4: My Shadow Knows My Story, Tommaso Ciampa
The humming, brooding and raspy number quickly became a fan-favorite, launching fleets of memes in the process. Although I have seen some comments saying My Shadow Knows My Story is butt-rock and dad-rock because of its dark angst, they are too young to understand baddassery when it smacks them in the eardrums. It’s definitely not that I feel personally attacked because the music of my youth is now dad rock… anyway!
Another peak example of Mikey Rukus’ ability to get a feel for each wrestler and add their collaborative contributions to the mix. Made in a day and a half, this thunderous, ominous track tells you a Psycho Killer is coming. It warns the opponent and fans to get ready for hard strikes and relentless anger. That’s without considering how the lyrics do tell Ciampa’s story and set out the character’s agenda with a few lines.
As a sound to light a fire in your belly, those simple but effective hmm-mm-mm prepare you to get to work.
3: Cold World, Eddie Kingston
When it comes to lyrics that show rather than tell a character, it’s hard to do better than the connotation-laden lines of Eddie Kingston’s Cold World.
“The world is cold, better bundle up.”
Straight away you know Kingston is both a hard man and a damaged man. Someone who knows the world isn’t fair and is going to keep fighting. Someone who isn’t going to make excuses but isn’t going to ignore the problem threatening their face.
Blending DMX with an organ, the latter touch bringing an inner conflict mixing the urban with Catholic and religious self-conflict again tells you whether face or heel, Kingston isn’t straightforward. Simple and yet grand, simple and yet complex, like Kingston, it’s a song of contradictions and complications.
It’s a war song that doesn’t glorify and a song of struggle without asking for pity. It’s Eddie Kingston.
