The Road to Wrestlemania always overlaps with another popular sporting event: NCAA March Madness (not to be confused with Macho Madness). Our basketball knowledge is limited to the few times when the two sports overlapped: Dennis Rodman wrestling Karl Malone, Shaq as a Hulkamaniac, Shaq and the Big Show having a Staredown on RAW, Sugar Dunkerton … but the biggest thing about March Madness always seems to be the strategy used in filling out the 64 Team Bracket. So, we tried to come up with a way to bring this to Wrestling.

Last month we contacted our regional chapter of ThreeManBoothers to get volunteers for the inaugural 3MB Theme Madness Tournament.

Here are the rules for the theme selection: basically, we wanted to avoid the inevitable face-off  between the “classic themes” (Hogan, Savage, Flair) and … well, Stone Cold Steve Austin. So we limited eligible themes to only ones heard in the past 14 months. That meant that a lot of current promotions’ rosters were eligible. It also meant that recently retired wrestlers like Edge or recurring semi-retired wrestlers like Mick Foley or even one-off Superstars like Doink the Clown were eligible via creative use of the loophole. The strongest use of this is probably the inclusion of “The Kings of Wrestling” theme: Chris Hero used it in January 2012 before becoming Kassius Ohno. #StillCounts!

We didn’t want to limit theme selections to the Big 3 Big 2 WWE,  but wanted to balance out their inclusion. So, we had each participant list their 10 favorite themes from 2012 to 2013 and rank them (1st place gets 10 points, 10th place gets 1 point). That way, indie themes could be given more points for support. Plus, a good theme is a good theme, no matter the promotion. There’s a reason why both Kevin Steen and El Generico broke the Top 10. This also helped good themes in the WWE that have been saddled with less than stellar Superstars. It’s not the fault of “Say It To My Face” that Alex Riley isn’t over. The theme does its job.

After tallying the results, we ranked the entries from 1 to 64 and entered them in this March Madness style bracket.

Don’t Strain Your Eyes! A Larger Version Can Be Found Here

Seriously, Don’t Strain ‘Em! This One’s Here Too

The numbers on the left is each theme’s ranking. The numbers on the right are the points they were awarded. Any theme that has (—) next to it means that it was added after the fact by the ThreeManBooth Executive Committee get 64 entries. The Undertaker was a glaring omission, as was Bobby Roode. For the final two spots were actually determined in the fairest way possible. We let Ted Dibiase Jr., JBL, The Great Khali and 3MB (No, not us) face off in WWE ’13. JBL Back Suplexed The Great Khali onto the ring steps! That’s how bad he wanted this!

And while we’re very happy with the songs that made the cut, there is one Honorable Mention we would like to address. “Short Term Memory” Emma’s Theme in NXT. Seriously, listen to this:

Before you know it, you’ll be doing this:

Courtesy of coreygraves

Like we said, it almost made the cut. Don’t worry, Emma; you’re definitely a top seed in our “Dancing Wrestlers” Tournament.

Courtesy of WWEGifs

Right now, these brackets are in the hands of the 3MB Express. They’re in the midst of filing out their brackets and then we’ll announce the round by round. Even if you weren’t chosen, you can still participate! Leave your comments below on who should advance or Tweet using #3MBBracket!  Think Yoshi Tatsu should be the Cinderella story of this Tournament? Tweet It! Who would prevail in the fantasy warfare between Colt “Boom Boom” Cabana and William “Royalty” Regal?  Comment! Who knows, your thoughts could influence the Tournament and earn you a seat in the next 3MB Tournament (we’re serious about that Dance-Off).