Brody King discusses the crossover of hardcore music and wrestling.
King is the vocalist of hardcore band God's Hate, and he continues to balance his passion for music with his work as a wrestler. He signed with AEW in 2022, and he is featured on AEW TV as a member of the House of Black (King, Malakai Black, and Buddy Matthews). The group won the AEW World Trios Championship at AEW Revolution 2022.
Speaking on My Mom's Basement with Robbie Fox, King agreed when Fox noted that there's synergy between hardcore music and wrestling. He recalled how, when he was growing up, The Headbangers were the extent of representation of punk music in wrestling. King then pointed out that there's far more representation now, and he credited CM Punk for opening the door.
“100%. It is unique that, when we were growing up, there was The Headbangers, Mosh and Thrasher, and it was like, that’s not them. That’s a fucking gimmick, someone dressed them up. It was all just a gimmick. I think anything like that, aside from Jerry Lynn, Jerry Lynn is the best, and he is a true metalhead and lives by what he says. But now there is actual representation for kids like myself that were growing up, wanting to see these people be the real thing in real life. CM Punk was really the one that kind of blew the door open for that. He was six-foot-one, six-foot-two, normal body guy, tattoos. He looks like someone that would be going to a punk or hardcore show. He’s not Batista-big or whatever, but he had that attitude, and he had that fire behind him that you could tell that he was real," King said.
Beyond Punk, King named himself, Darby Allin, The Butcher, and Ruby Soho as some people who properly represent punk and hardcore music now. King explained how he likes the way kids come up to him and ask for his music recommendations, as he's the one who helped them get into punk music.
"Now you have me, you have Darby Allin, you have The Butcher, Andy Williams, who is from Every Time I Die, or as just says, from music now. You got Ruby Soho. You got all these people that are actually representing punk and hardcore music in a proper way, know what they’re talking about. You put them on a podcast, they can talk about music forever. I’ve hung out with Darby. Just the other day, he’s just like, ‘Hey, you want to meet Raymond Pettibon?’ I was just kind, ‘What the fuck, dude?’ The guy did all the Black Flag artwork. I’m like, ‘Hey, man, nice to meet you, big fan.’ He was kind of a weirdo, but he was great. But it’s cool that kids can listen to a podcast like this and be like, ‘Oh, I want to know more about Brody,’ and it’s like, ‘Oh, what’s God’s Hate, or what’s Dead Body, or what’s King Nine?’ I’ve had a lot of kids come up to me and be like, ‘Hey, I got into hardcore music because of you, and now I like this band and this band. Do you have any other hands you’d like to recommend?’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, listen to all this," King said.
King the recalled how a number of wrestlers came to a hardcore music show when AEW was in Brooklyn for the Full Gear 2022 pay-per-view. He named Allin, Santana, Ortiz, Eddie Kingston, Ethan Page, Daniel Garcia, and Isiah Kassidy as a few examples. King also described how some of them were thrown off by the new environment.
"Like King Nine was saying in their podcast, during Full Gear, we played a show in Brooklyn. It was King Nine, God’s Hate, Living Weapon, and Eternal Bleeding. A lot of wrestling fans came to that show, and a lot of wrestlers came to that show. It was Darby, Santana, Ortiz, Eddie Kingston, Ethan Page, Danny Garcia, Isiah Kassidy. They were in the pit, stage-diving. But it was a lot of their first experience in a hardcore show, and watching their faces was really funny. Darby is used to that, he knows what he’s doing. But a lot of those guys are just like, ‘What the fuck is happening?’" King said.
Fox compared the experience to going to a wrestling show without knowing what to expect. King responded by noting that a lot of people are at least somewhat familiar with wrestling, whereas that's not necessarily true of hardcore music. He brought up the way Ethan Page characterized hardcore music shows as a safe place to do unsafe things.
“I feel like a lot of people, they at least are familiar with it. Ethan Page put what he experienced perfectly, in my opinion, into how it encapsulated hardcore music. He’s like, ‘It is a safe place to do very unsafe things.’ It’s very true. He’s like, ‘I didn’t know if people were fighting or if they were friends because they were hugging after punching each other.’ I’m like, that’s just how it goes," he said.
King continued and noted that some people don't understand that stage-dives and behavior like that is allowed in that environment. He recalled how wrestling Reddit was upset when he went viral for stage-diving, but he made it clear that it was safe for everyone involved.
"It’s funny, the people that don’t understand that that is allowed in that environment. There was the picture of me going viral stage-diving at Sound and Fury, and wrestling Reddit was not having it. They were just like, ‘This is dangerous, you’re gonna paralyze somebody.’ They’re just harping on me. I’m like, those people knew what was happening, I knew what was happening. It was safe, it’s fine, shut up,'" King said.
CM Punk has been absent from AEW since he was suspended for an altercation with The Elite (Kenny Omega and the Young Bucks) following AEW All Out 2022. Fightful Select reported that Punk's return to AEW has tentatively been planned.
Cash Wheeler and Brandon Cutler recently commented on the discourse surrounding The Elite, CM Punk, and FTR. More information is available here.
Check out the card for the April 19 episode of AEW Dynamite here.
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