411’s This is Awesome Report: Most Awesome Wrestling Games

-I have been waiting for this one since they announced it was the next episode nearly a month ago. Just as a bit of a backstory, I am massive fan of video games. I was born in 81 and basically grew up on video games and a lot of that is due to my mother. She loves video games as well and to this day still plays any new edition of Legend of Zelda. She is patiently waiting for Breath of the Wild 2 in May. Because of that I grew up with Atari and then Nintendo. My mom was up until 4 AM beating Super Mario Bros the day of her wedding to my step-dad back in 1988. We always had a competition of who could beat Zelda first and she beat the original before I did (actually, I still haven’t thought I am in the final dungeon). She also beat BOTW before I did, but every game in between was me. The other systems that I have had and in most case still have: Sega Genesis, Super Nintendo (Link to The Past I still play every Christmas Eve as that is what I did as a kid to make the night go faster), Nintendo 64, Sega Dreamcast, Playstation, Playstation 2, Nintendo Gamecube, X-Box 360, Nintendo Wii, X-Box One, Nintendo Switch, and NES Classic. While Zelda is my favorite series there are a handful of games I play through over and over again because they are amazing: Resident Evil 4 (Gamecube), The Entire Batman Arkham Series (360 and X-Box One), NCAA Football (I still have 13 and 14 for 360 plus at least a copy for my PS2 and GameCube), Tiger Woods/PGA Tour Golf, Tony Hawk (Dreamcast), Donkey Kong Country (SNES) and many others. As far as wrestling games I was hooked with the Nintendo Wrestling game and haven’t stopped playing them. My favorite of all time is WCW/nWo Revenge as I would go to my friends house and a group of us would play the 60 Man Battle Royal for hours with the best part being what wrestler you would get stuck with if you were eliminated. I know the love for No Mercy, but WCW/nWo Revenge just hit different. Most recently I did get the latest WWE 2K game and I have had a blast playing it. So thanks for the time to write this long introduction and shout-out to my mom for being cool enough to see the awesomeness of video games. Love you mother! Let’s get to it!

-Run Time: 47:20

-Show introduction and this is already amazing as they show footage from all the various games. NES WRESTLING GAME!

-Greg Miller welcomes us to the show and he tells us that we are in his wheelhouse today. He talks about his childhood like I did and his friends were all about Sega and RAW.

-Talking heads and really, this show can’t exist without AJ Styles popping up: “Am I an avid video game player….um.” AJ says to call his wife and she will vouch with him. Naturally, Woods is here as well because again, what are we doing if he isn’t here. They all name their favorite systems or systems they grew up with: Beth Phoenix (NES), Miz (SNES), Riddle (Genesis), Theory (Playstation), Shelton Benjamin (X-Box), Montez Ford (N64). AJ says he is an addict and loves video games. They show the Rock and Bill Gates together working on promotion for RAW for X-Box. The talking heads discuss the different types of wrestling games and we get a small feature of Up Up Down Down and Tyler Breeze is here as a talking head. I love this so much! CHARLES MARTINET with Woods is shown. MARIO! Favorite wrestling game and they all struggle to name one. Woods says they are so many good ones and then so many bad ones and they cut to WCW Mayhem. Too funny! Bayley (WCW Thunder), Ford (No Mercy), Woods (1st SmackDown game), Miz (Wrestlefest) Sam Roberts (WWE All Stars), Cody Rhodes (WrestleMania 2000), Ford again (WCW/nWo Revenge). Satin loved playing as AKI-Man. AJ talks about Virtue Pro-Wrestling and he got Woods hooked on it. Cody talks about the craziness of the N64 games and how polygons were missing, but the game play was amazing.

Pro Wrestling
-Release Year: 1987
-Developer: Nintendo

-Perfect way to start and this was the first wrestling game I ever played and probably the same for most people my age. I feel like a 7 year old again just looking at it! AJ talks about being able to jump out of the ring and yes, it was awesome. Woods calls it groundbreaking and Ziggler starts humming the song. He would play the game so much he would hear it in his dreams. They discuss the difficulty and we get a STAR MAN mention! AJ loves AMAZON! YES! King Slender is the Champion and when you win, “Winner is You.” Ziggler played it so much it started to show code on the screen as he learned there was no real ending. They discuss Winner is You because it’s amazing and meme before such things existed. I am so happy they included this game as it would have been easy to only include WWE or WCW games. OH MAN THEY MAKE SURE TO TEACH THE KIDS ABOUT BLOWING IN NINTENDO CARTRIDGE. Drew Gulak tells us not to blow in the cartridge as it’s not good for them due to moisture. He gives us tips on how to properly clean and preserve the technology. I am so happy!

WWE 2K14
-Release Year: 2013
-Developer: Yikes

-Zelina looks at the cover and says she feels like a kid again. I’m old! Ford says people will argue this is one of the best games of all time. They discuss how 2K bought the rights to WWE video games and everyone knew this was going to be awesome as they made great football and basketball games. AJ credits it for the realism. The biggest selling point of the game: 30 YEARS OF WRESTLEMANIA. That feature was amazing as you worked through all the WrestleManias and had triggers to recreate iconic moments in Mania history. I spent so many hours burning through that feature. The Rock was on the cover, which everyone agrees, was the perfect choice. I think this is the year with the Daniel Bryan alternate cover and I made sure to use that version.

WrestleMania The Arcade Game
-Release Year: 1995
-Developer: Midway

-Never got into this one as I wasn’t a fan on arcade wrestling games. I was always into the more realistic games and with Midway you were getting over the top arcade games (NFL Blitz). Woods marks out over Taker’s choke slam where he slid across the ring. The graphics were unique in that they were digitized. This all came from Mortal Kombat and we see behind the scenes footage of Bret Hart and Yokozuna doing the moves for the cameras. Bret says he felt like he was getting punched in his ribs all day long and it took a lot out of him. They note again this was more a fighting game than a wrestling game much like Mortal Kombat. Riddle wants it to come back! Priest calls it one of the coolest games.

Saturday Night Slam Masters
-Release Year: 1993
-Developer: Capcom

-Deep dive here! I played this for a bit on SNES but only as a rental as I never bought the game. Woods calls the game a jam and seems annoyed there hasn’t been another one. Everyone remembers the intro as some random blonde hair guy, with large pythons rips off his shirt. Yes, it’s a company cashing in on Hulk Hogan without actually using Hulk Hogan. Woods still wants to know why a Slam Masters 8, 9, or 10 wasn’t made. AJ feels it was just Street Fighter put in a wrestling ring. Woods loved the entrances and they are pretty fantastic. It does look awesome even today. They break out a system and let some of the talking heads play. I am sure you didn’t have to beg anyone to sign up for this. You still had to get a 3 count even though it was a fighting game.

WWE Attitude

-Release Year: 1999
-Developer: Iguana Entertainment

-I still have this game for my Playstation (and its predecessor, WWE War Zone) and it was awesome. This show is going to make me play wrestling games all weekend! The talking heads all have the N64 version as they discuss the game. Mia Yim can only remember she wasn’t allowed to play it and when she did, she didn’t know how to use the controllers. They talk about going online and finding the codes to do the finishers. AJ laughs at the graphics and the way the wrestlers stood with point hands, rocking back and forth. Matt Camp had a binder with a print-out of how to create wrestlers that weren’t in the game. You also had create a PPV and that was a taste of being a booker. Weapons were introduced and they rag on Shane McMahon’s commentary. They discuss the I Quit Match! Camp says Shane’s commentary will stay in his head forever.

Fire Pro Wrestling Returns

-Release Year: 2007
-Developer: SPIKE

-I know of the series but never played a single one. It’s looks amazing! Woods says it is one of the best wrestling games ever made. The series started in Japan in 1989 and just continued to produce game after game. We have Death Matches and Barbed Wired Matches. Woods says the graphics don’t matter in this game. Oh man, you can fight in an octagon cage. They discuss how the game was so far ahead of its time. They talk about how they couldn’t use the actual names of the wrestlers, but made them look enough alike so you knew who were getting. AJ mentions he was in the game with a weird name and they show us on screen he was “Andy Spirals.” Awesome! The game has stayed the same, but Woods notes it’s just a really, really good video game. I really need to grab a copy!

WWE RAW

-Release Year: 1994
-Developers: Sculpted Software and Realtime Associates

-I had this one for the SNES, though they show the Genesis version here. Again, this is my childhood! It’s great seeing these people beam like little kids when they hand them the guy. Waltman smiles as he says this was huge for him as this was the first game he was in after coming to WWF. The graphics were amazing for the time. USING THE BUCKET TO HIT PEOPLE STILL MAKES ME LAUGH! There was a lot of button mashing, but it’s what we had to do at the time. Waltman says he was always told his character was the best to play so while he was losing in the ring, he will killing people in the video game. They bring up that Luna Vachon was a playable character so you got inter-gender matches. The theme music of each wrestler was amazing and I would just listen to that with each character and rock out. It’s still sounds great as they talk about it here. I always enjoyed Razor’s the most! This was high-tech stuff for us! Everyone talks about the bucket and how you never saw a bucket used in the WWF. They also talk about how you could deck the ref and really, you had to do it once a match just for fun. WWF even put out a VHS tape where the guys in the game would give tips and it’s awesome as they are clearly reading for a script and telling us what to do whether it’s RAW or SNES. Too funny!

WWE SmackDown! Here Comes The Pain
-Release Year: 2003
-Developer: Yikes
-Winner of “Best Fighting Game” at 2003 Spike Video Game Awards

-Here comes a heavy hitter! This game is always at the top of GOAT lists. Ford calls in The Holy Grail! Breeze: “you can play this forever.” The game was simple like the N64 games, but was fleshed out and the characters looked so much better. Hell in a Cell! Elimination Chamber was also featured for the first time. We had backstage fights including Taker dragging people with his bike. This game also had Legends for the first time which added nostalgia. They had a more developed career mode and it had you unlock cool features. Create-A-Wrestler had more depth. Kross wants a remake of the game: “Do you like money, video game developers?” Gargano would rush home from high school and all he wanted to do was play this game. He thinks this game would be a lot of people’s top game. Shelton dominated everyone and won several WWE Tournaments.

WWE No Mercy
-Release Year: 2000
-Developers: ASMIK ACE Entertainment, and AKI Corporation

-I actually have never played this game. As I said, I was all about WCW/nWo Revenge and was satisfied with that game. I do know though that this game is still talked about as the GOAT and everyone wants someone to develop an updated version. Beth Phoenix calls it a piece of art and the greatest game every created. Cody calls it The Greatest of All Time and D-Von mentions the Dudley Boys were in the commercial for the game. He still has the giant check they game them to use in the commercial. Gargano says it holds a special place in his heart. The talk about the game engine and how it has never been touched. Several talking heads say they spent more time in the create-a-wrestler than playing the actual game. AJ mentions they will still break this game out from time to time and play in in the back. They throw to an episode of Up Up Down Down where Breeze beats Ricochet and AJ in a Triple Threat. AJ, a know sore loser, tosses a controller and storms out. Ha!

-We are informed there will be a season 2 of This is Awesome and it starts with an episode about Most Awesome Royal Rumble moments. I am sure that will drop either the day before or the night of The Royal Rumble.

-Sadly, that wraps up this show and I am bummed they didn’t give us a feature of WCW/nWo Revenge or even WCW/nWo World Tour. Can’t even throw WCW a bone in the virtual world. Overall though this was great and made me smile countless times. I will be breaking out some old school wrestling games this weekend. Please feel free to comment with your thoughts on the list and what wrestling game gets your vote as GOAT. Thanks for reading!