Suspiciously Similar Song/Professional Wrestling

• Used frequently in Professional Wrestling, especially in TNA (though it occasionally shows up in WWE; listen to the Full Blooded Italians' entrance music, and you'll be reminded of "No Sleep 'Till Brooklyn" by the Beastie Boys). WCW was an even worse offender before it got bought out, which is rather odd; they were a Time Warner subsidiary, and Time Warner owned most of the labels that were getting ripped off. As noted above, this is mostly due to Jimmy Hart, the former Trope Namer himself, writing the music for these companies. Other examples include Mortis using a reworked version of the theme from The Phantom of the Opera (both characters wore a skull-like mask).
  • To be fair, just because they "Own" the rights doesn't mean they don't have to pay the artist to use the song. It's cheaper to get JH to write the song for you.
  • Some infamous JHV's from WCW: "Come As You Are" by Nirvana (Raven), "Even Flow" by Pearl Jam (Chris Jericho, mostly heel run), "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana (DDP), "War" by Edwin Starr (Misfits in Action), "The Zoo" by Scorpions (The First Family), "Purple Rain" by Prince (Prince Iaukea), "Cowboy" by Kid Rock (Jeff Jarrett), "Beautiful People" by Marilyn Manson (Perry Saturn/Revolution), "Perfect Strangers" by Deep Purple (Shane Douglas) and "Burn" by Nine Inch Nails (David Flair).
  • Way before Jimmy Hart debuted in WCW, there were still JHV's; for example, Dustin Rhodes' theme before the Slam Jam album was a JHV of "Money for Nothing," and the York Foundation used a JH "Dallas" theme.
    • And way before that, in the JCP/NWA days, there was the JHV of Giorgio Moroder's "Chase" that the Midnight Express used.
  • Even more baffling than writing covers of songs they already owned, was WCW rewriting songs that were already in the public domain! Randy Savage had previously used "Pomp & Circumstances" in WWF, but it was given a rock makeover in WCW.
    • WWF did this in the early 90s when they gave Ric Flair a JHV of "Also Sprach Zarathustra".
• Recent example: World Heavyweight Champion Jack Swagger's entrance theme bears an extremely strong resemblance to the Rage Against the Machine song "Testify"; in fact, the band that performs the song is a RATM tribute band called Age Against The Machine.
  • Degeneration-X's theme is a lyrical JHV of "Killing in the Name". The lyrics both speak of rebellion. Compare the DX theme's "We just got tired of doing what we're told what to do" to these words of RATM's song, "And now you do what they told ya," and "Fuck you I won't do what you tell me! Fuck you I won't do what you tell me!"
  • Stone Cold Steve Austin's theme is actually a JHV of another JHV. His theme is based off of Razor Ramon's theme, which in turn is suspiciously similar to The Eagles' "Dem Shoes."
  • Speaking of former ECW guys, Tommy Dreamer's WWE theme is a Jimmy Hart version of his original ECW music, "Man in the Box" by Alice In Chains.
    • The humorous thing about that song is it's official WWE name is "Boxed Man" "Bad Dream".
  • Eric Bischoff's debut theme in WWE was AC/DC's "Back in Black", but he used a JHV for every subsequent appearance.
  • The same thing happened with Balls Mahoney. The Sandman, too...but not so much (it DOES bear some resemblance to "Enter Sandman", but again, not so much).
    • With "Enter Sandman" it was a necessity. Metallica charges $5–6 million just for the use of that one song. ECW used to have a cover version on hand just in case.
  • The original ECW did this too sometimes...see: Taz's music morphing from the actual "War Machine" by KISS to a JHV, to his "Survive If I Let You" theme that used the opening riff to the JH War Machine and then a completely different melody.
    • WWE Diva Mickie James' entrance theme is pretty obviously the Jimmy Hart Version of "My Sharona" by the Knack. You mean "Oh Mickie" by Tony Basil.
  • Also, Bill Goldberg's entrance theme in WWE was a Jimmy Hart version of his original WCW entrance theme (An awesome piece of stock music), due to the rights to the song not being available. The WWE version was not as awesome.
    • Victoria had previously used tAtU's "All the Things She Said" but was given a lyrics-less cover version a few months later. The same could be said of Christian. "Just Close Your Eyes" (both the Waterproof Blonde and the Story of the Year versions) is actually the live-band-recording Jimmy Hart Version of two of his previous themes, "At Last" (which itself—in an earlier iteration—was a Jimmy Hart Version of "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen) and "Blood Brother". Of course, one could just claim that it's The Jimmy Hart Version of "My Last Breath" by Evanescence like his TNA theme afterwards was.
  • Lord help the WWE if they lure Bryan Danielson in without getting the rights to "The Final Countdown".
    • Considering the way they're going to likely repackage him, they probably wouldn't even consider giving him something that even remotely sounds like it. Let's consider it "averted" for him...for the moment.
      • Apparently he actually did get a mild JHV of it in Florida Championship Wrestling, but for storyline reasons he has to use The Miz's music in WWE NXT.
    • He's not Bryan Danielson anymore, he's Harry Plopper... er, Daniel Bryan.
    • Averted, as they didn't even bother JHV'ing. When he finally got his own music, at first he was using some generic-sound hard rock. And then he won the US Title, and now uses "Ride of the Valkyries". The real version. So...upgrade?
  • Ring of Honor's even started this: the music for their HDNet television show bears a remarkable resemblance to Velvet Revolver's "Slither".
    • Oddly enough, Ring of Honor never attempted this after the Internet outcry over Bryan Danielson having to drop "The Final Countdown." Then again, lemonade was made from this lemon, as the emotional effect when it was brought back for special "off-camera" moments, especially at his last hurrah...
      • A suspiciously synthesizer-heavy version was used for his entrances on Ring of Honor's TV show, however.
    • As it turns out, WCW using this trope has probably saved WWE a ton of headaches, as they (usually) haven't had to bother with editing music on their archived WCW broadcasts, and certainly not to the same extent as they've had to self-edit. Most of the replacement songs for WWE versions aren't even this trope in action, as they're usually not even close to the original pieces.
  • The Other Wiki once had an article which listed songs TNA theme composer Dale Oliver has made Jimmy Hart versions of. The list was rather long, but has since been removed.
    • Mr. Perfect's "I Am The Champion" easily takes the cake, hands down.
    • Elix Skipper's intro sounded A LOT like DMX's "party up".
  • To me, the opening of Samoa Joe's theme is a JHV of the Godzilla theme.
    • It's not just to you...on the independents, Joe's music would always start with the Godzilla theme.
  • Hulk Hogan's 2010 TNA theme is basically the original New World Order theme. (And he's wearing black again. And during his debut, he explicitly referred to the NWO in all but name, while talking with Hall, Nash, Waltman and Bischoff).
    • That song actually was originally recorded by Hart in WCW, as the theme song for nWo 2000, but they ended up using the original "Rockhouse" instead. "Rockhouse" itself of course if a JHV of a couple Jimi Hendrix tunes...
• The WWF Blue Meanie Theme is a JHV of Tinman's - 18 Strings, which in itself is a JHV of Nirvana's - Smells Like Teen Spirit.
• Hulk Hogan's first WCW theme, American Made, was an obvious JHV of Real American.
• Ted DiBiase's Priceless is also a JHV, oddly enough. If you listen closely, the melody and instrumentation resemble Money by Pink Floyd.
• The Outsiders' pre-nWo theme music in WCW was a JHV of "Crazy" by Seal.
• The Wrestling Album, WWE's first album of mostly wrestlers' theme music, includes the song "Eat Your Heart Out, Rick Springfield," written and performed by Mr. Hart himself, which is the Jimmy Hart version of Rick Springfield's song "Jessie's Girl." Justified, as it's a song about a guy who's jealous over his girlfriend's interest in Rick Springfield. Which also parallels/parodies the meaning of the original. Incidentally, the song was also used as Jimmy Hart's entrance music in the video game WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2006.
• Also on The Wrestling Album, "Hulk Hogan's Theme" is a JHV instrumental of Bonnie Tyler's "Ravishing".
  • Actually, Hulk Hogan's theme had predated Ravishing by a year, as it had been used in 1985 as the theme to Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n' Wrestling and on "The Wrestling Album", whereas Ravishing had been released in 1986
• The theme to No Way Out 2001 was the JHV of Bush's "Machine Head".
• Alicia Fox's theme is a JHV of Nelly's "Hot in Herre". What makes it really funny is that the theme is called "Shake Yo Tail." Nelly also did a song called "Shake yo Tail Feather." It copies one, but was named after another, making it look like the writer Did Not Do the Research.
• Christian Cage's TNA theme was originally a virtual note-for-note rip of the Evanescence song "My Last Breath". It changed midway through his TNA run, perhaps for that very reason...
• Percy Watson and Titus O'Neil's theme seems to be a speed-up JHV of Lil' Jon's "What You Gonna Do."
• Kevin Nash's theme when he used the Diesel gimmick during his first run in the WWE is a JHV version of AC/DC's The Jack.
• ECW's original theme song, "This Is Extreme" has it's main riff similar to the main riff of White Zombie's "More Human Than Human."
• Kelly Kelly's theme is a softer version of Destiny Child's "Lose My Breath".
• Antonio Cesaro's theme is a JHV of "Chelsea Dagger" by The Fratellis.