When we last checked in with Ryan Fox, the Milwaukee filmmaker responsible for “The World’s Longest Mannequin Challenge” and the Adult Swim-featured R.P.M. 2 was explaining his decision to attend a nationally-televised Milwaukee Bucks game dressed like Milhouse from The Simpsons.
In the months since that stunt, Fox has been busy meticulously curating a playlist composed entirely of songs written and performed by professional wrestlers to play (as his “DJ Jobber” alter-ego) at The Vanguard before Sunday’s Royal Rumble. He says he owns more than 30 wrestler released albums, all on vinyl, which might be one of the biggest collections out there. Fox…or “DJ Jobber” says “the collection started as a rippling-bicepped fetus when [I] was gifted a Sweet Daddy Siki album upon emergence from [my] mother’s birthing canal.”
Before Sunday’s Royal Rumble Pre-Game spin, we asked DJ Jobber to tell us some of his favorite songs by professional wrestlers. As you get ready to Rumble this weekend, read his picks and his reasons behind the selections.
Terry Funk — “We Hate School”
Like Godzilla, when Terry Funk touched down in Japan, he immediately conquered the island nation with brute force and his melodic roar. On this 1984 Japanese chart-topping album he sings, er…talks his way through track after track with an incredibly admirable lack of self awareness. This song is so rock and roll it makes DJ Jobber want to tear up every goddamn Scantron test in sight.
Hulk Hogan — “I’m The Leader Of The Gang”
This track featuring ’80s rock band Green Jelly rages so hard that DJ Jobber once accidentally fist pumped right through the windshield of his 1988 Saab 900 Turbo.
Mr. T — “Don’t Talk To Strangers”
DJ Jobber is not a very spiritual man, however he chooses to live his life by one very specific set of morals—the ones presented on the 1984 album Mr. T’s Commandments. When you have the redundant collaboration of Mr. T with Ice T in the studio together, only great things can happen. “Do you want some candy or do you need a ride? No thank you, sir. I’m doing just fine.” All you sickos in your windowless vans, consider yourselves put in check.
Koko B Ware — “Piledriver”
DJ Jobber has been through 16 failed marriages due to his commitment to his body and career. It’s become his ritual after each one to immediately walk into a pet store blasting this banger of a track on his 70-pound boombox hoisted high above his shoulders. It’s very therapeutic to see every parrot perched in attendance to subsequently head bang in unison.
The Novas — “The Crusher”
Milwaukee’s own Crusher is on lead growl vocals. Enough said. This song sounds like if Satan himself started a surf rock band. Now go do the hammer lock and the eye gouge, you turkey necks.
Rowdy Roddy Piper — “I’m Your Man”
Roddy Piper has come to kick ass and chew bubblegum, but he is all out of bubblegum. Fortunately for him, he has plenty of bubblegum pop ’cause in this 1992 song, Piper croons with the same sentimentality of a Zoloft commercial.
Hulk Hogan & The Wrestling Boot Trash Can Band — “Hulkster In Heaven”
Every DJ Jobber set ends with this BIC-raising, pinnacle track memorializing the great Terry Bollea. Some might argue his Gawker sex tape was his finest achievement outside of the squared circle, but this song is so emotionally pristine it makes DJ Jobber cry a single testosterone-filled tear every time he hears Hogan echo the sentiment “When the Hulkster comes to heaven—heaven—heaven—HEAVEN!! We’ll tag up again.” Only Hulk Hogan would have the balls to perform a song filled with literal presumptions about his own afterlife.
Macho Man Randy Savage — “Hit The Floor”
Long before his untimely cardiac arrest, NWO-era Macho Man was holding hearts captive with this gaudy dance club booming EP. It’s an essential track for any night DJ Jobber takes his crew out for ringside frivolity. It’s nasty as hell.
Other notable albums: Sgt. Slaughter & Camouflage Rocks America, NRBQ & Captain Lou Albano’s Lou and the Q, Fred Blassie’s Nothin’ But a Pencil Neck Geek, Michael Hayes & The Badstreet Band’s Off The Streets, Jimmy Hart’s OutRAGEous Conduct, and of course, the WWE Aggression hip-hop album featuring Ol’ Dirty Bastard, Method Man, Kool Keith, Ice T, Run DMC, and Snoop Dogg.
Join DJ Jobber at The Vanguard on Sunday, January 28 from 4-5 p.m. for the “Royal Rumble Pre-Game.”
DJ JOBBER IS COMING FOR YOU!! from Ryan Fox on Vimeo.