Why do Arsenal use WWE entry music?

Some time ago we wondered if there was a relationship between football and WWE, if these two apparently distant worlds were somehow closer than we thought. And then along came The Undertaker who on February 9th in Saudi Arabia introduced the Riyadh Season Cup’s official trophy to the world before the kick-off of Al Hilal-Al Nassr. Dressed in his theatrical attire, he stepped onto the field with his entrance music blaring and a procession of druids carrying torches. He then lifted the cup to the sky, leaving Cristiano Ronaldo in disbelief. And so, to return to the initial point, yes there is a relationship between football and WWE but The Undertaker's trip to Riyadh was not needed to establish it. A trip to London would have been enough, more precisely to the Emirates Stadium a.k.a. the home of Arsenal. In fact, for some years now the Gunners have been using wrestlers' entry music as the last song of the interval before the teams return to the field to play the second half.

The origins of this bond can be traced back to July 2020, when the absence of fans in stadiums due to the pandemic led to the discovery that Arsenal players walked onto the pitch to the sounds of "The Game" the badass song performed by Motörhead and famously associated with Triple H. Lemmy Kilmister's hoarse voice accompanied by his distorted bass pierced the silence of the Emirates, creating a surreal situation when compared to the image with which this song is associated, that is, a wrestler with a biker look and a bodybuilder's physique who spits water upwards and then in favor of the camera while is surrounded by a cone of light. The images of the Emirates immediately made the rounds on social media, so much so that even Triple H, who in the meantime had become COO of the WWE, commented on the story with amusement: “What better theme for Arsenal to have blaring over a loudspeaker system than Lemmy of Motorhead screaming ‘time to play the game’? There’s nothing better than that”. It didn't stop there but rather from week to week Arsenal decided to pay homage to a different wrestler. And so the players took to the field to the tune of Kurt Angle's entry music, without the audience shouting "You suck!", or accompanying Chris Jericho's voice in the chorus of "Judas", the Fozzy’s song that anticipates the entrance on the scene of the Canadian wrestler since his debut in AEW.

The mastermind behind it all is Peter Mujuzi, the official Arsenal DJ who takes care of the Gunners' music selection during home games. In an interview with GOAL.com, Mujuzi said: “I never thought it would get this big. I was just trying to freshen things up a bit. I’d been doing the music at the Emirates since the 2015-16 season, and over time it just became a bit repetitive in terms of some of the songs I was playing. So I just thought, as a wrestling fan, I would sneak in one of these theme tunes and see if anyone would take any notice. Now I can’t really believe the reaction to it”. In the same interview Mujuzi confessed that the first real attempt dates to 2017 but it stopped immediately only to then become a cult starting from 2020. A situation loved by wrestlers, who never miss an opportunity to publish a message, or images of their song played at full volume on their social networks, as much as by the wrestling community. For example, on August 26, the decision to use Bray Wyatt's entrance music, "Live in Fear," as a tribute to the wrestler who passed away at the young age of 36 due to a heart attack, was a powerful and fitting choice warmly received. A gesture appreciated by both football fans and wrestling enthusiasts, because ultimately there is a huge point in common between these two communities, namely the desire to share an emotion with those who lives the same passion. And what better way to do it than through a song. Indeed, with an entry music.