The story behind WWE Superstar Sami Zayn's punk entrance music

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By ( Metal Hammer ) published

Sami Zayn is definitely the most punk Superstar on WWE's roster. But where did his catchy entrance theme come from?

Sami Zayn at the O2 Arena in London, 2016
Sami Zayn at the O2 Arena in London, 2016

[WWE Superstar] Neville and I are big fans of ska. He’s actually more into original, Jamaican, skinhead, two-tone ska from England, but I’m more into punk ska – Operation Ivy and stuff Rancid would do. And while we were in developmental at the Performance Centre, we’d have promo class every week with Dusty [Rhodes, WWE Hall Of Famer].

Neville and I pitched this idea – and we played with it for months and months, encouraged by Dusty – where we dressed in two-tone suits to do these ska characters. I think someone eventually showed this to [WWE Executive Vice President] Triple H and I had this generic stock music. At this point, NXT was starting to become a pretty big deal, so it wasn’t just stock music being picked any more, WWE were investing time and making music for these guys. Triple H caught wind of this ska thing I was doing with Neville and said ‘Well, if this is more him than the music he’s got now, let’s do something in this vain’.

He sent me this song and I didn’t like it at first. The horns sounded kind of synthetic at first and I didn’t like that, then they fixed it and added the ‘Whoa-oh-oh’ at the beginning. That was the only input I had.”

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