WWE Superstar Sami Zayn recently spoke with the folks at TeamRock.com for a feature on his catchy entrance music, which he used in NXT and continues to use on the main roster.
“[WWE Superstar] Neville and I are big fans of ska. He’s actually more into original, Jamaican, skinhead, two-tone ska from England, but I’m more into punk ska – Operation Ivy and stuff Rancid would do,” said Zayn. “And while we were in developmental at the Performance Centre, we’d have promo class every week with Dusty [Rhodes, WWE Hall Of Famer].”
Zayn continued, explaining that it was he and Neville who pitched the idea and mentioned how the late, great Dusty Rhodes, as well as Triple H, were also involved.
“Neville and I pitched this idea – and we played with it for months and months, encouraged by Dusty – where we dressed in two-tone suits to do these ska characters,” said Zayn. “I think someone eventually showed this to [WWE Executive Vice President] Triple H and I had this generic stock music. At this point, NXT was starting to become a pretty big deal, so it wasn’t just stock music being picked any more, WWE were investing time and making music for these guys. Triple H caught wind of this ska thing I was doing with Neville and said ‘Well, if this is more him than the music he’s got now, let’s do something in this vain’.”
Zayn concluded, “He sent me this song and I didn’t like it at first. The horns sounded kind of synthetic at first and I didn’t like that, then they fixed it and added the ‘Whoa-oh-oh’ at the beginning. That was the only input I had.”