They say that art imitates life, but what happens when art imitates art? Not in a plagiarizing, copyright violating way. Maybe more in a respectful, homage(y), possibly vicarious way? Such is the position we currently find ourselves with rap collective Griselda Records and All Elite Wrestling. What’s that you say? You haven’t heard of either? Well good thing we decided to write this article where life imitates art, and art imitates art….

All Elite Wrestling, (AEW), was founded in 2019 and presented as the first viable wrestling alternative to juggernaut WWE to appear on the US scene in a while. With the financial backing of the billionaire Khan family - owners of Fulham FC and the Jacksonville Jaguars - and led by head booker and promotor Tony Khan, AEW has found solid footing in the wrestling market. With a television deal in place and a $175 million contract extension secured as well as sellouts at most of their live shows, AEW has solidified itself as a solid wrestling promotion that is here to stay.

But Mr. Khan was not able to do it all by himself. Wrestlers Kenny Omega, The Young Bucks, and Cody Rhodes joined in financially backing the company and currently serve as wrestling talent and Executive Vice Presidents (Or Extremely Violent People if you were to believe The Young Bucks), each playing a large role in getting the promotion off the ground. The Bucks, Omega, and Rhodes were all part of a wrestling stable called “The Elite” (hence the name) and used their star power to lay the foundation for AEW going forward.

Now let's pivot to Griselda Records. Named after drug queenpin Griselda Blanco AKA The Black Widow AKA The Cocaine Godmother, Griselda Records was founded in 2012 by rappers Westside Gunn, Conway The Machine, Mach Hommy, and Benny The Butcher. Not only are the artists of Griselda Records inspired by wrestling, they are committed to using the hustler spirit/mindset to get Griselda Records up and running…. Releasing 17 albums, 20 mixtapes, and 11 EPs since 2012. The Griselda Records collective are committed to their gimmick of hustling their way to the top of the rap industry, eventually getting signed to Shady Records in 2017 and Roc Nation in 2019.

So what do they have in common? Art. Rap is art. Wrestling is art. Rappers adopt different personas for their recordings and onstage performances of rhythm and poetry while wrestlers do the same thing. As part of the martial arts that lean HEAVILY in the arts, modern wrestlers present themselves as storytellers through their character work and in ring action. Now, how does art imitate art? I’m glad you asked. Remember one of the founding members of AEW and EVP Cody Rhodes? He allowed his contract to expire in December 2021 and is a free agent. Remember one of the founding members of Griselda Records, Conway The Machine? He allowed his contract to expire in February 2022 and is now exploring his options as a free agent. Both have teased signing with the competition while expressing their desires to go back to their companies of origin. Could Conway be following in Cody’s footsteps as an homage to wrestling? The timing is most likely coincidence, but the circumstances, interviews, and actions of both free agents begs to question if Conway is borrowing Cody’s free agent gimmick. Artists of all kinds deal with plagiarism. Jokes get stolen by comedians, writings are copied, and who knows how long it will be until a mainstream movie comes out that isn’t an original work. Musicians as well. Even wrestlers. And now musicians are borrowing from the art of pro wrestling to enhance their stories…

So what about the music? Other than pumping out generic rap music that borrows heavily from the sounds of the early 2000’s the artists in Griselda lean heavily in to their appreciation of wrestling, having songs and albums named after some of their favorites. Given that, here are a few of samples, stand outs, and a rating for these tracks based on 5 stars…

1 Star

AND

If we were back in the late 90’s, ringside at Nitro might be a good spot to be if you wanted to be on television. The lead show for wrestling promotion WCW, Nitro ran from 1995 to 2001 and averaged 3-5 million viewers per week before WCW was purchased by rival WWE. If you were to travel back in time and go to a Nitro show, ringside rocking furs is definitely the way to do it. And who better to do it than the FLYGOD himself, Westside Gunn. As far as the music…. the less said about it the better.

3 Stars

“Hit the brick with the pedigree …. I popped up like The Undertaker”

“”They throwing salt, Mr. Fuji huh. ….. No damn favors these grams like Van Vader”

Famous for throwing salt in the eyes of his opponents Mr. Fuji was a staple in the world of wrestling from as early as the 1970’s. Traveling all over the US Mr. Fuji was able to capture titles as a singles competitor and a tag team wrestler. But his main claim to fame was as a manager in the WWF/WWE where he managed Yokozuna, the 6’5” 590 pound behemoth. Coincidentally enough Yokozuna (managed by Mr. Fuji) VS Van Vader took place in 1996. A match where Vader “broke” Yokozuna’s leg, where in reality Yokozuna got sent home to do some dieting and exercising. So the Griselda boys move weight like Vader, another giant weighing at 450 pounds. Which begs the question, why would they move weight like Vader when you can move weight like Yokozuna. Sounds lazy to me.

AND

Arguably the best song of the bunch, “Bruiser Brody” showcases Conway The Machine’s machine like rhymes. Using the same rhyme pattern through a majority of the song brings to mind Jay-Z’s 1996 classic “22 Two’s”, minus the twos.

“I get my gas manufactured and grown, packaged and flown
Back, put it in the trap, it's gone.
They givin' out too much time, I left that smack alone (Uh huh)
And bricks nowadays is cut with too much acetone”

Speaking of cutting, there couldn’t have been a more appropriate wrestler to use than Bruiser Brody. Cutting, or blading, is what wrestlers do to produce blood during a show. They’ll take a razor blade and slice their head to get a dramatic response from the audience and no one had more scars from this practice than Bruiser Brody. Look it up if you want to, but the man was serious about it.

4 Stars

Word on the street FLYGOD got that mean dope. Fire out the nose like Ricky “Dragon” Steamboat.

“Body slam 2 thousand grams, Steve Regal”

Ricky The Dragon Steamboat. What a legend. In 2003 Pro Wrestling Illustrated (PWI) ranked Steamboat the #13 singles wrestler of all time and the #19 tag team wrestler of all time, and he had their match of the year in 1987 and 1989. What a run.

Now for the song title. The Griselda collective hail from Buffalo, NY. Home to tag-team assassins The Butcher and The Blade. Their gimmick is…. well who cares they are just creepy looking badasses. Plus, The Butcher is also a musician who plays as a guitarist for the band Every Time I Die. When asked about his life as a musician and wrestler The Butcher responded… “I think that I’ve always been about art, you know what I mean, in general, like creating art, and I realized that wrestling is like writing a song anyway.” He gets it.

5 Stars

“Sting vs Flair how dare you try to be us.”
“Whipped up an extra brick was Kenny Omega”
“Swear to god I got pulled over with the stupid load, they aint check the trunk though. I flip that shit like the Lucha Bros”

Where do we start. Well first off we have Kenny Omega, whom many claim to be the best in world at the moment. Multi-time match of the year, match of the decade, feud of the year, feud of the decade, wrestler of the year, and tag-team of the year winner Kenny Omega is famous in the wrestling world for having achieved all of his career success without the WWE. Plus his storyline with Kota Ibushi as The Golden Lovers has pushed the boundaries of what wrestling storytelling could be. Then there is Sting VS. Flair, the WCW legends who between them have 42 World Titles, 1988 match of the year, and the last televised match in WCW Nitro history. And of course the Lucha Bros… Rey Fenix and Pentagon Jr. AKA Penta Dark AKA Pentagon Oscuro AKA Penta El Zero Miedo, arguably the best tag team on the planet. Then there’s this entrance…. 5 stars.