The Wrestling Matt

Would you believe it if I told you I love playing wrestling games? As discussed in my first blog post, I was initially introduced to pro wrestling from SmackDown vs. Raw 2010. The menu song, “You’re Going Down” by Sick  Puppies, lives in my head rent-free to this day.

I originally got to play at my friend’s birthday party, and I was hooked. I used to go to Blockbuster a few times a month with my dad when I was little. We would get movies or shows to watch, it is such a great memory. We passed the game aisle, and I saw a copy of SmackDown vs Raw 2010 for the Wii, and a legend was born (me).

For my next birthday in 2011, My parents got me a PS3, and I got two life-changing games. My sister got meLittle Big Planet 2, I can’t even explain how important that game was to me. I hope you got to experience it as well. My grandparents got me SmackDown vs. Raw 2011, there’s a reason why I used a picture of it for this blog.

It’s likely blind nostalgia, but in my opinion, it is one of the best and holds a special place in my heart; I somehow keep romanticizing wrestling.

The best thing about getting the PS3 was I was able to play games online. My first Username was JohnCenaFan6. Cena was my favorite wrestler, and six was my favorite number. I have always been super creative with names (this is sarcasm).  

At this time, John Cena was incredibly hated, and I would always use John Cena against other people. This would lead to people teaming up on me in matches or trash-talking me, it was so funny. Sometimes, people would instantly choose John Cena to prevent me from playing as him. I would honestly do the same, it’s like hazing the new players.

Eventually, I made a group of friends, and we all made our costume characters. We acted like our characters and had tournaments, storylines, and championships. My character’s name was Default, the name assigned when you do not pick one; I told you I was creative. He was essentially a bootleg Jeff Hardy with red hair.

We eventually stopped playing together, but I never truly stopped playing the wrestling games over the years, even when I was not watching for a few years. I kept getting better, and to this point, I have played every single WWE game released since 2010.

Not to brag, but I want to quickly brag about just how good I got at these games. The only time I lose is if I am not fully paying attention. I know how all the mechanics work and how to exploit them.

I also completed the AJ Styles Million Dollar Tower, a challenge where you must complete 15 matches in a row with the same character. You would not get your health refilled, either. Only 2% of players on PlayStation were able to do this.

Now, to get sentimental, just like wrestling, games have been an escape for me. In 2013, I stopped watching wrestling and had no plans on getting WWE 13, the next game in the series. On Xbox, people from my grade started excluding me from games, it devastated me because I always felt like an outsider.

My dad noticed how upset I was and took me to GameStop. I can’t explain how lucky I am to have parents like that. After looking through a bunch of games, I ended up getting WWE 13. That game helped me when I needed a distraction, a common theme with wrestling for me.

The games are not impressive, especially if you are not a wrestling fan. In the newer installments, my favorite thing to play is GM mode. It puts you in charge of a brand, and you must create a show appealing to audiences.

I also recently got AEW Fight Forever created by THQ, the former developers for the WWE games. I don’t necessarily love it and went back to playing WWE 2k23. The matches were way too quick, usually only lasting three minutes. Hopefully, they will improve the game over time.

The WWE games have had an incredibly rough track record after switching developers to 2k. They had to make a new engine and slowly improved each year from WWE 2k15 to WWE 2k19. From an objective standpoint, I still believe WWE 2k19 is the best wrestling video game ever released.

Unfortunately, they decided to get a new engine for WWE 2k20, and it was awful. All the progress they made in the past few years was completely reset. It was laughably bad that they had to take a year off and skip WWE 2k21.

WWE 2k22 and WWE 2k23 are steps in the right direction. They changed the counter system, and I love how natural and cinematic it makes the matches look and feel. I hope they continue to improve with the release of WWE 2k24 on the horizon.