While I have been writing here on The Signature Spot for nearly a year and appeared on the old podcast with our fearless leader Chris, I have been writing for years, mainly with a focus on the horror genre, more specifically the horrorpunk genre of music. I ran my own site which at the time was one of, if not the, only one focusing on the genre at the time. While I have moved away from that for a multitude of reasons, I am still intrinsically connected to the genre and follow it rigorously. I am lucky enough to have built many friendships through the genre, with one of those leading to why we are here today. One of my favorite bands, The Jasons, which yes, is a horrorpunk band based around the Friday The 13th films and each member dons a mask from different eras of the series, has members that bounce around a few other punk genres. One of these in specific is the new project, VonErichs, named after the famous professional wrestling family, with a focus on professional wrestling songs. So when you take two of my biggest loves in life, horrorpunk and professional wrestling, there is absolutely no way I would not be all over this.

The album begins officially with “Runnin’ Wild” with a guitar run-in by El Tsunami but before the song actually starts we get a spoken word promo intro from the one and only Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler. How they pulled it off I can’t say but the song is catchy as all hell, despite being focused on a guy I personally despise in the industry. But let’s be honest, there is no way you can write a wrestling-themed old-school album without referencing the Hulkster. Looking at the tracklisting you would immediately think that a song called “Figure Four” would be about Ric Flair, but in this case, it is actually about another man who helped make the move famous, as well as an actual old-school tag team partner of the ‘Nature Boy; before his career took off, in this case, Greg ‘The Hammer’ Valentine. Another catchy Ramones-core style song (spoiler alert: almost all the songs fall in this category) that will have you tapping your feet and bouncing your head.

We now enter into what I call the Barry Darsow portion of the album, first with a tribute to the legendary Demolition “Smasher Give Me The Axe” which begins with a clip of Sean Mooney discussing the introduction of Crush to the group (aka when the team went right downhill due to a real-life health issue affecting Bill “Axe” Eadie) before we move into Darsow’s post-Demolition role as the Repo Man with the appropriately titled “Repo Man.” It’s too bad they didn’t include a song about the Russians from Jim Crockett Promotions and get us a little Krusher Khruschev action.

As the wonderful Dark Side Of The Ring showed us, professional wrestling has its side it would much rather be left uncovered, and the album dives into that in a humorous way, first with “Cocaine” where some great impressions of Hogan and Macho Man Randy Savage discuss their love of ‘booger sugar.’ Anyone who watched promos from those two and others in the 80s knows the guys partook at times, it was obvious so this humorous look has fun with that. We get the traditional ballad song up next with the hilarious “Kamala Ate My Baby” which I guarantee you will be singing along to by the end, or you are a better person than I. From there we move onto the fun “Ring Rat” paying hilarious tribute to all the wrestling groupies from the ‘80s that were in abundance. “Texas Tornado” is yet another loving ode to the late, great Kerry Von Erich and his brief run in the WWF as The Texas Tornado, sadly his last big run in wrestling. One of the catchiest tracks (as if they aren’t all catchy) is the group’s song to the man I consider the greatest to ever do it, Bret “The Hitman” Hart. The song brings up not only his signature shades but his being raised in the Dungeon. 

The implosion of the Mega Powers is brought up on “Elizabeth” telling the story from the angles of not only Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage, but a guest appearance from Miss Lorraina gives us Elizabeth’s point of view. The oft-forgotten badass Bad News Brown gets attention next with “Ghetto Blaster” and while not necessarily a highlight of the album, it’s nice to see one of the more underutilized talents from the era get some love. Following up on the Hitman’s track before we get a song all about the Anvil in the titular “Neidhart” which serves as the penultimate track and really works more as a lead-in for the album’s final track and arguably the best one on the album, “Horsemen Never Die.” As shows return I can only wish that the group hits the road, if for nothing more than wanting to be right up against the stage screaming the chorus with the group. I have had this album since February of this year and while several tracks have made their way into my regular rotation, this one is the most played song from the album. If Dave Meltzer was rating the tracks on his Star system, this is the one that would get 7 Stars (eat your heart out Omega and Okada!).

A complete love letter to a golden age of the sport we all love and adore, VonErichs clearly are in tune with the wrestling business and history and share that love with us through a fun and catchy as all hell Ramones-style album. If you fall into the category of being a punk fan, a wrestling fan, someone who loves fun catchy music that doesn’t take itself too seriously, then First Blood Match is for you. Myself, I fall into all those categories, so in a way, I may be biased but this may be my favorite album of 2021. And make sure you stick around for a surprise at the end of the album.

First Blood Match is being released by Mom’s Basement Records and releases on July 2nd, 2021. You can order your copy at the Official Mom’s Basement Records Store and it is available in several different formats, which you have to see to believe.