{"id":1130253,"date":"2021-11-11T16:56:51","date_gmt":"2021-11-11T13:56:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1130253"},"modified":"2021-11-11T16:56:51","modified_gmt":"2021-11-11T13:56:51","slug":"what-professional-wrestling-prodigy-lee-moriarty-is-listening-to-right-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1130253","title":{"rendered":"What Professional Wrestling Prodigy Lee Moriarty Is Listening to Right Now"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Columns<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

What Professional Wrestling Prodigy Lee Moriarty Is Listening to Right Now<\/h1>\n
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The AEW star, whose persona takes cues from MF DOOM and Wu-Tang, talks about being inspired by Mac Miller, Denzel Curry, Westside Gunn, and more.<\/div>\n
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By <\/span>Evan Minsker<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

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Photo courtesy of All Elite Wrestling. Graphic by Callum Abbott.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Lee Moriarty isn\u2019t a household name like the Rock or CM Punk just yet, but over the last few years, the 27-year-old has established a reputation as a must-watch pro wrestling workhorse. He\u2019s easy to root for\u2014the kind of performer who kicks dudes hard in the face, flies gracefully off the top rope, and ties up an arm or a leg in an advanced submission hold, all while looking like he\u2019s having the time of his life. After proving himself with instant-classic matches on the independent wrestling circuit, he recently signed with All Elite Wrestling, the exciting new company that\u2019s challenging WWE\u2019s monopoly as wrestling\u2019s sole cable-TV powerhouse.<\/p>\n

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Music is a big inspiration for his overall presentation as a wrestler. Moriarty defines his hybrid wrestling style as \u201cTAIGASTYLE\u201d\u2014a reference to \u201cWu-Tang Clan Ain\u2019t Nuthing Ta F\u2019 Wit,\u201d presented in all-caps in tribute to MF DOOM. For every match, he walks to the ring listening to his favorite tracks on noise-canceling headphones. The music in his ears is carefully curated\u2014often featuring rap heavyweights like Drake and Tyler amid newer artists like Smino and PinkPantheress\u2014in order to switch his mindset into wrestling mode.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really need to quiet out all of the sounds around me,\u201d he says over the phone from his home in Pittsburgh, almost sounding shy. \u201cI have stage fright, so being around a lot of people makes me nervous. When I can just listen to music and chill, it helps a lot. \u200b\u200bIt also helps to transform me into TAIGASTYLE Lee Moriarty as opposed to Lee Moriarty, the guy you see at a grocery store.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here, he talks about some of the songs that get him in the zone.<\/p>\n

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Mac Miller: Faces<\/em><\/h2>\n
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Lee Moriarty: Mac Miller is a big influence on me\u2014the way he was this positive person, always trying to have fun. That\u2019s why I try to look like I\u2019m having fun in the ring, even though I\u2019m fighting and it\u2019s a competition. It\u2019s cool seeing someone succeed from the area where I lived too. I remember hearing his music for the first time in my dad\u2019s car, then watching his show Most Dope<\/em> on MTV and seeing a guy from Pittsburgh succeeding and living a dream life. Even with all the stuff he went through personally, he was always trying to lift others up. The thing I was taught when I got into professional wrestling by my trainers was \u201cleave professional wrestling better than how you found it.\u201d I want to help as much as I can, especially in Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n

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Lute: Gold Mouf<\/em><\/h2>\n
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The first time I heard Lute was on a song called \u201cSleep Deprived\u201d from the Dreamville album, and I wanted to see if that sound carried over to his album, and it did. I really like jazz funk mixed with hip-hop. I\u2019ve been putting this on in the car or on an airplane because it\u2019s very mellow. It\u2019s easy listening while I\u2019m drawing or painting or just want to relax.<\/p>\n

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Westside Gunn: Hitler Wear Hermes 8: Side B<\/em><\/h2>\n
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The first time I heard a Westside Gunn song was because it had a wrestling-inspired title: \u201cLucha Bros.\u201d I\u2019m a big fan of the Lucha Bros, and that song came up on YouTube when I was looking for them. I like both of his new albums, but I like Side B<\/em> a little more. I\u2019ve been listening to it when I\u2019m getting ready to do something; it\u2019s like a warm-up for me. There\u2019s one track that\u2019s just talking about how you finish how you start, and it\u2019s stories like that that make me think about what the music means to me personally. I\u2019m hoping that his next album has the Arn Anderson glock promo, it would fit so perfectly.<\/p>\n

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$NOT: \u201cSangria\u201d [ft. Denzel Curry]<\/h2>\n
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Denzel Curry is probably my favorite active artist right now. I really like his creative approach. He released that Unlocked<\/em> project with Kenny Beats, and they did that video about it leaking and having to find the files, which was really cool. I was looking for Denzel Curry music and found this song \u201cSangria,\u201d and that\u2019s the song that made me a $NOT fan.<\/p>\n

Hip-hop and professional wrestling work so perfectly together, but wrestling usually features rock music. Or if it\u2019s hip-hop, it\u2019s Pitbull or Flo Rida, which I get because it\u2019s a party vibe. But there\u2019s this whole other world that could bring in new wrestling fans. There\u2019s people my age who don\u2019t necessarily listen to this rock\u2019n\u2019roll stuff. What they gravitate to is Denzel Curry or Lil Uzi, and seeing these guys on a wrestling TV show might make them stop and become a wrestling fan. I\u2019ve met people who became fans of me because of the MF DOOM, Denzel Curry, and Wu-Tang Clan references. There\u2019s a place for that music in mainstream professional wrestling. I want to invite those fans to start watching.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

Source URL: https:\/\/pitchfork.com\/thepitch\/what-professional-wrestling-prodigy-lee-moriarty-is-listening-to-right-now\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Columns What Professional Wrestling Prodigy Lee Moriarty Is Listening to Right Now The AEW star, whose persona takes cues from MF DOOM and Wu-Tang, talks about being inspired by Mac Miller, Denzel Curry, Westside Gunn, and more. By Evan Minsker November 11, 2021 Photo courtesy of All Elite Wrestling. Graphic by Callum Abbott. Lee Moriarty […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1130254,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[54],"class_list":["post-1130253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-pitchfork-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1130253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1130253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1130253\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1130254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1130253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1130253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1130253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}