‘The Wrestling Album’ at 30: The Inside Story of a Record That Started a Revolution

Derringer: I remember that video was quite an experience. They envisioned it as being their centerpiece, their big hit, with all these guys in it – so it was outrageous. I remember Cyndi Lauper showed up in disguise, wearing a wig, doing her Mona Flambé character. There were wrestlers everywhere. Meat Loaf was there. Roddy Piper pulled me aside and gave me some advice: “If I have to knock ya down, stay down. Because being in character, if ya get back up, I’m going to have to go to work on ya. That’s the nature of what I do.”

Hart: I might be wrong, but I think this was the first-ever wrestling record, and it really helped start this “Rock ‘n’ Wrestling” era, where you had big stars and MTV hanging around with WWF wrestlers, and it really brought celebrity into what we do. And that’s still around today; music is so important – if you watch wrestlers go to the ring, the fans will pop as soon as they hear the music. And I think that was created by Dave Wolff and Vince McMahon, because without Vince giving it the OK, it never would’ve happened.

Derringer: It was certainly one of the more interesting projects I worked on, from all the different personalities of the wrestlers involved to the whole experience of promoting it – I did Piper’s Pit a couple of times; it was a different kind of production than I was used to, that’s for sure. I don’t dwell on legacy, but as far as the Rick Derringer story goes, this is a pretty interesting sidenote. I’ve had the opportunity to do all kinds of things during my career – some more legitimate that others – but one thing this album taught me was that, even if you want to call something a “Novelty” recording, that doesn’t mean people didn’t work incredibly hard on it. If anything, it’s the opposite.

Jim: I’ve got gold records for it in my house. I have buddies of mine who are good musicians, play in bands and are wonderful entertainers who are toiling away – and they’re never going to get one. I have two. I have a gold album for The Wrestling Album and one for Piledriver, the follow-up album. It’s a little hokey, but as time has gone by, The Wrestling Album has come to mean a lot to me. I remember when we shot the album cover. I remember when we shot the video. We just did our thing. It was a magical time.

Additional reporting by Joseph Hudak.