These came out in 1999 – or at least that’s when I got ’em. Here’s what I said about them back then (with some minor editing):
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls: Let’s get ready to rumble! Tonight’s main event is an all-star, inter-league battle royal between members of the WWF and WCW, with the Pop Chart Championship Belt on the line.
In this corner is Brett (Hitman) Hart: Wrestling With Shadows, the radio-friendly soundtrack to a Gemini Award-winning Canadian documentary. Backing up Brett are plenty of CanCon heavyweights — Bryan Adams, Moist, Econoline Crush, Rascalz — along with up-and-comers like DDT, Gob and BTK. Obviously, versatility is this disc’s greatest strength; metal, punk, pop, rap, it has all the moves, not to mention Brett spewin’ between-song wrasslin’ witticisms like, “You survive by taking the pain in.” If I had a nickel for every time I’ve heard that …
Meanwhile, in this corner, we have World Wrestling Federation: The Music Vol. 4. Hey, wait a minute! Where are all the WWF stars? Whaddaya mean they aren’t here? Oh, we see — even though their names are all over the back cover, most of them never leave the dressing room; this disc contains only their pile-driving entrance themes, padded out from 30-second ditties to three and four-minute songs that even the faithful will have trouble sitting through. Watch out; these suckers will put you under faster than a sleeper — except, of course, for Mr. Ass’s theme song, which features the unforgettable refrain: “I’m an ass man.” And they say wrestlers aren’t good role models.
Finally, over in this other corner there’s WCW Mayhem: The Music. Now these boys came to play: They’ve shelled out big bucks for wrasslin’ themed tracks from real rockers such as Metallica, Kid Rock, Insane Clown Posse, Slayer and Megadeth, whose Crush ’Em also happens to be Goldberg’s new theme song. Between the punishing metal and rap, you get crowd noise, interviews, ringside commentary and snippets of action-packed dialogue — “Oooh, that’s gotta hurt!” — that give Mayhem the power and momentum to pin the competition.
