The spectacle of WWE wouldn’t be complete without badass pyrotechnics.
Nothing gets wrestling fans more hyped for a match than watching stuff blow up on the entrance stage, as WWE’s larger-than-life personas walk to the ring.
When you’re there live, the startling explosions force you to jump from your seat at attention, and it immediately gets your blood pumping. The excitement is hard to replicate with anything else, and over the decades, there have been tons of amazing displays of pyro in wrestlers’ entrances.
These, however, are undoubtedly the 10 best.
10) Brock Lesnar
Whether it’s the kind he uses now, or the fireworks that used to explode from the ring posts when he’d hop onto the apron, pyro has always been a key part of Lesnar’s presentation.
His entrances bring a big fight feel to the arena and the way Brock screams as his pyro goes off adds to his terrifying presence.
It might not be the best pyro of all-time, but it certainly deserved spot on the list.
9) Sycho Sid
Sid might not make most people’s lists, but how do you not include sparklers spelling a wrestler’s name above his head?
If I could buy fireworks that spelled my name in the air every Fourth of July, you can bet those bad boys would be a yearly purchase.
Don’t pretend you wouldn’t do the same.
8) Dudley Boyz
The perfect display of pyrotechnics and music in sync.
Watching bomb-like pyro hurl toward the stage and explode right as the Dudley Boys entrance theme kicked off felt like the start of a battle — which magnificently set the tone for the brutality in their matches.
These guys were hardcore and their entrance backed that up.
7) Kane
I have no shame in admitting Kane’s fire-filled entrance used to scare the crap out of me when I would go to shows as a kid.
If we’re being honest here, I’d probably still jump out of my seat as an adult, too. You can’t help it seeing the sheer magnitude of that many flames at once.
It almost looked like Hell was ripping apart for a brief moment, and that Kane could somehow control it. That is terrifying no matter how old you are.
At least that’s what I like to tell myself.
6) Chris Jericho
Y2J had one of the coolest entrances of all time.
Pyro popping off once the countdown clock finished and Jericho appearing out of the darkness with his back turned always got crowds fired up.
These entrances magnified Jericho’s rock-n-roll persona and made it feel like you were watching the opening to a legendary concert.
Only instead of it being for KISS or Iron Maiden, you were getting “The Ayatollah of Rock ‘n’ Rolla.”
5) Shawn Michaels
The Heartbreak Kid’s entrances enhanced his character in every single way. The music he sung himself, the fireworks, the dancing, the flexing — it all indicated you were about to see something special.
He also had two awesome, but different, uses of pyrotechnics over the years, ranking him a little higher on the list.
The first was back in the day when HBK would hit his trademark flex in the ring as fireworks went off behind him and the other is what that evolved into — Michaels posing on-stage with pyro going off behind him.
I’m a huge fan of both, so I couldn’t put one over the other.
4) Edge
Sometimes, less is more. But when you’re talking about cool pyro, that’s never the case. More is always the way to go.
Edge’s entrances are a perfect example of that.
Smoke billows around the entranceway as “The Rated-R Superstar” runs through it to a roaring reaction. Then he walks halfway down the ramp and raises his arms in unison with tons of pyro going off behind him.
The shot always looks epic on camera and in person it’s even more amazing.
3) Cody Rhodes
Like I said, more is more, and Cody Rhodes knows presentation is key to making a wrestler look like a big deal before they even step foot in the ring.
That’s why his entrance is loaded with pyro.
He’s got the billowing smoke like Edge, fireworks that shoot into the air like Kurt Angle, on-stage pyro behind him like Shawn Michaels, and another blast that goes off once he stands on the ringpost.
It’s a lot every single time and fans love it.
2) Batista
Batista’s pyro ruled.
It almost looked like he was shooting an invisible machine gun that somehow blasted off behind him. Then he’d top it off with a punch that fired one last batch of pyro so bright, that for a second, you couldn’t even see him.
As I said at the start of this article, wrestling wouldn’t be complete without the spectacle of badass pyro.
Dave Bautista’s entrances enforced that notion.
1) Goldberg
While most wrestlers have pyro shoot off behind them, this man has been the only one crazy enough to stand in the middle of it.
The visual of Goldberg walking slowly to the ring from his dressing room, then stepping inside the pyro going off — letting it consume him as he inhales the smoke — is unforgettable.
It looks like a superhero is transforming from their alter-ego into an unstoppable force in front of your eyes.
Regardless of what you might think about matches in the later stages of his career, there’s no arguing Goldberg had the best pyro ever. Even at that time.
In my opinion, it’ll be hard for any wrestler to ever do it better.
Ryan Satin is a WWE analyst for FOX Sports. Satin previously appeared on FS1’s “WWE Backstage” and founded Pro Wrestling Sheet, where he broke countless news stories as editor-in-chief. Follow him on Twitter @RyanSatin.
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