After remaining silent mostly for decades, former WWE composer Jim Johnston has gone on a bit of a media tour following his exit from the company.
In a new interview with Newsweek, the 30-plus-year composer took aim at WWE's newer, younger producers CFO$ by calling their themes "too homogenous"
"Yes, it's fair to say. I'm not working with them so I don't know what their directives are. All I can react to is what I'm hearing. I'm sure they're talented guys. But what's being produced just feels too homogenous. It's just music that plays—it doesn't feel like each guy is really themed. All the women have a dance music kind of thing. And it's lots and lots of loud sound effects.
"What makes me the worst is not anything that happened to me, or any negativity towards those composers...I feel bad for the talent trying to build careers for themselves when I just don't feel they're being served well enough to become stars. Before 'Stone Cold' was 'Stone Cold' he was The Ringmaster. The Ringmaster's theme was something I wrote for him. The music can make such a difference in the person and how they perform. That same guy who was dead-in-the-water as The Ringmaster, a couple of tweaks, different music, different attitude, and he becomes one of the most popular people in the history of the genre. I'm wondering who is working currently at WWE who is an absolute superstar but, who, because they're wrapped in a homogenous piece of clothing, they're stuck and can't break out? I would hope they would try to really brand each guy and each woman as an individual."
CFO$ has been working with WWE for over five years, and have met mixed reviews as anyone producing hundreds of themes would. You can see Johnston's full interview at this link.
