like trending worldwide and everybody knows it.

577

I saw that.

578

now for this episode, that's going to be part of the promotional material for it is either

you or me when Mr.

579

Anderson's on the show and then that's it.

580

I love it.

581

Well, Ken Anderson, thank you so much for making the time with us.

582

Thank you so much for making the time to chat with us today.

583

I know how busy your schedule must be and to be able to chat with you about entrance

themes for a little bit.

584

been a pleasure.

585

Thank you.

586

I appreciate it.

587

This has been one of the most interesting interviews that I've done in a while.

588

So I really, really appreciate it.

589

I'd love to have you come on my podcast as well if you'd be down.

590

So, all right.