Shinsuke Nakamura’s entrance theme The Rising Sun helped define his WWE presence the moment he debuted—and now, the violinist responsible for that unforgettable sound is revealing exactly how it all came together.
Earl Maneein of Seven)Suns recently appeared on Ropes N Riffs and shared how he got involved in the session with WWE music producers CFO$. Surprisingly, he admitted that when he was first contacted to record the track, he didn’t even realize what it was for.
“It was just another gig. I don’t even remember who called me really. But it was just kind of like what I was saying alluding to earlier where like you get a text, right, and you go, ‘Oh, show up here at this time.’”
Once inside the studio, Maneein saw that CFO$ already had a full MIDI demo arranged. They had the track’s structure in place but wanted a violinist to bring something unique to the sound.
“The CFO$ guys were like super cool. They wrote all of the things. It was all laid out for me. It wasn’t on sheet music, but it was on their MIDI controllers, and they were like, ‘We got this thing. We kind of hear violin here. What can you do for this kind of stuff?’”
He approached the session using both electric and acoustic violins. The electric violin was processed with amp simulators to create a heavy, modern tone, while the acoustic violin handled the melody lines.
“The main theme was not done on an electric violin… the acoustic part—yeah, that stuff is also this violin.”
While CFO$ had the main riff and structure ready to go, Maneein was given plenty of room to experiment. He improvised multiple solos and unique sections on the spot—something that wasn’t entirely spontaneous, but rather instinctual after years of performing.
“If you listen to the full track, there’s definitely me taking a bunch of solos. It’s improvisatory. Yes, I just made it up on the spot. But I also didn’t—if that makes sense. These are things I’ve done a million times in slightly different ways.”
Maneein described those solos as natural extensions of his musical vocabulary. While they may have sounded spontaneous, they were grounded in decades of muscle memory and phrasing that he had used countless times in other projects. Even though he wasn’t a wrestling fan, he understood exactly what kind of emotion and energy the track needed to deliver.
“I’m not a wrestling fan, really, but I understand deeply that this is hype music, this is what gets the crowd stoked that this guy is coming out, and how are we going to build this excitement?”
The end result was a theme that didn’t just hype up a crowd—it elevated Nakamura’s entire presence on WWE television. And it all started with a gig that Maneein nearly forgot about.
Please credit Ringside News if you use the above transcript in your publication.
Do you think WWE should bring back more CFO$-style themes? Please share your thoughts and feedback in the comment section below.
December 8, 2025 12:40 pm
