Downstait’s Zach Call recently spoke on the Insight with Chris Van Vliet podcast to discuss composing Cody Rhodes’ iconic entrance music, The American Nightmare nearly being unable to use the “Kingdom” song for his WWE return at WrestleMania 38, and much more.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On creating Cody Rhodes’ entrance theme that’s still used in WWE: “So that was the end of our WWE run in about 2015, 2016. There was a few more, can you do it? Will you do it? Are you the right fit? And it for one reason or another didn’t work. And then we went over and just started doing independent stuff. And that’s actually Cody, right when he broke away, he put out this Twitter thing. And we were kind of a sinking ship, to be honest and really kind of gave us a lifeline. I mean, we had some success, and we get a little bit of notoriety just from being involved with WWE, but we hadn’t put an album out since 2013. And we weren’t really thinking about writing. I’m an administrator at a school. Sean’s a lawyer, and my brother runs a body shop And we got old and living in a van or on a tour bus is kind of tough on older guys, especially guys with families like my brother. So, I just was on Twitter and I was in my feels a little bit. I’m like, Dude, we’re not done yet. Like something’s going on. We just got on SmackDown two weeks ago with the radio cover. Like if we did that in a bedroom, we didn’t have any, like WWE didn’t fly us out. We did that on our own. Like we could still do this. Cody put out a tweet saying what entrance music should I use on the Indies. Yeah. And he said something about Throne by Bring Me the Horizon. And I was wearing that album out at the time. I knew one by being such a big fan of his since he showed up with Bob Holly. Like I knew this dude’s character, I’m a wrestling historian, I know what he wants to sing about. And I know what he’s going through a little bit just because dirt sheets, sometimes they’re right. But at the same time, like this dude should be getting a better opportunity. So, we sent him a tweet just through whomever we had already worked for him. We said hey, man, can we give this song a shot? And we sent him a snippet of what we were thinking about and I sent him my words over in that hard times breathe better men it’s straight from his dad’s promo. Yeah, like it was like how can I not without being like patronizing the situation and being a dummy how can I just sell this character a little bit to the guy that is doing it? So, Sean and I sat down and went on a little bit of a write binger and set something back in within like four hours and he highlighted the lyrics that everybody’s singing now, and it’s just like, Okay, we still got it. We went and recorded and sent it back to him. He took it to Wrestle Kingdom to Battleground. What’s that? That’s the TNA one, right? Slammiversary. Like he took it everywhere with him.”
On big “Woah” used in the song: “So that’s planned, by the way, us being as big of fans as we are. Smoke and Mirrors does have that woah in some form or fashion, we didn’t do that on accident. That’s a call back joke. Like it’s all the way like let’s bring this all the way together. For wrestling fans to be so Easter egg hunting, like to catch on when it gets to WWE. It’s like, it’s so cool. And I guess Kevin Dunn is a humongous fan of the tune. So, he’s put the emphasis on it.”
During a recent appearance on the Developmentally Speaking podcast, Matthew Rehwoldt (formerly Aiden English) discussed his current commentary gig, while revealing that he’s currently a free agent eyeing a potential in-ring return.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On his current status in wrestling: “I’m trying to do a little bit of everything. I’m taking advantage of this moment. Obviously, I do commentary for IMPACT Wrestling as well as New Japan Pro-Wrestling. A couple of independents like BRCW, Wrestling REVOLVER. I do those, but I am a free wheeling, free dealing agent, I’m not tied down anywhere. I’m also using this opportunity to explore other passions outside of wrestling. If you follow me at all, you see me talking about whiskey a lot. I’m a total geek about it. I would love to do some work in that space, maybe. I’ve started talking to folks in that, maybe some more substantial work work, as opposed to me taking pictures with bottles. I did do, and I still do, I’m a huge fan of eSports. I got really into it over the last two years. I really fell in love with it and I got to host a huge eSports event in Texas for the Houston Outlaws, which is an Overwatch league team. In that space, I’m a gigaboomer, I’m like old man in the video game space, so I don’t see a ton of that as far as long-term work, but I love games. Just using this opportunity. I’m not tied down anywhere, so explore anything and everything.”
On a potential managerial role or returning to the ring: “Even when I said I was done taking wrestling bookings, it’s wrestling, never say never. I could also be a manager capacity. I’ve done a little bit of that at Wrestling REVOLVER, shoutout to main event Madman Fulton. I have a feeling, even if I find some gig that takes me completely away from wrestling, I feel like I would still seek out one more match. Not some big retirement deal. I would hit up some of my favorite guys on the Indies, ‘I want to do one or two more.’ Even if I don’t, I miss it a little. I have to get myself in shape if I’m going to do it. I told myself I’m not going to show up half-baked on that one. If I’m going to put on the boots again, I want to do it well.”
