Your move, Aleister Black.

This Sunday is Wrestlemania 35. The Grandest Stage Of Them All. The Showcase Of The Immortals. The Big Show The May Or May Not Have Big Show Participating. Old…Swampy. Yes, the gigantic wrestling event will be taking place at MetLife Stadium in New York and, by many accounts, may be well over eight hours long. There will be the usual displays of athleticism, drama, pageantry, wooden acting and weird walking from Ronda Rousey, and all that goes with giant people body-slamming each other over minor disagreements (h/t Ron Funches). One of the things I’m most interested in, though, is what band t-shirt WWE wrestler Erick Rowan is going to be wearing.

Rowan has been kicking around the WWE for a few years now. He was first a member of The Wyatt Family, a sort-of backwoods cult. Then he became a winemaking Rubix Cube-solving genius. for like two weeks. Then a creep for another two weeks. Eventually, he became a giant hammer-carrying monster with former Wyatt Family member Luke Harper. Over the past few months, though, Rowan has become the backup muscle for current WWE Champion Daniel Bryan. They have talked about the importance of recycling, the evils of consumerism and how our current world problems are due to selfish Baby Boomers and 1%ers. Somehow, that is supposed to make them villains. Wrestling, man.

WWE officials have essentially let Daniel Bryan be himself when it comes to talking about these issues and how he presents himself. That has extended to Rowan and let me tell you, this guy loves metal, particularly folk and viking metal. Just take a look at the guy and his family:

Next time some skinny little nerd shows you his Thor’s hammer necklace or a stick-and-poke rune tattoo, just remember there’s a 6’8, 315 wrestler of actual Norwegian descent out there ready to clothesline them into oblivion. Hell, he’s even in Amon Amarth‘s new music video. Dude is legit. While Rowan has documented his love of metal on Twitter and Instagram, he has been showing off his metal cred each and every week on national television. Just check out some of the bands he’s been repping to millions of people each week.

Amon Amarth

 

Kreator

 

Powerwolf

 

Alestorm

 

Solstafir

 

Tyr

 

Children Of Bodom

 

Heilung

 

Korpiklaani

 

Behemoth

 

Ensiferum

 

Eluveitie

 

That’s pretty cool if you ask me. Sure, the Headbangers wore band shirts and there was that one time Marty Jannety randomly wore a Overkill shirt, but this is different. This is Rowan being who he is and he is a giant metalhead. Maybe, just maybe, some young wrestling fans are checking out some of the bands and will one day start a band of their own. I wonder what band shirt he’ll wear at Wrestlemania. Turisas? Finntroll? Wintersun? We’ll just have to tune in on Sunday to find out.

Erick, if you’re reading this, come on the podcast. We’ll talk all about folk metal and the importance of separating paper from plastic. Let’s make it happen.