Author: A rock band from Illinois walked into a Nashville wrestling ring with a camera crew, a dozen professional wrestlers, and a plan. What happened next ended up on television, charted on the radio in 33 countries, and is now raising money to help retired wrestlers pay their medical bills.
Who Are The Ex-Bombers?
The Ex-Bombers are S.M. Nancy Walus and Keri Cousins, a psychedelic blues and garage rock duo from Illinois who have been releasing music on vinyl through their own Cavetone Records since 2010. Armed with an eight-string electric bass, a drum kit, and two powerhouse voices, the pair have built a cult following through relentless touring, five vinyl releases, and an unlikely but deep connection to professional wrestling.
That wrestling connection is no gimmick. The Ex-Bombers are responsible for some of the most recognizable entrance music in independent wrestling today. They wrote Get the Experience, the theme for the top-rated professional wrestling podcast The Jim Cornette Experience. They composed He’s a Bad, Bad Man for Jeremiah Plunkett, the longest-reigning NWA Mid America champion, and The Adventures of Beef for AEW and Ring of Honor star BEEF. Their work has extended to wrestling television as well, providing music for Music City Pro Wrestling, Hub City Wrestling, and PWA Voltage.
The Ex-Bombers initiated this fundraiser independently as a way to put their music to work for a cause that matters to the wrestling community they have become a part of.
The “In Music City” Music Video
The concept behind “In Music City” started simply enough. The Ex-Bombers would perform their song inside a wrestling ring, surrounded by professional wrestlers, while older audience members watched the action on CRT televisions. What unfolded during production turned out to be something far more chaotic and compelling. A real physical altercation broke out between two wrestlers during filming, forcing the entire narrative of the video to be restructured around the unplanned footage, which was ultimately kept in the final cut.
The video was filmed in collaboration with Music City Pro Wrestling and Wrestletopia. Flynn Hendrix, known as “Mr. Music City” and one of the co-founders and head booker of Music City Pro Wrestling, was central to making the production possible, providing the promotion, the ring, and the roster of talent the shoot was built around.
The video features over a dozen Nashville-area wrestlers including Jeremiah Plunkett, Flynn Hendrix, Ray Bruce, The Deadly Sinn Se7en, Will Huckaby, LT Falk, Zack Kennedy, Totally Plastic Pha’Nesse, Isaiah Snow, Johnny Bandanna, Wishmaster Michael Revick, Phillip Lee Dixon, Miss Rachel, ConjiClub, Aaron Camaro, and referee Chris Norte.
For an added touch of authenticity, the production sourced CRT televisions and wicker furniture to recreate the look of wrestling viewership in the early 1980s. The band’s cat, Fright, also appears in the video.
The song itself has already made a mark on radio. “In Music City” reached number 44 on the Radio Indie Alliance Charts and has been spun on over 250 radio stations. The music video has been airing on television through programs including Soundwaves, Video Jam, and Euro Indie Music Chart TV. The track is also set to serve as the opening theme for the upcoming Music City Pro Wrestling television show.
A Tribute to Tennessee Wrestling History
The video is framed as a deliberate tribute to professional wrestling in Tennessee during the early 1980s, when the sport occupied a unique and commanding place in the region’s television landscape. At its peak, Memphis-area wrestling consistently recorded a 70 percent audience share, meaning roughly seven out of every ten televisions in use at any given time were tuned to the local wrestling program. The show was routinely the highest-rated weekly broadcast on local television, a standard matched in American broadcasting only by the Super Bowl.
That era produced some of the most passionate and enduring wrestling audiences in history, and Nashville was a central part of it. The mid-1950s Saturday night wrestling broadcast on WSIX-TV was already drawing enormous ratings in the city, and the territory’s influence stretched across the South and into the Midwest. The Ex-Bombers drew directly on this legacy in building the visual world of the “In Music City” video, grounding a modern Nashville wrestling production in the aesthetic and energy of the wrestling territory era.
The Cauliflower Alley Club: Wrestling’s Only 501(c)(3)
The Cauliflower Alley Club was founded in 1965 by Mike Mazurki, a professional wrestler and actor best known for his appearances alongside John Wayne in Hollywood films. What began as a weekly gathering of wrestlers, boxers, and movie industry friends at Mazurki’s Barons Castle Buffet Restaurant in Los Angeles eventually grew into professional wrestling’s only federally recognized 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, with membership that has reached 3,000 worldwide. Since its founding, the CAC has distributed over one million dollars through its Benevolent Fund to wrestlers and industry workers facing financial hardship.
The CAC’s Benevolent Fund is its core function. The organization provides direct financial assistance, not loans, to individuals who worked full time in the wrestling industry for at least three years and have since fallen on hard times. Assistance covers medical expenses, funeral costs, disaster relief, and other pressing financial needs. Recipients can receive up to $2,500 per year and $10,000 over a lifetime, with the board able to make exceptions for extraordinary circumstances. Every staff member is a volunteer, and the organization operates with the stated principle that nearly every dollar collected goes back to those who need it.
In 2026, the CAC marks its 60th Annual Reunion, scheduled for August 24 through 26 at the Plaza Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. The milestone gathering will honor the men and women who built the wrestling business across six decades of the organization’s history. The timing of the Ex-Bombers fundraiser, running through June 28, 2026, places it in the lead-up to this landmark reunion and adds another layer of significance to the effort.
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Add Us on GoogleHow to Help Before June 28
The fundraiser is straightforward. Every complete view of the “In Music City” music video on YouTube through June 28, 2026, triggers a one-cent donation to the Cauliflower Alley Club from The Ex-Bombers. There is no purchase required and no sign-up involved. Watching the video is the only action needed to contribute.
The song will also appear on the band’s upcoming album Lace Up Your Boots, which will collect their wrestling themes alongside new material on both CD and vinyl. For more on The Ex-Bombers, visit theexbombers.com or follow them at @theexbombers across YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, X, and Bluesky. To learn more about the Cauliflower Alley Club or to donate directly, visit caulifloweralleyclub.org.
The “In Music City” music video is embedded below. Watch it in full and put a cent toward a cause that has been a lifeline for wrestlers for 60 years.
The Ex-Bombers, “In Music City” (Official Music Video, 2026). Every full view through June 28, 2026, donates one cent to the Cauliflower Alley Club Benevolent Fund.
