10 Best WWE Raw Opening Themes Ever
Across The Nation, like a Thorn In Your Eye...
I've given myself a thankless task here. I know I can't win. I know no matter what order I choose here it will be wrong - unless you're around 25 years old and have a fantastic taste in music like myself, that is. Do you like Babymetal, Scooter and early noughties pop sensation A1? We're going to get along just fine!
It's ok, I can accept being wrong - it's just how wrestling works. Whatever era was going on when your wrestling fandom either started or was at its peak, that's the best era. There's nothing anybody can say for you to think otherwise - even if your era was objectively awful. It's the one you associate with the glory days of life when the biggest problems you had were making sure you had the latest Hasbro, or convincing your mother that wearing the latest DX t-shirt to school was a great idea.
With that in mind, no matter your age the best opening theme song for Raw is the one from your era of WWE - if your era came before January 1993, I apologise, you're an anomaly and beyond any kind of medical help.
Most of the songs in this list are garbage, let's be real here. But they're our garbage and remind us of the good old days. Therefore, they're absolutely amazing.
"I wish there was a way to know you were in the good old days before you actually left them." Bernard, A (2013)
It's a catchy tune, but I want more from my Monday Night Raw theme. This effort from the incredible Jim Johnston gives me something, but not quite enough to titillate my eardrums.
This slice of tuneage - with one of the most ingenious titles I've ever seen, by the way - is just too repetitive to be any higher than bottom place on this list. And speaking of bottom, is it just me or does this theme have a passing resemblance to the song that closes Rik Mayall and Ade Edmondson's Bottom? (They don't own the same arse, to clarify. I mean the closing theme to their TV show named as such.)
It is just me? I implore you to go and listen to them one after another. You what? 'Go away'? Oh, ok then. But before I do and you read the rest of this list, please remember I'm nowhere near as bad a person as Michael Hayes. Don't hate my opinions as much as you undoubtedly hate him.
WWE
Before we get going, I feel like I need to say that Kromestatik doesn't include Brians Clark and Adams. Kromestatik and Kronik are two very different things indeed.
As wrestling fans, we're anything but cool. It's something we accepted a very long time ago and there are no amount surgical procedures that will change anything - not that we have the money to go under the knife in the pursuit of coolness, of course. We'd rather buy a Rusev Day shirt. Happy Rusev Day, everyone.
This song being used on a WWE show is like your dad coming in from a few jars down the pub wearing skinny jeans and those thicky-wedged Nikes all the hip-hop-and-happening kids seem to wear these days. It's a very uncool wolf in the most dazzling of sheep's wool jumpers.
It's not right for the start of a wrestling show, in my opinion. It's too timid. I know WWE changed this song to a slightly racier version down the line but that still had the same effect.
You might have liked it, and good on you for doing so. I'm not going to sit here and take the stereotypical wrestling fan approach of saying your opinion is wrong because it is different to mine.
The current Raw theme saw the show's opening jingle grow a pair for the first time in four years back in 2016.
Sometimes wrestling goes a bit too far down the rock route - comically so in some promotions - but it still works in the right places and the opening theme to the biggest weekly televised 'rasslin show is certainly one of those.
Like many on this list it's a toe-tapper, and serves the right tonic in getting you pumped up for a...
...
...
very disappointing show. Sorry Raw, but three hours is too long. You know it, I know it; woo woo woo.
Look at this photograph
Every time I do it makes me laugh
How did our eyes get so red?
And what the hell is on Joey's head?
Despite knowing what they were letting themselves in for, WWE went for it and hired Chad and friends back in 2009. Even though they're Nickelback, and their music is offensive AF, this theme fit Raw pretty well - kind of like the gloves you undoubtedly got for Christmas, I guess.
Go on, admit it. You quite like this theme being used for Raw. Don't worry, we're all in this together. It's nothing to be ashamed of because they talk about getting their balls out, the fearless bastards, and that's BAD ASS. Lyrics of that ilk certainly showed mum and dad how wrong they were for lambasting our wrestling obsession back then, right? YEAH!
I gotta lose this pressure
I gotta get away
Every time I'm with you baby everything's ok
HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
Only every night can feel so good
No doubt about it
Make it a law
I like it Raw
Absolute nonsense. Absolute gold.
Just look at the state of those lyrics, man. Look at the state of them. How can you hate a song with lyrics like that? You can't - even though it looked like Shawn Michaels legitimately wanted to jump off the top of Titan Tower in the video that accompanied this song. Forget about Shawn, what does he know?
This is another example of a piece of music written for professional wrestling trying to be one thing, and then ending up so far away from the thing it's trying to be that it can't even see the thing it was trying to be in the first place - this makes sense in my head. I hope it does yours.
It's slow, underwhelming, and the lyrics... I just can't get enough of them in the same way junkies can't get enough of their awful fix. They shouldn't want more, just like I shouldn't want more of 'Like It Raw', but like them, I just can't help it.
I need therapy.
If we've learned anything over the past 25 years it's that WWE Raw's theme tunes love to have random noises as part of their make up. We've had the 'heys' with Nickelback's BARNSTORMING track so far in this list, and this time Papa Roach give us the 'woooooos'. So much type. So much cool.
It's quick, it's loud, it talks about the important issues in life like the "hardcore level," it's a solid choice for the opening theme of Monday Night Raw.
You always remember your first and BOY HOWDY, how could you forget the first ever theme of WWE Raw?
I think the appropriate word to use here is 'anthem'. This is an anthem. I wouldn't say it's a timeless anthem - that's a bit too far as it's smothered in early 90s synthy mayonnaise - but it's one of those wrestling songs that takes you back to your parents' living room and makes your toes curl like one of Byron Saxton's mother's apple pies. It's just lovely, isn't it?
And DAT noise. DAT noise is sensational. I don't know what it is, but if fireworks lost the ability to make the noise they normally make, I think they'd pick DAT noise - you know the one that blurts out numerous times during this song - as its replacement. And I'm sure you'll agree, there's no higher praise than that because fireworks are the best.
Don't fret, dear reader. You haven't clicked a dodgy link that has transported you to a wonderful top 10 list running down the top 10 themes in SmackDown history. Beautiful People was used as Raw's theme for a few weeks back in 1997.
I think it's a great tune to use to kick off a wrestling show. I'm not afraid to admit this to you, but I like its balls. It's a song that just fit the professional wrestling scene back in 1997 more snugly than the crotch of Ahmed Johnson's tights. And I should probably move on rather quickly as you now have the image of Ahmed Johnson's crotch in your head. Sorry.
Marilyn Manson's Beautiful People was the perfect match for the wrestling world back in 1997. Thorn In Your Eye was also a perfect fit for the wrestling world back in 1997, with the only thing setting the pair apart from each other the fact that when paired with a baron warehouse and explosions and fire and a mini Battle Royal, TIYE fit that scene better.
Even though nobody apart from the fella singing it had any idea what the lyrics were, this is the Attitude Era. This is Raw Is War. This is the song most synonymous with the most successful period of wrestling history.
What also sets this song apart from Manson's efforts is its partner in crime: We're All Together Now. Thorn In Your Eye opening the show before the WATN's riff kicks in is like fish and chips, bangers and mash, Booker T and nonsense.
You know when you find yourself in a situation where you firmly believe that something is better than another thing but if somebody was to ask you why you have no idea?
This is one of those occasions.
I think Across The Nation is the best Raw theme of all time, but I can't tell you why I prefer it to Thorn In Your Eye.
Maybe it's got something to do with WWE's production staff in 2002. While the setting for the Raw Is War intro is nothing short of iconic, the way the Ruthless Aggression Era's Raw intro was paired with imagery on screen took the impact of the song to the next level. Without seeing the package for what can only be described as BARE TIME, I can still see Shawn Michaels' Superkick to Shelton Benjamin, Kane's pyro and all of the bloody faces quite vividly.
It's ok, I can accept being wrong - it's just how wrestling works. Whatever era was going on when your wrestling fandom either started or was at its peak, that's the best era. There's nothing anybody can say for you to think otherwise - even if your era was objectively awful. It's the one you associate with the glory days of life when the biggest problems you had were making sure you had the latest Hasbro, or convincing your mother that wearing the latest DX t-shirt to school was a great idea.
With that in mind, no matter your age the best opening theme song for Raw is the one from your era of WWE - if your era came before January 1993, I apologise, you're an anomaly and beyond any kind of medical help.
Most of the songs in this list are garbage, let's be real here. But they're our garbage and remind us of the good old days. Therefore, they're absolutely amazing.
"I wish there was a way to know you were in the good old days before you actually left them." Bernard, A (2013)
10. "Raw" By Jim Johnston
It's a catchy tune, but I want more from my Monday Night Raw theme. This effort from the incredible Jim Johnston gives me something, but not quite enough to titillate my eardrums.
This slice of tuneage - with one of the most ingenious titles I've ever seen, by the way - is just too repetitive to be any higher than bottom place on this list. And speaking of bottom, is it just me or does this theme have a passing resemblance to the song that closes Rik Mayall and Ade Edmondson's Bottom? (They don't own the same arse, to clarify. I mean the closing theme to their TV show named as such.)
It is just me? I implore you to go and listen to them one after another. You what? 'Go away'? Oh, ok then. But before I do and you read the rest of this list, please remember I'm nowhere near as bad a person as Michael Hayes. Don't hate my opinions as much as you undoubtedly hate him.
WWE9. "The Night" By Kromestatik
Before we get going, I feel like I need to say that Kromestatik doesn't include Brians Clark and Adams. Kromestatik and Kronik are two very different things indeed.
As wrestling fans, we're anything but cool. It's something we accepted a very long time ago and there are no amount surgical procedures that will change anything - not that we have the money to go under the knife in the pursuit of coolness, of course. We'd rather buy a Rusev Day shirt. Happy Rusev Day, everyone.
This song being used on a WWE show is like your dad coming in from a few jars down the pub wearing skinny jeans and those thicky-wedged Nikes all the hip-hop-and-happening kids seem to wear these days. It's a very uncool wolf in the most dazzling of sheep's wool jumpers.
It's not right for the start of a wrestling show, in my opinion. It's too timid. I know WWE changed this song to a slightly racier version down the line but that still had the same effect.
You might have liked it, and good on you for doing so. I'm not going to sit here and take the stereotypical wrestling fan approach of saying your opinion is wrong because it is different to mine.
8. "Enemies" By Shinedown
The current Raw theme saw the show's opening jingle grow a pair for the first time in four years back in 2016.
Sometimes wrestling goes a bit too far down the rock route - comically so in some promotions - but it still works in the right places and the opening theme to the biggest weekly televised 'rasslin show is certainly one of those.
Like many on this list it's a toe-tapper, and serves the right tonic in getting you pumped up for a...
...
...
very disappointing show. Sorry Raw, but three hours is too long. You know it, I know it; woo woo woo.
7. "Burn It To The Ground" By Nickelback
Look at this photograph
Every time I do it makes me laugh
How did our eyes get so red?
And what the hell is on Joey's head?
Nickelback are horrible.
Despite knowing what they were letting themselves in for, WWE went for it and hired Chad and friends back in 2009. Even though they're Nickelback, and their music is offensive AF, this theme fit Raw pretty well - kind of like the gloves you undoubtedly got for Christmas, I guess.
Go on, admit it. You quite like this theme being used for Raw. Don't worry, we're all in this together. It's nothing to be ashamed of because they talk about getting their balls out, the fearless bastards, and that's BAD ASS. Lyrics of that ilk certainly showed mum and dad how wrong they were for lambasting our wrestling obsession back then, right? YEAH!
6. "I Like It Raw" By Jim Johnston
I gotta lose this pressure
I gotta get away
Every time I'm with you baby everything's ok
HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
Only every night can feel so good
No doubt about it
Make it a law
I like it Raw
Absolute nonsense. Absolute gold.
Just look at the state of those lyrics, man. Look at the state of them. How can you hate a song with lyrics like that? You can't - even though it looked like Shawn Michaels legitimately wanted to jump off the top of Titan Tower in the video that accompanied this song. Forget about Shawn, what does he know?
This is another example of a piece of music written for professional wrestling trying to be one thing, and then ending up so far away from the thing it's trying to be that it can't even see the thing it was trying to be in the first place - this makes sense in my head. I hope it does yours.
It's slow, underwhelming, and the lyrics... I just can't get enough of them in the same way junkies can't get enough of their awful fix. They shouldn't want more, just like I shouldn't want more of 'Like It Raw', but like them, I just can't help it.
I need therapy.
5. "To Be Loved" By Papa Roach
If we've learned anything over the past 25 years it's that WWE Raw's theme tunes love to have random noises as part of their make up. We've had the 'heys' with Nickelback's BARNSTORMING track so far in this list, and this time Papa Roach give us the 'woooooos'. So much type. So much cool.
It's quick, it's loud, it talks about the important issues in life like the "hardcore level," it's a solid choice for the opening theme of Monday Night Raw.
4. "Monday Night Raw" By Jim Johnston
You always remember your first and BOY HOWDY, how could you forget the first ever theme of WWE Raw?
I think the appropriate word to use here is 'anthem'. This is an anthem. I wouldn't say it's a timeless anthem - that's a bit too far as it's smothered in early 90s synthy mayonnaise - but it's one of those wrestling songs that takes you back to your parents' living room and makes your toes curl like one of Byron Saxton's mother's apple pies. It's just lovely, isn't it?
And DAT noise. DAT noise is sensational. I don't know what it is, but if fireworks lost the ability to make the noise they normally make, I think they'd pick DAT noise - you know the one that blurts out numerous times during this song - as its replacement. And I'm sure you'll agree, there's no higher praise than that because fireworks are the best.
3. "The Beautiful People" By Marilyn Manson
Don't fret, dear reader. You haven't clicked a dodgy link that has transported you to a wonderful top 10 list running down the top 10 themes in SmackDown history. Beautiful People was used as Raw's theme for a few weeks back in 1997.
I think it's a great tune to use to kick off a wrestling show. I'm not afraid to admit this to you, but I like its balls. It's a song that just fit the professional wrestling scene back in 1997 more snugly than the crotch of Ahmed Johnson's tights. And I should probably move on rather quickly as you now have the image of Ahmed Johnson's crotch in your head. Sorry.
2. "Thorn In Your Eye" By Anthrax Featuring Scott Ian
Marilyn Manson's Beautiful People was the perfect match for the wrestling world back in 1997. Thorn In Your Eye was also a perfect fit for the wrestling world back in 1997, with the only thing setting the pair apart from each other the fact that when paired with a baron warehouse and explosions and fire and a mini Battle Royal, TIYE fit that scene better.
Even though nobody apart from the fella singing it had any idea what the lyrics were, this is the Attitude Era. This is Raw Is War. This is the song most synonymous with the most successful period of wrestling history.
What also sets this song apart from Manson's efforts is its partner in crime: We're All Together Now. Thorn In Your Eye opening the show before the WATN's riff kicks in is like fish and chips, bangers and mash, Booker T and nonsense.
1. "Across The Nation" By Union Underground
You know when you find yourself in a situation where you firmly believe that something is better than another thing but if somebody was to ask you why you have no idea?
This is one of those occasions.
I think Across The Nation is the best Raw theme of all time, but I can't tell you why I prefer it to Thorn In Your Eye.
Maybe it's got something to do with WWE's production staff in 2002. While the setting for the Raw Is War intro is nothing short of iconic, the way the Ruthless Aggression Era's Raw intro was paired with imagery on screen took the impact of the song to the next level. Without seeing the package for what can only be described as BARE TIME, I can still see Shawn Michaels' Superkick to Shelton Benjamin, Kane's pyro and all of the bloody faces quite vividly.
Written by Ross Tweddell
Written and video journalist for Cultaholic Wrestling | twitter: @rossonrasslin | instagram: @rossonrasslin
