Mikey Rukus Interview: The Man Behind AEW Theme Music

Fred: What’s up, everybody? This is Fred Richani of TSC. We have right here via Zoom a very special guest. He is an E1 artist. He is a songwriter, a producer, an entrepreneur. You can hear his music on AEW Dynamite, Rampage and all kinds of AEW specials. We are talking to the multitalented Mikey Rukus of All Elite Wrestling. Mikey, thank you so much for taking the time to do this. How’s everything going?

Mikey Rukus: Great. I have to tell you, that was a fantastic intro. Thank you for that.

Fred: You’re very welcome. Listen, you do some kick-ass intros for the various wrestlers and personalities in AEW. I thought I’d try to return the favor just a little bit.

Mikey Rukus: Awesome.

Fred: Oh man. Well, before we dive into everything you’re currently doing, it’s hard to believe that, at the time of recording this interview, it’s been three years of All Elite Wrestling. It’s been three years since your life changed forever, for the better. Can you reflect a little bit on that and what this journey has been like for you?

Mikey Rukus: Yeah, it has been an amazing ride. Ever since I joined the company in May of 2019, it has been like riding a lightning bolt. We have been absolutely full steam ahead since go. We haven’t really looked back. We have a bright future ahead of us. Things are broadening, things are building steam even as we speak, and it’s just been an amazing ride. I’ve learned a lot, not only about fans and interaction, but about presentation for live TV. There are a lot of things that you have theories about, and then when you’re thrown into the fire, you learn along the way. So it’s adjustments on the fly, and understanding and knowing that anything can change at a moment’s notice.

It’s having that versatility and being thick-skinned enough to know, “We’ve got to go, we’ve got to change, we’ve got to move, we’ve got to do this, we’ve got to do that, and we have to do it now.” I have loved every single minute of it. I’ve learned more in the last three years than I learned in the previous 10, and that’s just the way it is when you get to this level. I’m very grateful for the opportunities.

Fred: Of course, you work with somebody very hands-on in Tony Khan. How hands-on are the actual wrestlers themselves? We know some have their own licensed music that they got from the indies, or that they just wanted to try and use, that Tony’s been cool with greenlighting. But do you ever work with, say, an Adam Cole or another wrestler that’s coming in, and say, “Okay, what do you like? What don’t you like?” and collaborate?

Mikey Rukus: Yeah, so everything is on a case-by-case basis. There’s usually not a lot of time, so we have initial ideas, and then I go to work immediately. I’ve learned in my workflow not to second-guess anything. If I have the idea to do it, I put it down, and then we talk about it after the fact. There have been times where I would talk directly with the talent, and it’s just the talent and me. There are times where it’s just Tony and me. There are times where it’s the three of us in a think tank, and we just bounce ideas back and forth. Case in point: Claudio just came in and debuted, and Tony was very adamant about the 1812 Overture.

He wanted a rock cover of the 1812 Overture. It would match the energy of the end of Caddyshack, but at the same time have a little bit more edge. It would be a callback to Claudio’s time in Ring of Honor, when he used the 1812 Overture there, and it would be a juxtaposition next to Bryan Danielson’s theme, which is a hip-hop spin on “Ride of the Valkyries.” So there was a lot that went into it. Claudio was extremely receptive to it, and the three of us bounced around ideas. We had done a couple of passes, and it came to me. I was like, “You’re looking for the 1812 Overture meets Andrew W.K.” And Tony said, “That’s exactly what I’m looking for.”

It was right in front of my face, because the NHL had been running promos all week long with “Party Hard.” So I was like, “Well, that’s it.” I slept on it, woke up the next day, had it done before lunchtime, and everybody was like, “This is perfect,” and we were good to go. So it’s amazing to have those opportunities to understand what we’re looking for. I had somebody who’s very close to our situation at AEW say, “There aren’t many people who can run at the speed of Tony Khan. You are doing that, and that says a lot about your versatility.” And I don’t even think about it. My overall goal is to get the job done, make sure Tony’s happy, make sure the talent’s happy, and then everything else falls into place after that.

And it’s definitely been falling into place.

Fred: Yeah, they run at a pretty fast pace. It is technically still a startup, right, three years in? So what’s your average turnaround time for music if a new superstar is debuting?

Mikey Rukus: The average is maybe a day or two. We’ve had a couple that have gone a little bit longer, maybe four or five days, but it’s very rare. I learned very early on in pro wrestling and in TV… With live TV, there are a lot of changes on the fly. With pro wrestling, there are a lot of changes on the fly. So when you take pro wrestling and you take live TV, there’s a lot that can happen within a short span. The moniker is always “card subject to change,” right? So when you live by that moniker, you’re always ready in case something happens. A very prime example was our Halloween episode, where The Elite was going to do a Squid Game presentation.

We had the whole song done a couple of days before. We had done a Squid Game-inspired Elite theme for Kenny and The Bucks and Adam Cole, and at 5:30 the night of the show, I get a call that the Squid Game idea had been axed and we needed a Ghostbusters-style theme. It was 5:30, and the show airs at 8:00. I was stuck in traffic until a little bit after 6:00, so I had mapped the whole thing out in my head before I got home. I got the song done and had it delivered to the truck by 8:00. Kenny had it at 8:01, the truck had it at 8:03, and then it premiered at the end of the show for the main event an hour later.

So those are the things that happen. It provides amazing stories after the fact. You don’t think about it when you’re in the middle of it, because you’re trying to get it done, but that’s what we do. So the average is maybe around a day or two, but it’s been as quick as a couple of hours.

Fred: That’s pretty incredible. You had mentioned earlier that in the last three years, you’ve learned more than you had in the previous 10, and you have such an incredible story. You’re a father, you’re a grandfather, you’re a husband, you’re somebody who is really hardworking. You’ve talked about your journey on TikTok, how you worked in retail and, in addition to that, did music on the side for over a decade. How did you stay hungry? How did you stay motivated, even when some opportunities weren’t coming in, until you got to AEW?

Mikey Rukus: I had developed a workflow. Initially, it had started because I needed supplemental income. I was working as a salaried manager for big-box retail, and when you’re in a store for 60, 70 hours a week, it doesn’t really lend itself to getting a second part-time job where you can clock in and clock out. So I just decided in 2010 that I was going to start making music. I was dabbling in music at the time, but I had never done anything professionally that would bring in income. So I decided this was what I was going to do, and it would parlay into different opportunities, different chances to work with different people and have the music showcased in different areas.

In 2015, I worked with Zardonic, an E1 stablemate, and we produced the theme song for World Series of Fighting, “Bring It On.” That had great reaction and traction within the mixed martial arts realm. In 2016, that market started to dry up a little bit, so I decided to move over to independent professional wrestling. That was booming at the time. There were a lot of independent wrestlers taking their brands into their own hands, utilizing social media to create a presence and create auras about themselves that they could take from one promotion to the next to the next. So I decided to get in on that and build it. I was still working in retail at the time, and I developed this workflow where I always had a full queue of clients that I had to create music for.

I was still working full-time, and I was already running. So that entire time was me developing the workflow and the skills that I needed to be able to work consistently and to work extremely fast. It all brought me to the moment where I would join AEW. I didn’t set out thinking that AEW was going to be the one, because there was no concept of it until early 2019. But I knew at some point, if I just stayed consistent, stayed busy, continued to learn, continued to experiment and continued to produce, that something was going to happen. It would be a video game or a major movie or something along those lines. And it just so happened that I was in the right place at the right time.

I had the right resume, I had the right credit reel, and I had the right people speaking on my behalf, not just me speaking for myself.

Fred: You got your big break at 43. A lot of people would have probably given up by then, or felt like they wanted to give up by then. You had the resilience to say, “No, I’m just going to keep going. I know if I do the right things, it’s eventually going to happen.” So the first big break was AEW, and then came the second act: at age 44, you signed your first true record deal, with MNRK Music Group, aka E1. What was that whole moment like for you?

Mikey Rukus: That was actually a long process of negotiation, and it all happened, I want to say, right at the onset of the pandemic. We had been talking for a while, and when it all came through, all I thought about was going to work and getting the job done. My wife and I would stop and celebrate those moments. We have those moments where we celebrate together. But in terms of what comes after that, for me it was just about going to work. “Let’s get it done. Let’s put something out there. Let’s make things happen.” That’s been my overall drive: getting it done and getting it out there for people to consume, and for people to learn more about not just the stories that I’m telling, but the overall encompass of entertainment itself.

So the deal happened, my wife and I had a personal moment that we shared, because we knew about the journey, and then it was appreciating it in the moment and then just going to work. There are some people that don’t look at it that way. They take that moment, and sometimes they linger on it and they want to continue to celebrate. Celebration is always great, and taking a moment to appreciate the journey is always great, but you still have more work to do. When you get to that level, the work that you put in all the way up to that point is three times more now that you’re there, because now it’s not just about saying, “I’ve made it.”

It’s about maintaining, and then going after even more, because on those higher stages, those bigger stages where people see you, more opportunities come. So you have to maximize and you have to capitalize on those moments and put your foot on the gas pedal all the way down. You think you were flooring it before? You’ve got to put your foot all the way outside the car, if that makes any sense.

Fred: What a story, man. Now, before we let you go, we always like to ask our guests some random, rapid-fire questions just to get to know them better. Are you ready?

Mikey Rukus: Yeah, let’s do it. I have no idea what you’re going to ask me, by the way, so let’s do it.

Fred: All right, there we go. Favorite late-night snack or cheat meal?

Mikey Rukus: Oh man. The answer is yes, everything. I like Cheese Nips. I like chocolate cake. Me and Mrs. Rukus like chocolate cake a lot. We’re not supposed to be eating that stuff, but we do. So yeah, Cheese Nips and chocolate cake.

Fred: All right.

Mikey Rukus: And ice cream.

Fred: This is going to be a hard one, but all-time favorite album? Is there one album that you could just bump for the rest of your life?

Mikey Rukus: I’ll tell you right now: Faith No More, Angel Dust.

Fred: All right, all right, there you go. If you weren’t a recording artist and a producer, what would you be doing, other than retail? If there was an alternate multiverse where Mikey Rukus was doing something else?

Mikey Rukus: I don’t know. Probably making video games. That’s something that’s always intrigued me. So it may not necessarily be music in games, just something involved in the gaming industry.

Fred: So you’re a gamer?

Mikey Rukus: Not heavily. I’m getting back into it again. I started playing Fortnite just because my son was playing it and screaming at the top of his lungs. I got tired of going in there and telling him, “If you don’t shut up, I’m going to shut the game off.” I actually went in and shut the game off on him one time, and he started laughing hysterically. So I decided to learn how to play it just so I could play with him, and then he wouldn’t play. So I do some Fortnite. I want to get back into retro gaming, so that’s something that’s going to be coming down the pike very soon: some retro gaming stuff and retro movies and things like that.

Fred: The real important question: have you learned any of the Fortnite dances?

Mikey Rukus: Yeah, but you don’t want to see them, I can tell you that right now. You wouldn’t want to see it. It’s not a pretty sight.

Fred: Fair enough. I don’t know how much you talk to Paul Wight, but he’s a huge Destiny player. In the community, he’s all about those first-person shooters. So hey, maybe you could join his fireteam. He could ease you into the PS5 community.

Mikey Rukus: Oh, for sure. I’ll have to hit him up. I play on PC right now, but definitely, I’ll have to hit Paul up. I’ll hit him up today, as a matter of fact, and ask him about it, so we’ll see.

Fred: Cool, cool. Who’s the funniest person backstage in AEW?

Mikey Rukus: Man, there are some characters back there. Hobbs has me in stitches when I see him. Who else? There are a few. Danhausen is really funny. Starks is really funny. Anthony Ogogo is really funny. I don’t travel a lot, but when I see these guys, it’s a joy to see them. Nyla Rose is hysterical. Serpentico is hysterical. I love them, and they’re just happy all the way around, and their vibes are always infectious.

Fred: What’s your most awkward moment as a music producer for AEW?

Mikey Rukus: It would probably have to be my initial meeting with everybody once I had signed with the company. My first time meeting everyone was for Fight for the Fallen in 2019, down in Jacksonville at Daily’s Place. I was in my first production meeting, and I’m sitting around and I see Cody Rhodes and The Young Bucks and Kenny Omega, and then I see Billy Gunn, and then I see Dean Malenko. After the meeting was over, everybody was introducing themselves, and everybody was being really nice to me. I went to go shake Dean Malenko’s hand, and I was trying to provide some sort of a sidebar or anecdote, that I name-dropped him in a song that I wrote for Zack Sabre Jr. in RevPro.

Dean Malenko was one of my favorite wrestlers when I was coming up, so when I went to go tell him, I drew a complete blank. I was like, “I name-dropped you in a song I wrote, and I can’t believe that I’m completely blanking out. I really don’t know why this is happening right now, but I just wanted to tell you that I name-dropped you in a song.” And he looked at me and he was like, “I have to buy lunch.” And I walked away like, “Oh my God, what did I just do?” So yeah, that was by far the most awkward moment I’ve had.

Fred: Listen, I was a huge Dean Malenko fan as well back in the day. I got the Pro Wrestling Illustrated issue when he was named number one in ’97. I can understand. The Man of a Thousand Holds. A sweet guy, but kind of intimidating at first.

Mikey Rukus: He’s a good guy, but I completely botched that initial meeting. So now when I see him and he sees me, it’s kind of like, “Hey, hey, hey,” and we keep it moving.

Fred: Oh man, that’s great. You recently made an Instagram post that was very heartfelt about your wife, and I think it’s very important for people to hear why it’s so important to have a supportive partner, whether that’s a go-to person like a best friend, a brother, a sister, a father-like figure, or a wife or life partner. So I’ll ask you: how important is it to have a supportive partner in a journey like this?

Mikey Rukus: It’s absolutely vital, and it’s an absolute blessing. I knew my wife from high school. She was my high school crush. We both went on separate paths. I was married for 14 years, she was married for 14 years, and both of our marriages ended at the same time. We didn’t even know. I was starting over from scratch, and I was just telling somebody this earlier: when I say starting over, I had a small two-bedroom house with a couch, and that was it. I had nothing else. I was starting from zero. She and I went on this journey together, and there were times where I felt like, “What am I doing here?” Maybe three weeks before AEW was announced, I almost walked away from music altogether.

I figured I was burning out. I was working seven days a week. I had a really strong workflow where I was working 60, 70 hours in my store, and then I was going home every night after work and working in my office six or seven hours in the evening, and this was going on six, seven days a week for almost two years. I was burnt out, and I started rationalizing, like, “Maybe my little slice of life in retail isn’t so bad. I have a great team, I’m in a great community, I love the clientele, I love the people there. Maybe this is okay.” I brought that up in conversation, and she basically, in so many words, told me that I was crazy.

She said, “You would never have any peace, ever, because you have worked too hard to walk away from this.” So I slept on it. I didn’t make any rash decisions or anything like that. I took a day just to relax, and then I went back to work again. And then literally three weeks later, I saw the tweet from Dustin Rhodes talking about how proud he was of his brother and the launch of this, and that’s when I saw AEW. I just knew deep down inside that the gig was mine. So I made the moves that I needed to make, and networked to get there. I floated the idea of coming to work full-time, as opposed to doing a handful of songs.

I said, “Listen, you guys are going to need this forever, so I’ll come and I’ll work here forever.” I just floated it. I didn’t think they would go for it, and they went for it. Just to think, it was only a few weeks before that I was thinking about walking away from everything and just focusing on being a retail guy, thinking that’s not so bad after all. So she was very instrumental in saying, “Hey, I know you. I know what you’ve put into this, and I know what this means to you. There may not necessarily be an end goal that we see right now, but you need to keep doing what you’re doing.” It made all the difference in the world.

She is my absolute best friend, and she gets what we’re doing here. She gets what I’m doing, and she’s always been 1,000 percent supportive. So, very vital.

Fred: I love that. So she’s the real MVP.

Mikey Rukus: She is the real MVP. And how cool is it that you can have a significant other that says, “I think you need that for your studio,” and I’m like, “All right,” and then I turn around and it’s there? So, good stuff.

Fred: Definitely good stuff. Well, Mikey, we really do appreciate the time. Before we let you go, let’s get you out on another high note. What’s the best piece of advice you’d give for success?

Mikey Rukus: I would definitely say start small. Try, experiment, and don’t beat yourself up if you fail. I tell people that L’s aren’t losses, they’re lessons. Always understand that the journey is what is going to make you. It’s not necessarily about reaching for the stars and putting all your eggs in one basket. It’s about the process. It’s about appreciating what is being afforded to you in that moment, maximizing that, and then using that for the next step and the next step and the next step. So it’s always that long process. Start small, take your baby steps, take your lumps, take your bruises, and then learn, and just take that with you. It’s like a suit of armor that you carry into battle with you every day.

Fred: Well, amazing stuff, man. It was a pleasure to talk to you and to learn about your journey. Much respect to everything you’re doing and that you’re going to do. The floor is yours, man. Where can we find you online, and where can we find you next?

Mikey Rukus: Absolutely. I’m pretty much everywhere. You can find me on Twitter, Mikey Rukus. You can find me on TikTok, Mikey Rukus. You can find me on Instagram, Mikey Rukus, R-U-K-U-S. I’m as interactive as I can possibly be every day. You’re going to see different things coming up on YouTube where I start opening up about the processes, like I do on TikTok, a little bit more in depth, about production best practices, and being able to impart wisdom to up-and-coming producers who may not necessarily have the opportunities that I had, or in the same sense, being able to provide opportunities where I didn’t necessarily have them. I had to go out and find them on my own. So I’m out there.

You just type in Mikey Rukus, and you’ll find me easily enough.

Fred: And of course, you can hear his music on pretty much everything AEW, including AEW Dynamite on TBS and AEW Rampage on TNT. Mikey, thank you so much.