 In the midst of an increasingly heated wrestling war, Tony Khan and all-elite wrestling continued to remain aggressive in signing former WWE talent, becoming the desired destination for those who were future-endeverred by the Fed. Musically speaking, AEW has created some awesome anthems that have gotten over more than their former employer songs ever did. That being said, I'm Kevin Callis from Wrestling Behind The Themes, and let's take a look now at 10 former WWE wrestlers. With better AEW entrance-themed music. Adam Cole's entrance theme is a huge part of his AEW presentation, and it's also a song that unbelievably topped the iTunes, Metal Charts, shortly after his all-elite debut in 2021. Having spent four years shocking the developmental system in NXT, Cole was a bit nervous that his new theme wouldn't catch on the way that the undisputed eras did. However, leave it to AEW's musical maestro Mikey Ruckus, who creates the beats that are all elite and who in a 24-hour turnaround timeframe produced the exact song you hear today. Now when it comes to iconic themes from the past few years, while some prefer the punk hybrid riffs and hip-hop-inspired sounds that the former WWE music group production team CFOs came up with these days the vast majority know. It's all about the boom, baby. The untimely death of Brodie Lee shook the wrestling world to its core just after Christmas in December of 2020 because the human being Jonathan Huber was not only an amazing performer inside the squared circle, but more importantly, he was an incredible father, husband and friend who had a profound impact on the careers and personal lives of so many of his colleagues. Having run out of gas as Wyatt Family Sidekick Luke Harper, Brodie made the jump to all elite wrestling and because of AEW, he was finally given a voice and a chance to be presented as a main eventer, something that the WWE never quite saw him to be. He is exalted, is the epic final boss theme of the exalted one and leader of the Dark Order that is surely playing for Brodie up in the heavens above. And you know what that means. During his 10 year tenure with the WWE, the artist formerly known as Cesaro settled into the Wade Barrett role of having more entrance themes, none of which were all that memorable at all. If anything, Cesaro's best fitting theme was Patriot, the USA banger that served as the tune for his tag team with Jack Swagger. Way back when they were a pair of real Americans, brother, the Swiss Superman even went on the record in a 2016 interview with ESPN about his disdain for his entrance music. So you know it really says something about the creative talent of Mikey Ruckus, who hit a grand slam when the King of Swing was rebranded as Claudio Castagnoli and officially became all elite at Forbidden Door in 2022. Called Upper Cut Swingphony, Ruckus describes the theme as the 1812 Overture meets Andrew W.K. Since leaving the WWE in early 2020, FTR has found nothing short of massive success and you might just say that they revived their careers in AEW. These two top guys from North Kackalacki are southern born and bred and proud of where they come from, which just so happens to be in the heart of Jim Crockett Promotions Territory. It's no surprise then as to why Dax and Cash strongly embrace the traditional style of NWA Tag Team Wrestling, and you can't talk about NWA Tag Teams without mentioning the Midnight Express, who will go down in wrestling history as one of the best tag teams if not the very best. FTR understands this and wants to honor the legacy of the Midnights, which is why the living legends now have this retro synth wave inspired remix theme called Dark Side of TR, which puts all their previous entrance music to shame. The sight and sound of John Moxley roaring into all elite wrestling back at Double or Nothing 2019 truly signaled a paradigm shift in the world of wrestling. Having been driven to the fringe of ludicy by the heavily scripted world of Vince McMahon's WWE, the purveyor of violence got a new lease on life, made all the more memorable thanks to the unscripted essence of this violent idol's banger. Almost a decade ago, Dean Ambrose was a clean shaven, sports entertainer, and now Mox is a bearded, barbed wire loving brute of a professional wrestler. Now when it came to his WWE entrance music, it seemed like the universe really dug the lunatic fringe's retaliation. However, this moch pit worthy song immediately sets the tone for chaos and carnage to prevail. In one of the most mind boggling WWE releases in recent memory, Keith Lee was fired in November 2021. 3.5 years after joining the promotion where he became the only simultaneous double NXT champion in history, built in the same mold as Agile Big Men like Bam Bam Bigelow and Big Van Vader before him, the Bearcats' new AEW theme music dropped on the February 9th episode of Dynamite as the massive man from Wichita Falls, Texas officially became all elite. No longer rapping his theme like he did on the well-received, limitless track produced by CFOs, Lee entrusted Mikey Ruckus to create something different but still kind of big, bold, and representative of exactly who Keith is. The end result? The epic and extraordinary I Am, which allows us all to sit back and truly bask in all of Lee's glory. When Miro debuted in AEW with the goofy gimmick of being Kip Sabian's best man, it felt like the artist formerly known as Rusev had made a gigantic mistake. But unlike his time in WWE, Tony Khan and AEW slow played Miro's character during the pandemic, until he was finally unleashed and rechristened as the Redeemer. With this change, God's favorite champion became the devout Punisher of Men competing in servitude of his God and his hot wife while handing out biblical beatdowns to everyone and everything in his path. Along with this new attitude, a new entrance theme rose from the ashes of his best man gimmick composed of booming warhorns and epic strings trumpeting the arrival of the Bulgarian brute as he prepared for battle. Similar that to his former, generic and brassy Roar of the Lion theme that just basically screamed Evil Foreign Guy, and this all-elite music crushes the competition. Okay, okay, listen, don't start ripping me in the comments about how Owen Hart never wrestled for AEW. I just love this theme and think Ruckus did an amazing job. It's pretty plain to hear this new song called Legacy has been inspired by the King of Hearts WWE theme from the mid-90s and puts a nice contemporary twist on the original. This track, plus the Owen Hart Cup tournament and partnership with his nonprofit foundation shows that AEW has already done more to preserve Owen's legacy than the WWE has done in the more than 20 years since he tragically passed away. As you might imagine based off his personality, Samoa Joe is the type of person who knows what he wants and won't stop until he gets it. But on his NXT debut in 2015, Joe was none too pleased with CFO's first attempt at audibly painting a picture of exactly who the Samoan submission machine was. Eventually, the music group got it right with Destroyer, but major props go out to Ruckus for creating one of the best themes right now in AEW. Think of Coliseum Clash as a song that is like Godzilla destroying Tokyo and there ain't a damn thing anyone can do about it. Sting's brief run with the WWE unfortunately answered the age-old question of what would happen if the icon ever joined the Sports Entertainment Corporation, putting his trust in Vince McMahon, Triple H, and others in power to preserve his legacy instead of just using his WCW Crow theme which the E obviously owned the rights to, Jim Johnston produced the unspectacular Out from the Shadows, which was a huge downgrade for the vigilante. However, when the Stinger shockingly debuted for AEW, it was clear he wanted the chance to write a different ending to his book. On top of that, Sting's new arrival entrance theme song was epic. The organ and orchestra echo memories of his Crow theme. The wailing guitar pays homage to his TNA and, in a way, his WWE theme and the cascading crescendos carry the tune forward, nicely putting a bow on Sting's storied career.