Joe Hendry’s first album was born out of a mix-up when he mistakenly believed he was being promoted from WWE NXT to SmackDown. The WWE star shared with Chris Van Vliet on Insight that his album, Beyond Belief, which is set to release on October 5, originated from a spontaneous performance.
Hendry explained, “The album basically happened by chance. While I was on NXT, I thought I was getting called up to SmackDown, so I went there not really knowing for sure. I remember performing a song about The Miz at Christmas and going to SmackDown, and Becky Lynch asked if I was officially up now. I said I thought so, though I wasn’t at that point.”
He recounted how Neil Lawi, the head of WWE Music, approached him about putting out the audio from that SmackDown performance. “Neil asked if we could release an EP, and I mentioned I had also done a song for NXT that same week, so that made two. Then I had a couple more songs, and Neil asked if I could create one more. Thinking I was going to SmackDown for real, I made a track titled ‘Going Up to SmackDown.’ Soon, we had around four or five songs and decided to go all in and make a full album. I ended up writing 10 tracks in just three or four days.”
Although he ended up going to Raw instead of SmackDown, most of the album features new tracks rather than songs from his WWE performances. Hendry highlighted how his live TV experience helped speed up the recording process. “We recorded all the main vocals for the entire album in five hours. That includes not only the lead parts but the backing vocals too,” he said.
He also noted that he set up studio equipment at home identical to WWE Music’s setup to add guitar and keyboard elements during mixing. Hendry builds each song around a catchy hook first, a method he developed while learning guitar along with Weezer records. While there’s no tour planned yet, he hopes to perform the album live someday.
Fan Take: This crossover between wrestling and music adds a unique layer to Joe Hendry’s persona, giving fans new ways to connect with him outside the ring. It highlights how wrestling stars can diversify their talents, potentially boosting audience engagement and expanding the sport’s cultural footprint.
Source: wrestlingnews.co
