‘I Unfortunately Wasn’t Allowed To’ – SmackDown Star Wanted To Keep His Non-WWE Entrance Music When Returning To The Company
Published: 3 seconds ago by Sanchez Taylor | Last Updated: 3 seconds ago by Sanchez Taylor
Sanchez has over six years of pro-wrestling news writing experience, covering the biggest news stories in WWE, NXT, AEW, TNA Wrestling and more. He has personally interviewed a number of top stars, producing exclusive content with the likes of AEW’s Swerve Strickland and WWE’s Nick Aldis.
WWE
A WWE star has said that they wanted to use their indie entrance music when returning to the company, but wasn’t allowed to.
After a one-off return to the company as “Zack Ryder” as part of the Last Time Is Now tournament in November 2025, Matt Cardona officially made his WWE comeback in January.
Despite being able to use his real name on WWE TV, Cardona has revealed that there’s one aspect of his independent presentation he wasn’t able to keep, despite wanting to.
When asked by The Wrestling Classic which song he’d choose if he could have any liscenced song as his entrance theme, Cardona stated that he wanted to use “When The Lights Go Down” by Downstait as his WWE entrance music, noting:
“That’s what I wanted to use when I came back to WWE. I unfortunately wasn’t allowed to. That’s my favorite song, obviously because it’s mine, but they wrote that song for me when I got released from WWE.”
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Explaining the origins of “When The Lights Go Down”, Cardona explained:
“Back in the day they did a rock version of ‘Radio’, the Zack Ryder song. They just put it on YouTube and it was really, really cool.
“Once I won the IC Title, I went to the people in charge and was like ‘Can we switch it to this Downstait version?’ Turns out Downstait wasn’t a band anymore, so they had to get the band back together to record that song, and they’ve been a band ever since.
“I put them in contact with Cody, they made Cody’s song. When I got released, they said ‘Hey, if you ever want music, we’ll make it.’ I said ‘I want music, I need it now,’ so they made this song just for me. I loved it, it went all over the world with me. I’d like for it to play one day in WWE.”
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Cody Rhodes was able to keep his Downstait entrance theme when returning to WWE, with “Kingdom” playing during his return entrance at WrestleMania 38.
Justin Call of Downstait previously revealed that “Throne” by Bring Me The Horizon and “Decode” by Paramore were two songs which served as inspirations for “Kingdom”.
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