It's Tuesday. You know what that means.
Theme Song Tuesday makes a return after another brief hiatus so we can track the evolution of the theme songs of one Alexa Bliss.
I've been very outspoken about how much I love Alexa Bliss both on this site and The Wrestling-Wrestling Podcast. So when my weekly habit of checking WWE Music's YouTube account yielded the full track of Alexa's current theme, I had to listen to it and write a love letter to it, as I always do on #TST.
Alexa's current theme is a dubstep track by current WWE Music collaborators def rebel entitled "The Fury," which starts out with two voices—one female and one distorted—screaming "THE FURY!" I'm guessing that's Alexa's equivalent of Bray Wyatt's "The Fiend" persona, which is odd since her demonic self hasn't really been given a name on TV. Anyway, after that stinger, what you get is a slower, more syncopated dubstep version of "Spiteful," the theme she used from 2015-2020.
On its own, it sounds like a banger of a song. It doesn't even sound like a scary theme song until you hear the distorted screams and the clips of Alexa malevolently saying, "Let's play" in between the track. I love how the theme can actually stand on its own as a dubstep track that any wrestler can use as an entrance theme. It catches your attention enough to see which wrestler is coming out to it while also hyping you enough for a big showdown in the ring. But given the bits of Alexa's character being embedded in the track, you know that the song was really just meant for her.
I'm not a huge fan of dubstep being used as entrance themes in wrestling. But I have to admit that they can be memorable. Who can forget the YOLO Twins' original theme in PWR? Another personal favorite of mine is NXT UK Women's Champion Kay Lee Ray's theme, which I only like hearing because it means I get to see KLR on my screen.
I mentioned Alexa Bliss's previous theme song, which most fans still remember and recognize, so have a listen and compare it to the remix.
What most people don't remember is that "Spiteful" was a remix in itself. That's right. It was meant to be a sexier and more villainous twist than Bliss's original theme, "Blissful." Check it out for yourself.
Yep. That was the hook of Alexa Bliss's first theme, "Blissful." Man, I miss Cheerleader Alexa. This song was one of the few CFO$ creations that accurately encapsulated a wrestler's character in a song! It's a cutesy pop loop that just bops. I can just as easily imagine this theme being used by a group of students in a dance routine. The glittery sound effects sprinkled throughout the track are also a nice touch that reinforces her cutie patootie gimmick. If you remember your NXT history, Alexa used to skip along to the ring in her cheerleader outfit, making it rain glitter while this song blared through the Full Sail University speakers. Ahh, such days of innocence.
If you listen to "Spiteful" right after that, you'll be able to easily track Alexa's evolution as a character. She started using this theme right after she aligned with Blake and Murphy on NXT. Gone was the cute cheerleader in sky blue. No more cheerleader outfits and tutus. This Alexa Bliss was the hot girl you know you could never have a shot with. She was mean-spirited, twisted, and bitchy. And she didn't care at all.
You can actually hear elements of that in "Spiteful," which is the dubstep remix of "Blissful." It's the type of song you can imagine Alexa swinging her hips to as she makes her way to the ring. The song's interlude also has a hypnotic way of sucking you in, kind of like how you might feel yourself getting attracted to Alexa Bliss before you realize you're falling into her trap. Huh, does that just happen to me? Okay.
What's beautiful about the theme songs that Alexa Bliss has used throughout her career is that they all came from one song—her original NXT theme. As her character has evolved over the years, so has her theme music. The beat has progressively gotten slower, while its main elements were distorted further and further into the dubstep genre. Along the way, you see different bits and pieces of her character being incorporated into the music to show how much she's changed from the cheerleader that first graced our screens in 2013.
There aren't many wrestlers whose songs haven't changed all that much throughout their WWE careers. But at this rate, Alexa Bliss could be like The Rock, whose theme was essentially the same song with tweaks here and there over the years. In a post-Jim Johnston world, that means a lot because it means that WWE Music was actually able to create a ditty that accurately captures a wrestler's character.
Header image from WWE
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Stan Sy (@_StanSy) is the Editor at Large of Smark Henry and is also a radio DJ on Wave 89.1, an events host, a freelance writer, and the host of On Deck, as well as one of the hosts of The Wrestling-Wrestling Podcast. He also used to be one of the hosts and writers of The Wrestling Gods on FOX. He enjoys watching WWE, AEW, and the occasional New Japan match.
