20 Wrestlers Who Released Real Music Albums

Some of them charted. Some of them had Simon Cowell on the phone. Some of them admitted their own album was the worst thing ever recorded. And at least one of them spent a fortune making a hip hop diss track that the target never bothered to answer. Before Bad Bunny ever laced up a pair of boots, a long list of professional wrestlers had already taken their act from the ring to the recording studio, with results ranging from genuinely brilliant to gloriously terrible. Here are 20 wrestlers who released music albums, and a few of these stories will genuinely change how you think about them.

The Pro Wrestlers Who Stepped Into the Recording Studio to Release a Music Album

Professional wrestling and music have long gone hand in hand. Be it the tunes used for a grand entrance, the mullets, long hair, and ring gear inspired by rock stars, or the similar touring lifestyles performing for thousands across the world.

Artists like Bad Bunny and Jelly Roll have proven that they have what it takes to battle in the ring, but what happens when the shoe is on the other foot? Some famous faces on the wrestling scene actually started out looking for a career in music, whereas others have used their in-ring success to help themselves leap into the radio airwaves.

One ground rule we used for this article: only stars who have released full albums or EPs qualify. If every wrestler who ever dropped a single were included, we would still be here at WrestleMania 60.

Right, that is the soundcheck done. On with the show.

1. Gene Okerlund: The Wrestling Announcer Who Recorded Music Before He Ever Called a Match

Mean Gene Okerlund may have been one of the greatest pro wrestling interviewers of all time, but his skills on the mic and super-smooth voice had more to them than just asking giants their game plans and telling production staff to put smokes out.

Growing up, Okerlund was very musically talented, a multi-instrumentalist and a singer with vocals that could soothe the pants off anyone who dared listen. In the 1950s, he played trumpet for the Harold Johnson Orchestra before forming his own group, Gene Carroll and The Shades, named after the band’s love of sunglasses.

The band recorded a few tracks, which were compiled into an album by Norton Records in 2000.

Post-music career, after making his name on the wrestling scene, Mean Gene once again harnessed his musical powers for his take on “Tutti Frutti,” which can be found on The Wrestling Album, and again on its sequel, Piledriver: The Wrestling Album II, rocking alongside “Real American” singer Rick Derringer for “Rock and Roll Hoochie Coo.”

You can read more about the musical life of Gene Okerlund here.

2. Jerry Lawler: The King of Memphis Wrestling Made Thousands Selling Records He Knew Fans Would Smash

Jerry Lawler’s love of music began long before he ever set foot in a ring or placed a crown on his head. During his college days, The King (or maybe he was a prince at the time) would hang out at a local record shop to play pinball. It was there he began a lifelong friendship with the store owner, Jim Blake, who went on to become a music producer.

Once Jerry started wrestling and established himself as the biggest villain on the Memphis wrestling scene, Jim had an idea, as he recalled on his podcast Dinner With The King.

“He came to me once I got into wrestling, and was the top bad guy; he got the idea of producing a record. He said you don’t have to sing. I found this song, it’s written by a guy called John D. Loudermilk, the song is called ‘Bad News’ and it fits your personality to a tee. It’s almost like a talking record, and I’ll put together a bunch of musicians that’ll be the best in Memphis, and we wound up in Ardent studios.”

Jim was good to his word, and Lawler’s band was composed of legendary session musicians such as Jim Dickinson, who performed with the likes of The Rolling Stones and ZZ Top, The Memphis Horns, Duck Dunn of Blues Brothers fame, and more.

“It didn’t become a big hit. It got some airplay on the Memphis radio stations, but the main way we made money with that song is that we sold them at the arena, at the matches. I was the top bad guy, and people really weren’t liking me at the time, and so what they would do was go over to the merchandise stand, they would buy my record, and as I came out to the ring, the fans would break my record just to piss me off!”

Lawler added, “We literally made thousands of dollars with people buying and breaking records!”

After that, King caught the bug and started producing more music. Jerry would front two albums, Jerry Lawler Sings and Jerry Lawler and The Nunnery Band.

During his recording sessions, Lawler at one point ended up working with The Gentrys, a band whose lineup featured a member who was also from the south, and had a particularly big mouth…

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3. Jimmy Hart: The Mouth of the South Was a Pop Star Before He Ever Managed a Wrestler

Jimmy Hart wasn’t a wrestling personality who went on to perform music; rather, like Mean Gene, it was the other way round. In his “Keep On Rocking” interview, he discussed where his musical talents came from.

“My mom really, Sadie Norton Hart, she wrote a song for Eddie Arnold before I was born called ‘Close My Broken Heart.’ I guess she had it in her blood, and I guess that got transferred to me somehow. She used to take me to church every Sunday, and I had to sing in the choir. Then, I had to sing solo! She used to make my hair all curled up… looking back on it now, I looked really goofy back then! So in high school I joined the choir, and that led me to form The Gentrys.”

And it was part of The Gentrys where he first met Jerry Lawler. Despite going to the same high school, Jimmy was five years older than Jerry, and as such, Lawler was a huge Gentrys fanboy; it was a massive thrill for him to finally meet Jimmy.

While recording tracks for Lawler, the two bonded over being the only musicians in the sessions who didn’t drink or use drugs. Hart started coming to Jerry’s matches.

“I was floundering around without a manager. So I asked Jimmy, as he was a charismatic guy, bubbly and energetic, why don’t you come to TV and I put you out there as my manager?”

Jimmy took Jerry up on his offer, and the rest is history. Jimmy also used his musical skills to write legendary songs and theme tunes for wrestlers such as Honky Tonk Man, Shawn Michaels, Jimmy Snuka, The Hart Foundation, Brutus Beefcake, Legion of Doom, Ted DiBiase, and many more.

But in 1986, Jimmy returned to his roots, releasing his own solo album Outrageous Conduct, which consisted mostly of comedy numbers delivered in his wrestling persona. The cover artwork was created by none other than Jerry Lawler.

4. Terry Funk: The Hardcore Legend Recorded a Jazz and Disco Album He Later Called “Godawful”

Terry Funk is the ultimate journeyman. Not only in terms of all the various wrestling companies he fought for over his near-50-year career, but also roles in Hollywood blockbusters as both a stuntman and an actor, and, of course, music.

In 1983, Funk decided to hang up his boots and retire. Of course, he would continue to bring down and hang his boots more times than a shoe salesman, but this was the first time, and as such, it seemed pretty legit. In his “final match,” he and his brother Dory Funk Jr. defeated Stan Hansen and Terry Gordy, resulting in the epic “FOREVER!” farewell promo.

The following year, while enjoying his retirement in Japan, Terry decided to give the music business a go, resulting in the album The Great Texan.

With a title like that, one could be forgiven for thinking the record would be country and western, with Terry’s whimsical wailings being accompanied by a six-string. But that thinking would be wrong.

With half the tracks written by Jimmy Hart, the groove shifted from jazz to slow jams to disco and everything in between. As one might expect, it was an absolute cluster, and a chapter Terry wasn’t very fond of, as he revealed in his book More Than Just Hardcore.

“Great Texan contains some of the most godawful singing you’ve ever heard. Jimmy Hart wrote the songs for me because I was too cheap to pay for the rights to songs that people had already heard. All the songs on that album had one thing in common: they all sucked.”

At least Terry formed a friendship with Jimmy, who would follow the Funks into the WWF in 1985.

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5. Michael P.S. Hayes: The Fabulous Freebird Went Solo and the Inner Sleeve Was More Controversial Than the Music

The Fabulous Freebirds were no doubt pioneers in the wrestling industry. The trio of Michael P.S. Hayes, Terry Gordy, and Buddy Roberts not only gave us the Freebird tag team rule but also helped popularize the use of contemporary music as wrestling themes while they made their way to the ring.

Influenced by Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Free Bird” and a southern pride rock and roll attitude, the Freebirds would make their way to the ring to the classic track, and occasionally Willie Nelson’s “Georgia On My Mind.”

However, by 1985, entrance music licensing became more problematic, and so the group decided to record their own theme song, “Bad Street USA,” with Hayes on lead vocals.

Deciding to capitalize on the success of his new entrance tune, Michael Hayes went on to create an entire album.

Backed by his Badstreet Band, Off The Streets was released in 1987. The album featured “Bad Street USA,” as well as many other tracks, including a cover of Thin Lizzy’s “The Boys Are Back In Town.”

But the notable thing about the EP has to be the photo choices. On the cover, Michael is wearing an open leather jacket with no shirt, pulling a generic ’80s rockstar pose. Inside, however, reveals something more revealing.

It’s hard to work out what is more problematic in today’s society: the Confederate flag, or the fact that said flag is covering Hayes’s bits and pieces, as he lies there in a provocative pose.

The Freebird probably took that Southern pride a little too far with this one.

6. Hulk Hogan: The Immortal One Had Simon Cowell on the Phone and a Number One Hit in the UK

Before becoming a pro wrestling legend, Hulk Hogan played bass in a band called Ruckus. During the ’80s, Hulkamania was running wild, and aside from a few collaborations during the “Rock N Wrestling” era, it seemed the Hulkster’s rock-star life was behind him.

That was until the mid-’90s. Leaving the WWE for WCW, the red and yellow were starting to wear a little thin. It was time to believe in the power of rock and roll and release an album, with none other than Jimmy Hart producing. Jimmy sat down with Vice to explain how Hulk Rules by Hulk Hogan and The Wrestling Boot Band came to be.

“So what happened was, a gentleman approached us about maybe Hulk doing an album, because Hulk played bass and I played in a rock group (probably before you were born) called The Gentrys, so we kind of all put something together. Hulk went into the studio, and we got two great money deals off it, really.”

Hart continued, “Hulk played bass on it, and we had our friend Jim Maguire there. Hulk and everybody else there just chipped in, sat around for a few weeks, and wrote ten songs. All of a sudden, we got a major record deal on Select Records, and the next thing you know, we’re over in Europe knocking on a few doors with the album while Hulk was doing a big promotional thing for one of his movies at the time.

Then we had a magic phone call from this A&R guy, Simon Cowell, who we’d never heard of before. He brought us in and said, ‘I love this album! But it’s already out. I’ve got another idea for Hulk!’ and it was the old Gary Glitter song, ‘The Leader of The Gang (I Am).’ He goes, ‘Let me tell ya somethin’, it’s going to be number one,’ and we go, ‘Yeah, right,’ but then it was number one for five weeks over there! So, it just really turned out awesome!”

The most famous track on the album is “Hulkster In Heaven,” a song Hogan wrote after a British Make-A-Wish child was invited to a WWE show in the UK, only for Hogan to learn he had passed away and never made it to the event.

The detail is complicated by the fact that Hogan did not wrestle in the UK in 1992. He did appear in England in 1990, so it is possible he simply misremembered the year. Either way, the album saw genuine success, peaking at number 12 on the Billboard Children’s Charts.

Hogan and Simon Cowell, who produced a number of wrestling-themed albums earlier in his career, remained friends, even if Hogan didn’t initially recognize him at their next encounter.

“Dude, I ran into him at some launch party about three years ago, and I actually didn’t recognise him,” Hogan recalled. “The launch was for some docu-soap about my life called Finding Hulk Hogan. I walked right by him, and he said, ‘Hey, you don’t say hello to your friends?’ and I went, ‘Oh my god, I’m so sorry,’ and I gave him a big hug. He’s just so cool, and very different from the character he plays on TV.”

7. Randy Savage: The Macho Man Released a Rap Album With a Diss Track Hulk Hogan Never Answered

In 2003, the rap world was alight. Eminem, 50 Cent, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, and many more warriors of street poetry were storming the charts. One truth spitter nobody may have expected to make his vocal debut was The Macho Man Randy Savage.

Be A Man was the name of the album, and if the concept of Savage releasing a hip hop record seemed ridiculous, Mach would probably have agreed, as he told Wrestling Epicenter in an interview to help promote the album.

“I’m not taking myself too seriously as a rapper, you know what I mean, I’m just trying to entertain my wrestling fans. I’m not about the East West thing, probably get some wrestling fans into the hip hop genre that they probably wouldn’t be exposed to. Even though rap has a large audience, there are a lot of wrestling fans, and I feel like it’s a win-win.”

The album was released by Big3 Records, with in-house production group Da Raskulls writing and producing the tracks.

Randy’s brother, Lanny Poffo, helped pen “Perfect Friend,” a tribute to the recently deceased Curt Hennig.

The title track was written by Randy himself and was famously a diss aimed squarely at Hulk Hogan.

“I’m calling out Hulk Hogan, kinda like Ja Rule and 50 Cent. They got a thing going, I got a thing going with Hulk Hogan, and I’m begging him to accept the challenge. To be a man for once in his life.”

Savage continued, “We had two live shows in Treasure Island in Florida, our home base, just to test out the reaction, test the waters, and got a great reaction. We even did something with a Hulk Hogan lookalike, got him out there and poked him out.

The song was part of Randy’s campaign to face Hogan in a legitimate fight, which obviously never took place.

Randy wasn’t the only wrestler who took up spitting bars at this time. As The Macho Man’s career was winding down, John Cena’s was just starting to warm up, and Randy had nothing but positive things to say about the Doctor of Thuganomics.

“I think he’s doing great. He loves music, just like I do, and I heard he even said something positive about me. I would like to return the favour. I wish him the best of luck. I know what he’s going through, doing a lot of travelling, doing the wrestling thing, so I say props to him. Maybe one day we will collaborate on a song.”

Sadly, that collaboration never took place. Be A Man sold 15,000 copies to mixed and negative reviews, but has since gained a significant cult following.

8. Lilian Garcia: The WWE Ring Announcer Who Landed on the Billboard Charts With Her First Solo Album

Lilian Garcia was born in the Panama Canal Zone, but moved to Spain at three months old, and stayed there for the next eight years of her life. It was during this time that she started singing on stage, participating in singing competitions with her father at only five years old.

She continued her vocal ambitions as a singer with various bands during her teens, and even appeared in the 1990 movie Modern Love as a singer.

Wrestling fans know her as one of WWE’s most popular ring announcers, beginning her first stint with the company in 1999. It wasn’t long before a certain great one caught wind of Garcia’s singing talents and helped her get back to pursuing her dreams, as Lilian revealed in an interview with TV Insider.

“All the backstage interviews we did could make me blush. It was hilarious. My favorite moments were off-camera. He was one of the first ones to befriend me. He is the reason I got to sing on the show. When he found out I sang, he asked me to sing the National Anthem. He didn’t have to do that. His career was going so strong. He didn’t have to take the time to befriend me and help me through these backstage interviews. It’s really cool to have that memory of him being that generous.”

Lilian released her very first single in 2002, debuting in the Billboard charts, a fond memory she shared with WWE.com.

“When my single came out, and it was just a single, I remember the very first week it charted No. 69, and I was screaming as I grabbed Billboard, running down the streets of New York, holding it up and screaming, ‘I made Billboard! I made Billboard!’ I’m dreaming for that moment again.”

After featuring on a couple of tracks for WWE’s Anthology compilation album, she began work on her very first solo album in 2005. ¡Quiero Vivir! (Spanish for “I Want To Live!”) launched in 2007, featuring ten Spanish-language tracks and two translated into English.

“I wrote and co-wrote 11 of the songs. It’s dear to my heart. I hope everybody enjoys this as much as I enjoyed putting this together,” she said. “Even if you don’t speak Spanish, you can still enjoy it. I’m going to challenge people out there to expand their horizons, give it a shot, and listen to it. See how you feel. Sometimes the music alone will move you.”

9. Mickie James: The Five-Time Women’s Champion Who Walked Away From WWE and Into a Nashville Recording Studio

Mickie James was eleven years into her wrestling journey, and following her first five-year run with WWE, in 2010, she headed back to the independent circuit. Traveling between shows, she started to think of new ventures, and on a 2022 episode of Stories With Brisco and Bradshaw, she spoke about how her country music career began to blossom.

“I was still wrestling, I was on the road, and I traveled by myself a lot, and I’m a night driver, so I do a lot of thinking in the car, after the matches and onto the next town. I just started writing and writing more, and I found myself writing melodies. It was just one random night on the road where I’m like, ‘You know what, I’m just gonna take these songs to Nashville, just to say I did it. The only reason I never did it is because someone else told me I wasn’t good enough. I’m just going to do it for me.'”

Mickie met up with producer and Dolly Parton guitarist Kent Wells, who convinced her to meet with other songwriters and to record a full album rather than just the three or four she had penned herself.

The album Strangers and Angels was released in 2010, and after its success, James signed with Entertainment One for the follow-up, Somebody’s Gonna Pay.

Mickie still produces tracks through her own Firewater Records label.

“It’s constant growing. I use the same formula as I did in wrestling, just constantly learning. I think I changed my goal in music. I really want to put out good music that I love, whether I sing those songs or someone else. I find it really flattering if someone else wants to sing your songs.”

10. Maria Kanellis: The WWE Diva Search Contestant Who Released an EP She Admitted She Never Wanted to Perform Live

Maria Kanellis was one of the first Diva Search runner-ups to be called to the main roster. Unlike many of her talent show contemporaries, Maria showed her love for pro wrestling by transitioning from backstage interviewer to in-ring talent, becoming an industry mainstay over the following two decades.

She has worked for various companies over the years, but cites her original release from WWE as a period that allowed her to pursue other projects, including fashion, acting, and music.

She released her EP Seven Sins on iTunes on April 13, 2010. So why was there never a follow-up album? Because, as she confessed to the ROHstrong podcast in 2021, she didn’t really enjoy performing it.

“This is going to surprise people, but I was a nervous wreck to perform. It made me really uncomfortable. I still write. I get really uncomfortable in front of crowds singing. I had a few showcases that were set up, and I canceled them because I got so nervous. I really enjoyed writing it. I didn’t write the music; I wrote the lyrics. I worked with a few other musicians on it. I had a lot of fun writing it, but performing was not for me.”

When spinning as many plates as Maria, not all can be winners, but she continues to enjoy success both in pro wrestling and other endeavors to this day.

11. John Cena: The Doctor of Thuganomics Who Went Platinum and Left 70 Unreleased Tracks Behind

John Cena started his WWE career as a hungry young upstart who believed in ruthless aggression, until Stephanie McMahon heard him freestyle rap on the back of a bus with the boys. This led to his impromptu segment on the 2002 Halloween edition of SmackDown, which in turn led to his rapping character, which in turn led to a full-blown album.

Twenty years on, Cena sat down with Billboard’s Tio Rinaldi and spoke on how his love of hip hop began.

“My affinity for hip-hop came to me through teenage rebellion. When someone says something about authority figures, and your parents are authority figures, it was exactly what I needed as a teenager. I loved the rebellious nature of hip-hop, and that’s how I became an unlikely source connected to that. I loved the bravado and the strength and the truth in the message.”

The album itself came about due to Cena disliking his entrance music.

“The rapping thing was an accident. I listened to the music they played for me, and I’m like, ‘I can do better than this.'”

And so Cena recorded “Basic Thuganomics,” then “My Time Is Now,” and eventually the full You Can’t See Me record.

The album was a massive success, but there was no follow-up, making Cena arguably the only platinum-selling artist not to capitalize on a debut record. With his in-ring career now behind him, could the studio beckon again?

“It is a young man’s game, and I’m not in it anymore. There’s like 70 lost tracks of the album that never made it out. I was able to shave off the ones that shouldn’t make it and give you the ones that should, and I’m lucky to get that.”

12. Jeff Hardy: The Enigma Named His Band After a Peroxide Bottle and Released Three Full Albums

Jeff Hardy loves to create art on both kinds of canvas, the ring mat and upon an easel. He even uses his own face to create glow-in-the-dark abstract imagery.

He also likes to write poetry, so eventually forming his band Peroxwhy?gen and recording music seemed like a natural progression.

It was a journey that started over 20 years ago, as Hardy revealed to WWE.com.

“Actually, back in ’99, 2000, 2001 is when I met my guitar player, Junior Merrill, in Cincinnati. He just gave me some acoustic tracks, and I was writing poetry at the time, a few raps, but not like rock ‘n’ roll, like alternative music, and I fell in love with his style. I started to write to what he threw down on a six-string guitar, and we clicked, man. We started getting together and rehearsing a bit; between now and then, we’ve produced a lot of songs. It’s been so much fun: the process of recording, writing, and performing.”

So, where did Hardy get the band name?

“Peroxwhy?gen. It’s very confusing, and people wonder what it means. I was on the toilet one day, and I looked at a peroxide bottle, and I thought, ‘Peroxide, it cleans wounds and heals you. And oxygen, we need that.’ I just took that letter ‘y’ and made it a word, ‘why.'”

“I remember I met Smashing Pumpkins singer Billy Corgan and said, ‘Hey, man, I think I got a pretty cool name. Really kind of abstract, and it doesn’t make much sense.’ He said that’s good, though, to put something out there that’s very artistic. So, that’s where it came from, and it just kinda stuck.”

After releasing three full albums and six extended plays, Jeff still makes music and has spoken about becoming a full-time performer once his in-ring days are over.

“One day, I want to put all I can into the music world and actually make a living from it. It’s inevitable, just like wrestling. I’m gonna wrestle for as long as I can, paint for as long as I can, and cut grass for as long as I can. I’m gonna do all that artistic stuff for as long as I can. I think it keeps me alive. I just love creating and staying as abstract and different as possible, and I love for others to be able to say, ‘Thank you. Because of you, I’m not afraid to be different.’ That’s just the best, man. When a kid tells you that? That’s the best.”

13. Chris Jericho: Fozzy Went From WCW Backstage Cover Band to Playing in Front of 81,035 at Wembley Stadium

Chris Jericho had two dreams in life, and he managed to achieve both of them. Way before starting his professional career, Jericho was in a high school band called Scimitar. Named after Sinbad’s sword, the band played Metallica and Iron Maiden covers.

Chris began wrestling in 1990 at the age of 19, and his in-ring career forced any musical ambitions to take a back seat for over a decade.

But in 1999, an opportunity to pursue those rock star dreams presented itself to Y2J, as he revealed to Ultimate Classic Rock.

“I just happened to meet Rich Ward backstage at a WCW show in San Antonio. He was there doing some work with Diamond Dallas Page and Stuck Mojo. We just started talking and really hit it off. I was like, ‘Man, I really want to do something and put together a band.’ So he was like, ‘Why don’t you come to Atlanta? I’ve got this side project thing I do with anybody that’s in town called Fozzy Osbourne, and we just play covers and have fun.’ That’s basically how it started.

“We did a couple of shows using that name, and it really worked. Right out of the gate, it was something that had interest, because Stuck Mojo was really popular on the underground scene, and Jericho was popular in WCW. I was just about to jump to WWE, so it was really good timing to put together a band.”

What began as a fun cover band soon turned into something more earnest after the group was invited as guests on The Howard Stern Show.

“For the first couple of years, obviously, we had the storyline, which was kind of a Spinal Tap/Blues Brothers/Traveling Wilburys type of thing. I remember the day we decided to switch. We did the Howard Stern Show, and at the time, Howard had a band called the Losers, and he claimed that his band was better than any celebrity band.

“That’s when I was like, ‘We’ve got to go in there as ourselves. We can’t go in there as characters, and we’ve got to play an original.’ So that’s the day we decided, ‘Let’s do all original stuff, drop the storyline and characters.’ That was 2002, so for two years out of 25, we had a different kind of vibe. Then we started doing all of our original stuff. 2010 is when Rich and I said, ‘Let’s make this a full-time thing and really go for it.’

“Fast forward to 2017 when the Judas record came out, that’s when we became a radio band. Here we are now with seven top 10 radio singles and a gold record. Suddenly, everything’s changed to a much bigger perspective than we ever thought about when we first started out.”

Twenty-six years on, Fozzy has become a Billboard-charting band, with Jericho even using his own band’s track “Judas” as his entrance theme for his AEW debut. This all culminated in August 2023, when Fozzy performed at AEW All In in London in front of 81,035 fans at Wembley Stadium, a paid attendance figure that broke the all-time professional wrestling record.

14. Enzo Amore: A Concussion at WWE Payback 2016 Was What Finally Sent Him Into the Recording Studio

Since leaving WWE in 2018, Enzo Amore jumped straight into his next chapter. Under his stage name Real1, Amore has gone on to release music spanning multiple genres, from rap to rock and everything in between.

The inspiration for recording music came from a frightening moment at WWE Payback 2016. The opening bout saw Enzo and Big Cass team up to take on The Vaudevillains for the WWE Tag Team Championship number one contender spot. When Simon Gotch sent Amore into the ropes, his head struck the middle rope and the ring apron, leaving Enzo motionless at ringside. The sight had him contemplating his future, as he revealed to Simon Millar of WhatCulture.

“I got knocked out cold in the wrestling ring, right? And I thought it might be over. I thought I might be done forever, so what am I gonna do next? That’s when I got into the studio, and that’s when I started making music, so I could plan for an opportunity when this ends.”

Amore has enjoyed success as a recording artist and has since returned to the ring, continuing to wrestle across the world.

15. Elijah (Formerly Known as Elias): WWE’s Drifter Guitarist Released Two Albums and Reached the Top 100 on iTunes on His First Day

Elijah (formerly known as Elias in WWE) first picked up a guitar at the age of 15. A huge fan of Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix, he started on electric guitar, but as the real-life Jeffrey Sciullo’s wrestling career took off, he switched to acoustic guitar, as it was a more practical instrument for the touring lifestyle. The acoustic approach was also the vibe that gave Dusty Rhodes the inspiration for the drifter character.

Sciullo drew inspiration from a wide spectrum of musical artists, from grunge acts like Alice in Chains to metal bands such as Metallica. But for his drifter character, he took a more country-influenced approach, as he revealed in an interview with Loudwire.

“I’m a big-time Johnny Cash fan. ‘Hello, I am Elias.’ ‘Hello, I’m Johnny Cash.’ He’s a big influence on me, and I listen to him all the time. I get inspiration from current country and folk guys too, like Chris Stapleton. I think he’s got a great voice, a great sound to him. I kind of pull from all avenues of music.”

Despite debuting on NXT, it wasn’t until Elias was called up to Raw that the character truly gained a following.

“I think that’s it. I’ve always known I was going to be a big star, so I need a big stage and a big platform. NXT was what it was, that was the birth, that was the drifter right there. You know, a travelling musician, dark and brooding. Now, here I am, Elias. No longer a drifter, man; I’m on the big stage, I’m performing for millions of people. All I can say is that millions of people absolutely understand, they absolutely get it.”

Elias proved so popular that he released not one, but two albums during his tenure with WWE: 2018’s Walk With Elias, which reached number 14 on the Top 100 US albums on iTunes in its first day of release, and 2020’s Universal Truths.

16. R-Truth: The 30-Year WWE Veteran Who Met Tupac at a Demo Convention Before He Ever Stepped Into a Ring

Ron Killings has been wrestling for almost 30 years, making his debut in 1997, but his hip-hop ambitions started long before that.

Back in the early ’90s, a young Ron attended a hip-hop convention to hand out demos. It was there he met the legendary Tupac Shakur. He explained on The New Day’s Feel The Power podcast.

“I was very young still then, in those pictures. I was just happy to be there at that time. We went from Atlanta to VA, to DC. It was a thing called The Jack the Rapper Convention. Back then, it was demo tapes. I had my box of demo tapes, vinyl, and that’s where Tupac had just done the movie Juice when I met him. Probably one of the greatest icons ever in the music industry. Not only the music industry, but the acting world too. He was a hell of an actor, and just to see him from afar and watch the people, he just did the movie Juice, so he was just on the up and up. He had something about him that attracted the people to him.”

Like many artists on this list, R-Truth’s music career took a back seat to pro wrestling, and, like many artists on this list, he took it back up upon being released by WWE in 2002.

He released his first album, InVINCEable, in 2003 and followed it up with Killing It in 2016 and Legacy in 2021.

Truth isn’t limited to hip hop, either. His 2025 release, The White Album, takes a country-influenced approach. One of the tracks, “Moments,” is built around his philosophy of seizing life’s opportunities as they arise. As he told Chris Van Vliet on his Insight podcast.

“My producer Jay Tracks came up with ‘Moments.’ It’s about we all wait for the right time, right? There’s no such thing as the right time. We all get moments in life to grab whatever we can when we can.”

It’s a philosophy that seems to have served Truth very well in life.

17. The Jumping Bomb Angels: The WWE Women’s Tag Champions Who Were Already Japanese Pop Stars

During the 1980s, Noriyo Tateno and Itsuki Yamazaki formed The Jumping Bomb Angels, one of the most celebrated women’s tag teams of that era.

The two captured All Japan Women’s Pro-Wrestling tag team gold, and toward the end of the decade, made the jump to WWE, winning the company’s original women’s tag titles from The Glamour Girls at the inaugural Royal Rumble event.

But before making the move to the United States, The Jumping Bomb Angels were already pop stars. After releasing three singles in 1986, the duo released a full album, First Flight, in 1987.

You can read more about the legendary pair here.

18. Brody King: The AEW Star Who Fronts a Hardcore Band That Released Its First Album the Same Year He Debuted as a Wrestler

2015 to 2016 was a significant period in the life of Brody King. In addition to making his professional wrestling debut, he released the first album by his band God’s Hate, of which he is the lead vocalist.

“God’s Hate, for the most part, is me and Colin Young, we started the band together, and everything goes through us, and if we aren’t sure of something we’ll go to Justin who runs Closed Casket Activities. He’s kind of like our manager and confidant, or we’ll go through Taylor Young of Twitching Tongues who’s also in the band now, but before that he was one of my best friends. He’s the driving force and producer. If we’re butting heads, we’re able to talk to each other, and we always have the other to collaborate with.”

King formed God’s Hate with Colin Young, and after a couple of EPs, the band released their first full album, Mass Murder, in 2016.

Both Brody’s wrestling and music careers have excelled over the years, and in 2022, when King was a member of The House of Black, he explained in an interview with SoundSphere the parallels between the two worlds.

“I don’t think there’s anything we’ve done that hasn’t been bounced off another member. Someone else’s creative influence can really start the flow. I am not one of those people who can make their art perfect alone. I need influence and collaboration with others to put my best product out there, and that goes for promos, and gimmick, even in the ring. It’s always going to be a collaborative effort.”

19. The Butcher (Andy Williams): The Every Time I Die Guitarist Who Was a Metalcore Icon Before He Was a Pro Wrestler

Andy Williams was a successful musician, playing guitar in the band Every Time I Die, long before training to become a professional wrestler.

Every Time I Die was formed in 1998. Alongside Williams, the band was composed of brothers Keith and Jordan Buckley on vocals and guitar, respectively. They went on to enjoy a 24-year career, releasing nine albums, performing at legendary events such as the Vans Warped Tour, and earning nominations for Metal Hammer and Alternative Press Music Awards, the latter of which saw Jordan Buckley pick up the award for best guitarist in 2017.

Legends of the metalcore scene, Every Time I Die disbanded in January 2022 following an internal dispute between members. As for Andy Williams, he continues to pursue professional wrestling, most recently appearing on the independent circuit after seven years with All Elite Wrestling.

20. Joe Hendry: The TNA Star Who Got a Wrestling Song Into the UK Top 40 and Achieved Both His Life Dreams at Once

Joe Hendry is one of the most talked-about performers in wrestling today, and that is thanks in no small part to his music.

Fans love his parodies and in-ring guitar singalongs, and his entrance theme amplifies his character in a way that is genuinely unique to professional wrestling.

Joe’s love of music began when he was ten years old, when he found his uncle’s music collection and discovered The Beatles. However, The Blue Album by Weezer is the record he credits with shaping his musical abilities, as he told NME.

“GarageBand allowed people like myself with no experience to experiment with music and that’s how I learned songwriting. To me, Weezer is the most underrated band critically that has ever walked the face of the earth in my view. I think they’re super underrated. And ‘The Blue Album’ to me became like an education in songwriting.”

He continued, “That style of songwriting laid everything out for me in terms of structure, and using GarageBand and ‘The Blue Album,’ I could deconstruct how songs were put together to help make my own.”

Like many other artists on this list, music took a back seat when he began his professional wrestling career, but Hendry soon found a way to combine the two and carve out a uniquely memorable identity for himself.

Joe released a compilation of his music in 2025 under the name Total Hendry, with his entrance theme landing in the UK Top 40. To Joe, it is a dream he never expected to realize.

“I felt very excited by the ability to use music in a way that hadn’t been used before in professional wrestling. To be honest with you, it’s so crazy that, in life, you have to let go of the thing that you want to get the thing that you want. I completely moved on from music and entered professional wrestling, then here I am with a wrestling song in the Top 40. I’ve achieved both of my dreams in one, it’s almost unthinkable.”

From smoky recording studios in 1950s Memphis to the stage at Wembley Stadium, professional wrestlers have always had more to say than any promo could contain. The ring may be where they made their names, but for many on this list, the microphone, the guitar, and the recording booth turned out to be just as important a part of who they are.

These stories may also interest you:

• 8 Wrestler Music Video Cameos You May Have Missed
• Secret History of Entrance Theme Music in Wrestling
• Uncovering the Facts About the Musical Past of Hulk Hogan