The Lazy, Tumbling, Decline Of Wrestling Video Games

Wanna put Cobra Commander in a Cobra Clutch? WWE ‘13 lets ya say, “Yo, Joe!”

But as soon as THQ was absorbed into 2K Sports after WWE ’13’s release, each annual WWE game felt lazy, getting okay to mixed reviews, removing some features here and there, allowing bugs to pass through until the bottom finally dropped with WWE 2K20, which was so bad upon release that Sony issued refunds and WWE canceled WWE 2K21.

While some non-WWE games featured other promotions’ rosters like TNA Impact! and Lucha Libre AAA: Héroes del Ring, they also struggled to set up a table to powerbomb the gaming market through with incoming revenue. There are several reasons why, but chief among them would be that American mainstream audiences barely knew their products, and the games themselves were built like clones of previously ho-hummed WWE titles based on their game controls and graphics.

There are even some great wrestling indie games out there today, such as the nostalgic RetroMania Wrestling and fantasy booking simulators like Journey of Wrestling. Still, most of those games are niche in terms of mainstream interest and gameplay. Plus, the majority of them are supported through word of mouth and direct funding from a very devoted fan base, just like independent wrestling itself.

Licensing for certain wrestlers to appear in games is murky at best, and smaller gaming companies don’t have the time or resources to invest fully in wrestling titles without big stars. Sometimes they go in the other direction to paste a big name on a terrible game like Hulk Hogan’s Main Event. That game used the Kinect on the Xbox 360 because if any wrestler embodies fun in-ring movement and action, it’s the Hulkster.

If you want to see Hulk Hogan look like hot dog flavored gum, your local used game store will likely pay you to take it.

WWE still has had trouble bouncing back from 2K20. Even though the WWE 2K Battlegrounds seemed to embrace the goofiness of wrestling and bring the action to more arcade-style gameplay, it brought a smaller movelist, cheap CAW, and a feature no gamer ever wanted or asked for: microtransactions. Microtransactions forced players to pay more money on top of the $50 game to play as the more popular characters on the WWE roster.

“Make her feel trapped!” “But, sir, that’s–” “Motivation to get these fanboys to pay? Exactly!”

But there is possible hope. All Elite Wrestling, specifically wrestlers/gamers Kenny Omega, Aubrey Edwards, Dr. Britt Baker, and Cody Rhodes, are currently working with Yukes, the company behind those Playstation Smackdown! games, to develop an AEW console game. Helping out with the project is Hideyuki “Geta” Iwashita, who directed, you guessed it, WWF No Mercy. Given the money being invested, the more well-known roster of AEW compared to other wrestling organizations and dropping announcements like the inclusion of Owen Hart as playable characters, there is promise for this game. However, the biggest thing is that AEW is seemingly taking their time to make sure the game is GOOD rather than try to churn out a half-baked, half-nelsoned title on an annual basis.

So what’s the takeaway here? Basically, good wrestling games happen when there is good wrestling out there. Legitimate competition forges quality entertainment and products. It’s synergistic like that, and it feels gross, but hey, we’re forced to team up with capitalism, so we might as well reach out for a hot tag whenever we can.

Top Image: 2KGames