Watch Nita Strauss Play Shinsuke Nakamura’s Theme at WrestleMania 34
Nita Strauss, the guitarist in Alice Cooper’s band, performed the entrance theme for Shinsuke Nakamura at WrestleMania 34 last night.
Nakamura’s fight against AJ Styles was one of the most-anticipated matches of the event, and featured the night's most shocking heel turn. After pretending to bow in respect after being defeated by Styles, Nakamura launched a surprise attack and kicked his opponent out of the ring.
You can hear Strauss' aggressive guitar take on “The Rising Sun” below. Her debut came 31 years after Cooper himself took part in WrestleMania III.
Ahead of the match, Strauss explained in a TV interview that she had become a wrestling fan three years ago after discovering WrestleMania from her boyfriend. “As time progressed, I started getting so, so into it, and now he’ll find me at home watching the network by myself,” she said. “You gotta see the storyline, gotta see the buildup to the pay-per-views. Now I’m a bona fide fan for sure.”
She added that she thinks Shinsuke is "really one of those performers that the charisma carries him. It’s not the guys with the craziest move sets or the most agile … but there’s something about the personality and the character that just, like, draws you in. And that theme song is undeniable … You can’t not scream that song at the top of your lungs.”
“The Rising Sun” was composed for Nakamura by John Paul Alicastro and Michael Conrad Lauri, known collectively as CFO$. The standout element in the song is the violin solo, performed by Earl Maneein. “It gave it this beautiful human feeling that you couldn’t get with what we were doing,” Alicastro said after the music was introduced.
Strauss recently launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund an instrumental solo album. “I've spent most of my career playing other people's songs," she said. "Now I want to show the world what I'm all about.” Her target of $20,000 has already been achieved with 25 days left.