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CFO$ eclipsing Jim Johnston in just a short few years

15K views 166 replies 118 participants last post by  genghis hank 
#1 ·
No doubt Johnston has made his incredibly large share of great themes... but have a peek at this list of themes done by CFO$ since they have been on the payroll:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WWE_Music_Group_discography#Themes_by_CFO.24

Very notable ones include:

The good Wade Barrett's "Rebel Son"
Rusev's "Roar of the Lion"
Paige's "Stars in the Night"
Enzo & Cass' "SAWFT is a Sin"
Sasha Banks' "Sky's the Limit"
Brie Bella's "Beautiful Life"
Bayley's "Turn It Up"
Hideo Itami's "Tokiwakita"
Finn Balor's "Catch Your Breath"
Sheamus' "Hellfire"
Asuka's "The Future"
Tye Dillinger's "Ten"
AJ Styles' "Phenomenal"
Shinsuke Nakamura's "The Rising Sun"
No Way Jose's "No Way"
Bobby Roode's "Glorious Domination"
The Uso's new "Done With That"

Plus a whole bunch more decent-good NXT themes that I wouldn't put on the list because they're not particularly popular.
The ones I listed though, are just great themes, even if you don't consider how they ALL match the respective wrestlers' gimmick, temperament and/or entrance.

They really are stellar.
What are your faves?
 
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#6 ·
Oxi this is the worst opinion you've ever had. First of all JJ is a real musician who plays real instruments and a lot of them, one of the CFO$ guys can play a little guitar but everything else is computer made. Second, JJ made full songs that had different riffs, choruses and bridges, every CFO$ song is one riff, one chorus, one bridge played in a loop for 4 minutes.

CFO$ basically make elevator muzak. Even if they have a skill for finding sounds that fit the wrestler's personality, their refusal to ever finish a song gets them no credit as musicians.
 
#9 ·
Not sure how "being able to play instruments" makes the music someone makes somehow objectively better. Especially when it's for a wrestling theme and the amount of guitar strings you can play in a second isn't relevant whatsoever.
Also not sure why looping matters when most themes last about 2 minutes max and these days big entrances have special themes anyway. How pointless and stupid is it to make an entire 4 and a half minute track when the guy walks to the ring in 1? The title is intentionally hyperbolic for banter, but CFO$ are incredibly underrated especially by rose-tinted glasses.
 
#5 ·
Johnston gave us quality as well as quantity.

CFO$ has a couple of great themes, but majority of other themes are mediocre with generic riffs and repeated loops.

Listen to the WWE Anthology album that was released in 2002.

It's a catalog of some of the greatest themes in pro-wrestling history.

Most of them are Johnston's works.

:trips9
 
#16 ·
Oxi you're becoming a parody of yourself at this point. This is Healytron4000 levels.

CFO$ have made some decent themes, but Johnston has an immense track record over a far longer period. The guy also had to work under the pressure of having to crack out outstanding themes that were a perfect fit for (that helped to make) legitimate stars, not just a bunch of generic repeated riffs (Owens, Rollins, Ambrose, etc. All guys that would benefit from a larger than life entrance theme) interspersed by the odd good song.

There was a section in the iconic 'beyond the mat' documentary that made me truly understand Johnston's genius, where he gave simple and obvious but brilliant explanations for why he made themes for Vader and Stone Cold in a particular way with staccato and a certain bpm, based on their walking gait and the way they enter the arena attitude wise, in order to enhance the tone of their characters. It's that level of detail that I feel is missing from a lot of (not all) the current themes, which just seem like random themes that don't tell the story of the wrestler entering.

Then again this type of ignorance should be expected when Oxi thought Johnston wrote Real American and was using that as insult in the CB when it's an iconic theme.

:bosque

Looking at the actual CFO$ tracks objectively, I think Sasha Banks has a great theme that fits her entrance. Rusev's theme is pretty great too and sounds like the background music for a tough video game boss, although his booking doesn't really justify that unfortunately. I actually find the Balor theme really irritating but can't deny that it works brilliantly as a wrestling entrance theme. Conversely I really like Sami Zayn's theme (ska fan) but there's something about it that I don't quite feel quite works well enough. Maybe it's just too chirpy and upbeat for him to be taken seriously in tense or violent angles, I'm not sure.

In terms of possibly more controversial opinions, I don't like Nakumura's theme, but that's partly because it could never live up to Subconcious which was an outstanding theme. I do find the new theme a bit sickly though.
 
#83 ·
Conversely I really like Sami Zayn's theme (ska fan) but there's something about it that I don't quite feel quite works well enough. Maybe it's just too chirpy and upbeat for him to be taken seriously in tense or violent angles, I'm not sure.
How about the fact that Sami is dressed like a friggin' CAB DRIVER? I mean that doesn't exactly scream "Take me seriously", now does it. :lmao
 
#10 ·
Balor's theme is one of the greatest themes in wrestling history, in my opinion.

But Jim Johnston is the man to thank for the themes of Stone Cold, The Rock, Kurt Angle, Undertaker, Mankind, The Brood, Ken Shamrock... the list goes on. He made themes that perfectly matched each character while also being extremely catchy and easy to listen to by itself without context.
 
#111 ·
Balor's theme is one of the greatest themes in wrestling history, in my opinion.

But Jim Johnston is the man to thank for the themes of Stone Cold, The Rock, Kurt Angle, Undertaker, Mankind, The Brood, Ken Shamrock... the list goes on. He made themes that perfectly matched each character while also being extremely catchy and easy to listen to by itself without context.
this is a fact
 
#48 ·
#153 ·
CFO$ are goods songwriters, but they're not musicians neither compositers. They're good at their job and have made some pretty good songs, but Jim is just in another level. Let me give you one example: CFO$'s "Glorious" theme is perfect for Roode, but the only thing they did was playing the guitar main riff, record some voices and that's, all of the other instrument and cleaning voices was computer, in a loop of 4 minutes.

One of the last great Jim's song was "Broken Dreams" of Drew; that song had an intro, bridges, chorus, solos and a proper ending, is just another total different experience.

How Jimmy is not in the HoF is a travesty.
 
#3 ·
I'll drop a list below, I presume these have all been made by CFO$:

Glorious Domination (Bobby Roode)
Celtic Invasion (Becky Lynch)
Sky's The Limit (Sasha Banks)
Phenomenal (AJ Styles)
Catch Your Breath (Finn Balor)
The Future (Asuka)
Free The Flame (Ember Moon)


And there's so many more! I think they've made some pretty damn good stuff these past few years.
 
#20 ·
Generally CFO$ themes are easy to differentiate from each other and fit the characters well(as they should be), but most of them lack that epic feel that used to be abundant in Jim Johnston's themes, which leads to their failure in major occasions like Wrestlemania at building a big-fight feel when the wrestler makes his/her entrance. For example, when The Miz faced Cena at WM27, even if (kayfabe-wise) he was one of the least credible champions ever, still his theme along with the fireworks made his entrance a spectacle and he looked like a million bucks. On the contrary, Rusev was this unstoppable monster coming into his US title match against Cena at WM31, and indeed it was quite a sight seeing him standing on that tank waving the Russian national flag, but once the Russian national anthem switched to his own entrance theme, all of a sudden he looked like just another mid-card guy competing in just another mid-card match at just another Mania, because his theme simply SCREAMS mid-card. This is the main problem with CFO$ themes—not epic enough, just different sounds with littl momentum.

It's probably a reflection of the change of general musical tastes during the past couple of decades. As a musician with more of an old school taste, personally I prefer Johnston's theme more. And objectively speaking entrance in wrestling is all about spectacles so it should be leaning towards the epic, emotional side(i.e. more emphasis on melodies) as opposed to the laid-back, technical side(i.e. more emphasis on rhythms). Just my opinion.
 
#18 ·
Except they haven't and I'd rate Jimmy Hart's work in WCW/WWF over theirs, too.
Let's be fair, a lot of those snide in house rip off themes were dope. I liked the grunge scene so many of them worked for me. Smells Like Teen Spirit (Bang!), Even Flow, Come as you are, etc. Good stuff.

CFO$ obviously can't get away with doing that though.
 
#44 ·
I don't know about surpassing the legend but they're a fine replacement and what they've done is remarkable.

Without GLORIOUS Roode might well be floundering. Nakamura might not be as over as he is and numerous wrestlers entrances are difficult to imagine being any where near as good without their CFO$ theme. They're an integral part of the modern WWE
 
#78 ·
And not one of those theme songs can make you jump from your seat like the glass smashing or an 'if you smell what's cooking.':eva2

I know who I'd rather have creating music - I mean Ambrose music just sounds like fart noises, Rollins is just someone banging drums and cesaro is just a siren!
 
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