Making an entrance: cue the driving music, start the flashing lights, and ignite the pyro, these are the 10 best entrances in wrestling today

Wrestling Digest, Feb, 2003 by Kevin Eck

6. TRIPLE H

Any entrance that features the guttural vocals of Motorhead's Lemmy has to be on the list. The kick-ass heavy metal tune, the flashing lights, and the jump-cut images on the video screen all help to get across the intensity that Triple H brings to the ring.

"The Game" punctuates his entrance by standing on the ring apron, throwing his head back, and spouting water from his mouth. We're not sure what purpose his [H.sub.2]O high jinks serve, but it does look pretty cool.

7. BOOKER T

Booker T's entrance hasn't changed much over the years, going back to his days in WCW as part of Harlem Heat with his brother, Stevie Ray. The tune and the Kiss-like pyro are the same, yet his entrance gets a bigger pop now than ever before.

The increased response is due to WWE beginning the entrance with Booker T's signature catch phrase, "Can you dig it, sucka?" That line is a real crowd favorite and a significant improvement over his tired WCW catch phrase, "Don't hate the player, hate the game."

Our response every time we heard the latter was, "He didn't say that. Tell us he did not just say that."

8. MATT HARDY

The music here is nothing special, but the video graphics more than compensate. On the video screen, we are shown a computer screen logged onto WWEMattitude.com, password: Version I. Once into Hardy's Web site, we are treated to such interesting tidbits as "Matt Hardy scored 1330 on his SATs" and "Matt Hardy got more candy on Halloween as a kid than his brother Jeff."

It's intentionally corny, just like Hardy, who has undergone a definite change of Mattitude, er, attitude, in recent months.

9. STACY KEIBLER

All right, we admit it. As long as she wore her short shorts, Keibler could strut down the aisle to a funeral dirge and we'd still pop for this cheeky chick. But the fact that she comes out to a good tune like Kid Rock's cover of ZZ Top's "Legs" makes us feel less shameless about marking out for the leggy blonde's entrance.

Here's a quick thought Now that Keibler is managing/dating Test, maybe he should change his entrance music to Rod Stewart's "Some Guys Have All the Luck."

10. GOLDUST

We will never forget the name of Goldust, or his unique entrance. Although Goldust's entrance has been around for over seven years and it has become a bit passe, this golden oldie still makes the list because of its originality.

The letterbox format and the illusion that Goldust enters the ring on film while everything else is on videotape are a nice touch. Unfortunately, once the elaborate entrance is over, we actually have to watch him wrestle.

THE FIVE WORST ENTRANCES

1. D-VON

We don't want to sound blasphemous, but D-Von's entrance goes over about as well as a fart in church. The annoying gospel music doesn't get him any heel heat, it just elicits groans from the crowd. Let us pray that we never have to see or hear this awful entrance again.

2. LANCE STORM

Although a gifted wrestler, Storm is somewhat charismatically challenged. So what does WWE do? They give him entrance music that just begs viewers to turn the channel. If we could be serious for a minute, we think a better idea would be to come up with a catchy riff that grabs the fans' attention.