Power Hall

Power Hall (パワー・ホール) is a song pseudonymously composed and performed by Susumu Hirasawa, and the entrance theme of professional wrestler Riki Choshu since 1980.

Hirasawa was commissioned to write this song while he was working as a music composer and sound designer for Electro Sound. As he was not a fan of pro wrestling, his only reference point for the composition was the initial prompt—"I want you to create an entrance theme for a young wrestler"—and a profile that was sent to him. He wrote and recorded the song in a single day. When interviewed for a pro-wrestling mook years after the fact, he commented that had he known how often it would be used, he would have spent more time on it.

Writing is credited to "Hanmyo Ibo" (異母犯妙), a name that is pronounced identically to a type of Japanese tiger beetle. According to Hirasawa, this came about because an insect encyclopedia was left open in the studio at the moment he was asked for a pen name. Performance is credited to "ZZZ". Hirasawa's association with the song was not public knowledge for some time; in 1996, he remarked that most of the musicians he personally knew that were fans of wrestling did not know that he had written it.

"Power Hall" is the most widely-broadcast song of Hirasawa's career, used not just in Choshu's matches, but in media coverage of him as well. Covers of the song have been made by artists as high profile as Ken Ishii, and it has been used to promote works such as the live-action Hollywood adaptation of Ghost in the Shell (in a teaser featuring Choshu). Choshu owns all rights to the composition, meaning that Hirasawa receives no royalties from its use. The title "Power Hall" itself has become a brand of Choshu's, used as the name for a series of VHS/LD releases made to commemorate the 20th anniversary of his debut in 1994, as well as a series of wrestling events in 2018 and 2019 he produced.

Connections

 * "Gipnoza" has been noted to have a similar structure, instrumental riff (the first 4 notes in particular), and synth tone.

Trivia

 * Shinya Hashimoto, a rival of Choshu, once made up lyrics to the song mocking the size of his limbs.