Backstage Update on WWE’s Internal Changes Over the Years to Their Music Department, Future of Def Rebel in WWE

WWE recently posted a new job listing on their careers website for a new “Director of Music Strategy & Operations” for the company. This quickly led to online speculation and rumors that WWE officials are planning to drop Def Rebel as their music producer for their wrestlers entrance theme songs.

Fightful Select’s Corey Brennan reported that his sources stated that WWE officials are well aware of the fan backlash towards the quality of Def Rebel’s work in the company and continue to closely monitor the feedback from fans. Brennan reported that despite WWE officials awareness, the company did not have any plans for Def Rebel to be replaced as of earlier this year.

In regards to WWE’s recent new job posting, Brennan reported that those spoken to stated that this was not specifically for a composer role similar to the one former WWE lead composer Jim Johnston previously held.

Brennan reported that several talents spoken to who use Def Rebel entrance themes had expressed their frustration with the way their songs are produced. Some of those spoken to reportedly went as far as to say that they highly dislike their current entrance songs.

One talent spoken to reportedly stated that they were not told in advance that their music would be changing from the CFO$ era nor were they ever given a reason as to why. Brennan reported that most talent have never met or worked directly with Def Rebel for their entrance songs.

Several staff members within WWE’s production department reportedly stated that they currently desire to see a new method being used in the future for the production of entrance songs.

One talent spoken to reportedly joked about how all members of The Judgement Day, Damage CTRL, and Seth Rollins had a very similar intro to their previous themes. This same talent reportedly stated “For the period of a few years any one of a dozen people could have been coming out.” Brennan reported that Def Rebel only worked on Damage CTRL and Rollins theme songs while Alter Bridge worked on Judgement Day’s theme song.

In regards to the usage of licensed music for entrance songs, Brennan reported that WWE officials currently have no imminent plans to utilize more licensed music due to the company loves making money and is not interested in paying artists for music rights. Brennan also reported that the only time licensed music is still expected to be featured is at WWE PLEs.

In regards to the CFO$ era of WWE entrance music, Brennan reported that CFO$ had worked closely with the talents they were producing theme songs for including taking any and all input from them. Brennan reported that while it has not been confirmed, there had been rumors that WWE owned the publishing rights of Johnson and Def Rebel’s themes but only 50 percent of CFO$’s themes.