2004 – WWE Originals
Style: Various/Comedy
Tracks:
Where’s the Beer – Stone Cold Steve Austin
We’ve Had Enough – The Dudley Boyz
I Just Want You – Trish Stratus
Crossing Borders – Rey Mysterio
Did You Feel It – Stone Cold Steve Austin
Can You Dig It? – Booker T
I Don’t Suck (Really) – Kurt Angle
When I Get You Alone – Lita
You Changed the Lyrics – Stone Cold Steve Austin
You Just Don’t Know Me At All – Lillian Garcia
We Lie, We Cheat, We Steal - Eddie & Chavo Guerrero
Don’t You Wish You Were Me – Jericho
Drink Your Beer – Stone Cold Steve Austin
Put a Little Ass On It – Rikishi
Why Can’t We Just Dance – Stacy Keibler
Basic Thuganomics – John Cena
Don’t That Taste Good – Stone Cold Steve Austin

This was the first album released under the WWE Records brand. WWE once again swerves away from the entrance theme compilation, giving us a record full of WWE Superstars singing original songs. Stone Cold Steve Austin appears in several comedy bits in between some of the tunes, and does not actually sing. Basically this is played as a comedy record for the most part (at least I hope it’s meant that way?). “Originals” reached number 156 on the Billboard top 200 and peaked at 12. I’ve played this one once or twice (mainly for the Stone Cold parts), but musically it’s pretty poor. It still has a decent 3 stars out of 5 on Amazon based on 71 reviews though?

Availability: New copies are still available from Amazon for $11.98, or you can buy used starting at 54 cents.

2004 – WWE ThemeAddict: The Music Volume 6
Style: Various
Tracks:
Line in the Sand – Evolution
Cool – Carlito
MacMilitant – Teddy Long
Just Close Your Eyes – Christian
Dangerous Politics – John Heidenreich
Real Good Girl – Raw Diva Search Theme
Chavito Ardiente – Chavo Guerrero
The Darkest Side (Remix) – The Undertaker
Child’s Play – Eugene
Don’t Mess With – Victoria
Ain’t No Stoppin’ Me – Shelton Benjamin
You Can Run – Billy Kidman
Rise Up – Smackdown Theme
International Woman – Gail Kim
Longhorn – JBL
Untouchables – John Cena

WWE decided to package up the latest and greatest entrance themes for its Superstars, and pushed this disk out to the masses once again. One fantastic extra: the CD also comes with a DVD featuring videos for all of the songs with the exception of Christian. The DVD was a nice surprise, and worth the price of the disk alone. “Themeaddict” peaked at number 2 on the Billboard top 200 albums, and charted for 10 weeks. “Themeaddict” carries a 3.5 out of 5 star rating on Amazon.

Availability: New copies are available on Amazon for $13.98, or you can purchase a used copy starting at $1.98.

2005 – You Can’t See Me – John Cena
Style: Rap
Tracks:
The Time is Now
Don’t F*** with Us
Flow Easy
Right Now
Make It Loud
Just Another Day
Summer Flings
Keep Frontin'
We Didn't Want You To Know
Bad, Bad Man
Running Game
Beantown
This Is How We Roll
What Now
Know The Rep
Chain Gang Is The Click
If It All Ended Tomorrow
The Underground

I have to say this is another WWE release that I’ve avoided like the plague. It did debut at #15 on the Billboard album charts, and debuted at #3 on the Billboard Rap charts. You can’t see me was a vast departure for WWE, they were banking on the talent and popularity of a single wrestler to sell this album. It was promoted to the skies on WWE programming, and judging by the charts position, it did have positive impact on WWE Records numbers. Personally, the best thing I’ve found associated with this album is that most of the songs feature a rapper by the name of Bumpy Knuckles, I love that name and am thinking about adopting it for future columns. (I just keep picturing a cartoon character with that name, maybe a punch-drunk boxing rabbit that Bugs Bunny could take on?). “You Can’t See Me” does have strong 3.5 stars out of 5 on Amazon, based on 144 reviews.

Availability: New copies are available on Amazon for $12.99, or you can pick up a used copy starting at $2.60.

2006 – WWE Wreckless Intent
Style: Hard Rock & Hip Hop
Tracks:
I Walk Alone – Batista
Burn in my Light – Randy Orton
Hard Hittin – Coach
Crank it Up – The Big Show
Holla – Candice Michelle
A Girl Like That – Torrie Wilson
Quién Soy Yo (Who I Am) – Carlito
Deadly Game – No Way Out 2006
I’m Comin’ - MVP
Fury of the Storm – RVD
Some Bodies Gonna Get It – Mark Henry
With Legs Like That – Maria
This Fire Burns – CM Punk
Booyaka 619 – Rey Mysterio
King of Kings –Triple H
Rise Up 2006 – Smackdown
Pay the Price – Charlie Haas

This was a real hodgepodge of a release. Combining elements of their “theme” CD’s with original heavy metal music like what was found on “Forceable Entry”. Several of the songs on this disk were not associated with a wrestler when released, but have since been adopted as theme songs, such as “I’m Comin” used by MVP or “This Fire Burns” by CM Punk. “Wreckless Intent” debuted at number 8 on the Billboard charts. “Wreckless Intent” carries a 3.5 star out of 5 rating on Amazon based on only 31 reviews.

Availability: New copies are available on Amazon for $18.98, used copies are available starting at 21 cents.

THE ONLINE EXPERIMENTS:

2007 – WWE The Music Volume 7
Style: Multiple
Tracks:
Light a Fire – Ashley Massaro
Bringin’ Da Hood To You – Cryme Tyme
Don’t Waste My Time – Elijah Burke
Unglued – Snitsky
Lambeg – Finlay
Reality – The Miz
Teacher – Matt Striker
Muy Loco – Super Crazy
Gorse – The Highlanders
Not Enough for Me – Michelle McCool
Just Look at Me – Rob Conway
Da.ngr – The Great Khali
Gonna Punch Someone Tonight – Jimmy Wang Yang
All for the Motherland – Vladimir Kozlov
The End – Armageddon
I’m All About Cool – Deuce n’ Domino
It’s Time – Gregory Helms
Unstoppable – Bobby Lashley
Obsession – Mickie James
Smooth – Marcus Cor Von
Damn – Ron Simmons

“Volume 7” has never been released in CD format, it was only made available for online purchase through Itunes. I don’t quite understand the reasoning behind this, as you have seen from previous CD releases, they have done quite well, usually charting fairly high up on the Billboard charts. You can buy the individual tracks for .99 each, or download the entire album for $9.99. It still makes no sense to me that a hard copy of this album has never been released?

2007 – A Jingle with Jillian – Jillian Hall
Style: Holiday/Comedy
Tracks:
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
Jingle Bell Rock
I’ll Be Home for Christmas
Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree
The Christmas Song

Jillian’s lousy vocalist character carried over to this Holiday EP. Amazingly enough, even though it was only available online at the Itunes store, it was a hit!! Believe it or not it reached number 120 on the Billboard charts!

2007 – RAW Greatest Hits: The Music
Style: Various
Tracks:
The Time is Now – John Cena
I Won’t Do What You Tell Me – Stone Cold Steve Austin
If You Smell – The Rock
The Game – Triple H
Sexy Boy – Shawn Michaels
Rest in Peace – The Undertaker
I Walk Alone – Batista
Line in the Sand – Evolution
Break the Walls Down – Jericho
Wreck – Mick Foley
Time to Rock n’ Roll – Trish Stratus
619 – Rey Mysterio
Slow Chemical – Kane
Break it Down – D-Generation X
Paparazzi – Melina
Turn up the Trouble – Mr. Kennedy
*Here Comes the Money – Shane McMahon
*Burn in my Light – Randy Orton

*Only available on the Wal-Mart release
So WWE Records once again releases a theme entrance compilation. “RAW Greatest Hits” not only featured themes from wrestlers on the current roster, but also several from past superstars. “RAW” spent 18 weeks on the Billboard charts, peaking at number 9. Amazon shows “RAW Greatest Hits” with a 3 out of 5 star rating based on only 17 reviews.

Availability: Amazon has this album listed at $18.97, or you can buy a used copy starting at $6.37. But I don’t recommend you purchase this from Amazon, as you will lose the bonus tracks, go to Wal-Mart instead, you will probably save a few bucks and get the Shane McMahon and Randy Orton tune to boot.

2008 – WWE the Music, Volume 8
Style: Rock/Pop/Rap
Tracks:
No More Words – Jeff Hardy
SOS – Kofi Kingston
Glamazon – Beth Phoenix
The Wall – Mark Henry
In The Middle of it Now – Hawkins & Ryder
Sliced Bread – Jillian Hall
No Chance in Hell – Vince McMahon
Don’t Question My Heart – ECW Theme
Biscuits and Gravy – Jesse & Festus
What Love Is – Candice Michelle
Ain’t No Make Believe – John Morrison
Ain’t No Stoppin’ Me – Shelton Benjamin
Turn Up the Trouble – Mr. Kennedy
Break the Walls Down – Jericho
*Let’s Light a Fire Tonight – Ashley Massaro
*Hes Da Ma – Hornswoggle
*La Vittoria è Mia – Santino Marella

*Available only on the release sold at Wal-Mart
WWE resumed using the “Volume” title for this release, even though “Volume 7” only appeared online. “Volume 8” spent 6 weeks on the Billboard charts, peaking at number 3. Amazon has a 3 out of 5 star rating for this disk.

Availability: Amazon has new copies of this disk listed for $14.99, or you can pick up a used copy for $4.98. But once again, I recommend you travel to Wal-Mart if interested in buying this one so that you can get the bonus tracks available only on the Wal-Mart release.

So, what is next for WWE Records? It looks like they have another multi-disk compilation coming out called “Anthology 2”. I’m not sure what era that will cover (maybe we will finally get that rousing “Giant Gonzales” theme??) as the last Anthology was pretty thorough, and was only released a couple of years ago. But, being the sucker that I am, I’ll have it in my grubby little hands a day or so after its release.

I tried being as thorough as possible while researching this column and just wanted to throw out a quick note of thanks to the following websites which provided some of the numbers and info:
Amazon.com
Billboard.com
WWE.com
Soundscan.com
FMQB.com
Wikipedia.com

Well I hope you liked this series, and I plan on tackling the WWE Video Game releases in the coming weeks, it should be easy………but what the hell do I know?

Eveybody have a great Labor Day Weekend, be careful & stay safe (God knows I need all the readers I can get), and have fun..........I’ve gotta go lay down now.