FanPost

Perfect 10: Wrestlers in music videos

ImpactWrestling.com

This week in the ever growing thematic collections of YouTube clips we celebrate the recent thirtieth anniversary of The Wrestling Album with some examples of the opposite flow. Truth be told, it's not a crossover that's always thrived over the years. WCW may have had their tie-ins with Kiss and the Misfits (and Husker Du's Bob Mould on the writing team for a short time), Motorhead seemingly jump at Triple H's command these days, and among many, many timewasting musical acts on Raw and big PPVs Machine Gun Kelly may have taken an Owens powerbomb even if he didn't sell it anything like well enough. On top of those there's Fozzy, Lita's shortlived pop-punk band the Luchagors and CHIKARA's Ultramantis Black - but these are ten noteworthy examples of musicians who come into their own when working wrestling in their video clips.

The Mountain Goats - The Legend of Chavo Guerrero
For nearly 25 years John Darnielle has earned a cult following for his storytelling, occasionally confessional songwriting, something he put to thematic use this year on the album Beat The Champ, a collection of songs loosely inspired by his childhood love of watching NWA on TV and going to shows at LA's Olympic Auditorium. The video features some well observed callbacks to classic local broadcasts, includes Darnielle referencing the Pipebomb and features cameos by Joey Ryan, Ryan Nemeth (Briley Pierce) and Ray Rosas, comedian Rob Corddry and, well, Chavo Guerrero Snr himself. In fact making the album rekindled Darnielle's admiration for grappling, especially after being taken to a CHIKARA show. Just one thing, John - what happened to your promised Song For Sasha Banks?

Peaches - Close Up (NSFW)
Joey Ryan again! Kind of inevitable he'd turn up in out-there video treatments. This time he joins the roster of the LA-based lucha libre plus burlesque promotion Lucha VaVoom, where you'd have to say he fits in neatly. The confrontational electro star takes what seems to be a realistic beating, things get really out of hand at the end, and Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon plays her artfully disinterested manager.

Born Ruffians - The Ballad Of Moose Bruce
So you can make wrestling look nostalgic or knowingly kitsch, but you can also make it look like a video artform. Canadian indie rockers Born Ruffians' 2010 track depicts a match between Chris Hero and Marcus Marquez shot in black and white close-up slow-motion, the action matching the slow burn of the track to the action.

Smashing Pumpkins - Owata
Billy Corgan's associations with wrestling are well documented, including his current dalliance with whatever passes for creative in TNA these days. Before that he founded the Illinois-based Resistance Pro Wrestling; months before that got off the ground he put together a video centred on a match between Cheerleader Melissa and Shelly Martinez, with Raven hanging around at ringside, filmed in what some will recognize as Berwyn Eagles Club, home amongst others of SHIMMER.

Lambchop - Gone Tomorrow
The behemoth Jocephus Brody was part of Resistance Pro and he stars in this attempt at filming a grimy Nashville hotel function room as a piece of active theater. His opponent is Wolfie D of PG-13 and TNA's Disciples of The New Church fame, while Lambchop frontman Kurt Wagner plays Brody's driver and trainer.

Smoke DZA x Harry Fraud - New Jack
Were this a list of rap records that reference wrestling we'd be here all day, mostly thanks to Action Bronson and Insane Clown Possee. Videos are less easy to find, unless you count the archive clips embedded in Ric Flair by Killer Mike. Harlem rapper Smoke DZA once had Big E cameo on a mixtape, and this track from the KushedGod's 2012 collaboration with Brooklyn producer Harry Fraud both sampled New Jack interviews/rants and feature the maniac himself in the video. He has a spiked bat with him. And a staple gun.

Wavves - Way Too Much
While we're in the realms of the hardcore, Wavves frontman Nathan Williams is a huge wrestling fan - RVD, KO and New Day are his favorites - and suggested this clip be filmed at LA's deathmatch promotion Underground Empire Wrestling, Max X and JD Horror being the men featured. Barbed wire, thumbtacks, light tubes, the whole nine yards come into play, shot in full cinematic effect.

Carrie - Molly
You'd think, a la Peaches, singers being attacked by wrestlers would be more common than it is. With a mention in dispatches for Break Me by Pigeon Park, in which the Canadian hard rock band find an abandoned ring, practice their moves for a while and then find Nicole Matthews wants to claim it back, this column's favored example is by the late 90s Anglo-American indie rockers Carrie. What makes it stand out? The woman carting singer Steve Ludwin around the ring is Sweet Saraya Knight, already established in Britain and some years after becoming a mother but long before her trail of terrified spectators went international.

Stuck Mojo - Rising
Wrestlers cameoing in music videos is less common but does generally get the bigger names, from Cyndi Lauper's feature length Goonies 'R' Good Enough with Andre, Piper, Captain Lou, Iron Sheik, Freddie Blassie and Wendy Richter, through Big Show's cameo in the remix version of Sisqo's Thong Song, to a selection box of Divas in a Timbaland clip. Rap-metal pioneers Stuck Mojo maybe had the most out-there effort, as well as maybe one of the most lucrative, getting WCW exposure after hiring Diamond Dallas Page, Raven and his Flock, with Billy Kidman debuting the shooting star stagedive at about 1:28. Guitarist and singer Rich Ward ended up marrying Daffney, and he and drummer Frank Fontsere keep the WCW connections going as they're members of, yes, Fozzy.

Frank Turner – The Next Storm
Should we read anything into how many of these clips came out this year? And finally, the British singer-songwriter is beaten up by CM Punk. Good to see he's keeping busy. Meanwhile Daniel Bryan is buried again.


Previously on Perfect 10:

WWE stars meeting before signing
Women before they were Divas
Wrestlers on game shows
Pre-WWE careers; part two
Wrestling documentaries
Wrestlers on talk shows
Tryouts and one-offs

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