Matt Striker reveals Vince McMahon's favorite band and what WWE stars listen to
Journey Of A Frontman has an in-depth interview with Matt Striker, who discussed wrestling and music. During the interview, Striker was asked which wrestlers have strong music tastes.
“There’s a lot of guys that I connected with on different levels of music,” Striker said.
“I remember when I first got to WWE, I wasn’t well-received. I was the new kid in school. And one of our first European tours, we all travel on a bus. Good guys travel on a luxury bus, bad guys travel on a luxury bus. I was on bad guys’ bus. And I remember Chavo Guerrero and Mark Henry were in the back and they had their phones, they were listening to music.
They were listening to a lot of good seventies and early eighties disco music and house music. So I opened up a conversation with them about that.So guys like Chavo and Mark Henry were into that style.
Teddy Long used to be a DJ on the air and I used to travel with him. Man, we would talk about soul music. I mean just some real good stuff such as Teddy Pendergrass, The Main Ingredient, The Platters. Guys like Big Daddy V would put that stuff on in the locker room and most of the young, white wrestlers would leave! (laughs)
It would just be me, Mark Henry, Teddy Long, and Big Daddy V tappin’ our toes to some cool Rare Earth and stuff like that. William Regal is a big Motorhead fan, as well as a big Smiths and Morrissey fan. He and I talked about that a lot.
We had a little bit of a side wager, how many different Smiths or Morrissey songs could I work into commentary for a William Regal match? I think I hit about sixteen of them and tried to make them all make sense, while not just saying names of albums or songs.
“Kane, I know he likes Pink Floyd. Sometimes you’ll hear Delicate Sound of Thunder coming from his private, little locker room.
Vince McMahon is a big AC/DC guy, very much so.
CM Punk is very, very into a lot of alternative music, bands like Minor Threat and those other hardcore bands. He doesn’t go far without his headphones on. He really identifies with that culture. I believe he brings Lars from Rancid backstage. He’s a really, really cool, down to earth dude.
Christian listens to Judy Garland, Barbara Streisand, Justin Bieber, and Celine Dion. That’s the truth.
Jericho and I always got along really well and again, it wasn’t about wrestling, it was about music. Jericho is a music trivia machine guy. He’s buddies with Mike Portnoy whose from Long Beach, New York, two towns over from me. He’s buddies with Eddie Trunk, and being a Long Island kid, Eddie Trunk’s voice is a staple.
Out here on Long Island rock and roll radio and stuff like that, And Jericho likes Rush a lot. And he’s a big Beatles guy too. And not just I Wanna Hold Your Hand and Here Comes The Sun, side two of Abbey Road and Let It Be and things like that. That’s what Jericho and I really talked about. He’s also a hair metal guy. Saxon and Warrant and bands like that.”
Much more is contained in the interview, including Striker discussing which wrestlers play instruments, how he worked music references into his commentary, the Hulk Hogan / Metallica rumor, if he’s a Fozzy fan and much more.