Guns N' Roses Fueled Finale Of Cobra Kai - 2025 In Review

By antiMusic Staff | Published: December 06, 2025

Guns N' Roses scored a top 25 story of February 2025 when their late 1980s hit "Sweet Child Of Mine" was the soundtrack to the final montage scene in the final episode of "Cobra Kai", the Netflix streaming series that concludes the "Karate Kid" saga.

In the best tradition of 1980s films, the song comes on at the end of a big victory and takes viewers through a montage of resolutions for the characters in the show.

While "Cobra Kai" stayed true to many of the traditions of the original film series, including the use of montages, the show also flipped the script by offering viewers a look at the things from the other preceptive.

"Karate Kid" was the classic black and white tale of the underdog (good) Daniel LaRusso overcoming the bully (evil) Johnny Lawrence, shown from the viewpoint of LaRusso.

"Cobra Kai" offered a glimpse into Johnny Lawrence and other villain's characters and showed that things were not also so black and white, creating heroes where bad guys once stood.

The music of the 1980s were the core soundtrack to the "Cobra Kai" series with hard rock hits Poison's "Nothing But A Good Time" kicking things off in the pilot, Ratt's "Round and Round", Twisted Sister's "We're Not Gonna Take It", AC/DC's "Back in Black" and "Thunderstruck," Motley Crue's "Kickstart My Heart" and "Girls, Girls, Girls", Judas Priest's "You Got Another Things Coming", Van Halen's "Unchained", W.A.S.P.'s "I Wanna Be Somebody", to pop and alternative songs like "Bananarama's "Cruel Summer" (also in the original "Karate Kid", OMD's "If You Leave", Wang Chung's "Dance Hall Days", Journey's "Open Arms", Phil Collins' "In The Air Tonight", Jon Bon Jovi's "Blaze Of Glory", Kenny Loggins' "Playing With The Boys", DOA's "You Spin Me Round", and more