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Game Corner: AEW: Fight Forever (Xbox Series X)

Dr. KLeave a comment

Released: 29 June 2023
Developer: Yuke’s
Also Available For: Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S

The Background:
Once Scott Hall showed up on WCW Monday Nitro on 27 May 1996, the then-World Wrestling Federation (WWF) and World Championship Wrestling (WCW) engaged in a “Monday Night War” that defined a generation of wrestling fans. Things changed forever, however, when WCW went bankrupt and was absorbed by what’s now called World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and, despite some admirable efforts, the WWE has been the top dog of the American wrestling industry ever since. A true competitor arose in 2019, however, when Cody Rhodes, Kenny Omega, and Matt and Nick Jackson (with financial backing from Tony Khan) launched All Elite Wrestling (AEW). Not only was AEW an indie wrestling fan’s wet dream, but they also signed both undervalued wrestling stars and bona fide legends like “The Icon” Sting, who infamously defeated “Hollywood” Hulk Hogan for the WCW Championship on this day in 1997. AEW quickly established themselves as a true alternative to the WWE with action figures and merchandise, but it was the Jacksons who pushed for an AEW videogame, which immediately turned heads when Yuke’s (the developer behind some of the greatest wrestling games of all time) was brought in to develop the title. With the game engine being directly inspired by the celebrated WWF No Mercy (Asmik Ace Entertainment/AKI Corporation, 2000) and featuring a rare appearance by the late Owen Hart, the game promised to bolster its content with additional materials but quickly came under fire for its long development time. Despite downloadable content (DLC) trying to keep the game relevant, AEW: Fight Forever released with a strangely out of date roster and was met with mixed reviews. While the arcade-style, throwback gameplay was praised and innovative match types were praised, the main story and wrestler customisation options were criticised for being undercooked. However, the game sold well in the United Kingdom and Tony Khan promised to produce more AEW videogames in the future, leaving fans hopeful for an improved experience next time around.

The Plot:
When not competing in a series of customisable wrestling bouts, players take either a created wrestler or a member of the AEW roster on a year-long journey through the company’s biggest names and matches.

Gameplay and Power-Ups:
AEW: Fight Forever is an arcade-style wrestling title that plays very similar to the classic wrestling games produced by AKI, THQ, and Yuke’s back in the day, utilising a modified game engine and similar features of games such as the immortal WWF No Mercy. After customising their game card with icons, badges, and weapon decals, players are presenting with a laundry list of options befitting a wrestling videogame. You’ll probably want to explore the game’s options and settings first, where you can view various in-game statistics (wins and losses and such) and records, check out the current leaderboards, and toggle various options, such as the blood, entrance effects, casual play, and tutorials. As should be expected, the game offers a training mode where you can test out the initial fifty-strong roster, setting the computer-controlled opponent to different behaviours and positions to test different moves. Unless you disable in-game tutorials and hints, wrestling legends like William Regal, Jim “J.R.” Ross, and Taz chip in with insights into specific game mechanics or match types. Although the game’s controls are fully customisable, I managed fairly well with the default layout, which maps your high strike and kicks to X and Y, your grapples to A, and run to B. By holding A, X, or Y, you execute a strong attack or grapple to deal additional damage, while tapping the strike buttons executes a quick combo. You can also hit A, X, or Y while running for a running strike or takedown, attack enemies when they’re down in the same way, and swing the game’s various colourful weapons with X or Y. The right stick is used for taunting, which builds your momentum bar, allowing you to maintain stamina and execute signature and finisher moves (using the D-pad or the right stick, as prompted). If you’re covered or locked in a submission hold, mash the face buttons to try and kick or wriggle free, and mash them when locking in a submission to wear down your opponent’s body part or score a tap out victory.

The glory days of fast-paced, arcade-style action are nicely evoked in Fight Forever‘s gameplay.

Each wrestler has at least one signature and finisher move, though some have more if they have a certain “Skill” equipped. You must pull off a successful taunt to activate your “Special” status, which allows you to hit as many finishers as you like until the status fades. These are performed from different positions (from a lock up, or the top rope, or when the opponent is down, etc), so be sure to review your wrestler’s moves from the pause menu. Once your opponent is down, press the Left Trigger to pin or the Right Trigger to pick them up. Grappling and pressing RT whips your opponent into the ropes, corner, or ringside equipment, and the Left and Right Bumpers are used for countering. This can be tricky as there’s no onscreen indicator for when to counter. Simply mashing the triggers doesn’t work either, so it’s all about timing. Skills also afford you temporary buffs, such as landing the first strike or doing a taunt, while others increase your versitality, such as adding springboard attacks and a quick kip up to your repertoire. You can increase the amount and strength of your finishers, buff your finisher countering ability, increase your resistance to submissions, power out of pins, and even steal your opponent’s finisher. When tagging with a partner, you can bring them in with LT and perform double-team moves to wear down your opponents. You can also exit the ring and throw your opponent into the steel steps, ring apron, ring posts, and barricade to deal additional damage. When you hit your signature moves or finishers, you’re treated to a replay, and a helpful picture-in-picture feature shows who’s coming out to interfere for or against you. You can assign a manager to even the odds, bust opponents open, and even utilise weapons in some matches. When playing “Road to Elite”, you must watch your health as you’ll be injured if it drops too low or you overexert your workouts, requiring you to visit the hospital. In matches, your wrestler holds damaged body parts and becomes disorientated from eye rakes and eye pokes, screwing up your controls for a short time.

Though light on gimmick matches, Fight Forever has some unique and bloody match types.

There are a decent variety of match types here, from standard one-on-one matches to tag team bouts and multi-man matches. AEW: Fight Forever offers intergender matches, allows you to challenge for or defend AEW Championships, and manually change the champions if you wish. While you can’t alter the settings for every match, you can select additional options from each category, such as the “Lights Out” match (which adds weapons to the ring) and “Falls Count Anywhere” match (where you can pin outside the ring). Weapons are picked up, snatched from the crowd, or retrieved from under the ring with RT and break after a few uses but there are a lot of them here. You can set up and smash opponents through tables, swing baseball bats, steel chairs, and barbed wire implements alongside throwing football helmets, rideable skateboards, and covering the canvas with thumbtacks. Tag team matches can be a bit of a pain, especially if you’re not controlling your partner, as the CPU gets very aggressive when going for a tag and their partner often interrupts pins or hits double team moves. Your best bet is to down your opponent and then knock their partner off the apron or strategically pin your foe near your corner. Similarly, multi-man matches can get extremely chaotic as the game’s targeting is atrocious, either automatically switching to whoever it feels like or messing up your manual aim. “Road to Elite” features gauntlet matches where you battle three opponents in succession, handicap matches, and singles matches where your opponent’s allies will interfere to beat you down, all without a disqualification. Surprisingly, there’s no steel cage match, but you can play a ladder match, setting up a ladder with RT, holding B or LT to climb, and mashing buttons to whittle down a wheel and claim victory. Be careful, though, as the CPU may steal your victory if you get the wheel down to the last section and they make a successful climb.

“Road to Elite” strangely simulates day-to-day activities in a botched attempt at immersion.

AEW: Fight Forever is notable for a couple of fun and unique gimmick matches, with the “Exploding Barbed Wire Death Match” being a particular highlight. In this match, the ring ropes are replaced by barbed wire, barbed wire tables are in each corner, and you have 120 seconds before the ring explodes, causing major damage to anyone near the ropes. You can toss and hit your opponent into the barbed wire to literally flood the canvas with blood, and set off explosions, which was a lot of fun. The “Casino Battle Royale” was less enjoyable for me and far less unique, essentially being a traditional Royal Rumble with a wacky name and having you pick a playing card to determine your position in the match. The goal is to wear down your opponents (up to twenty-one) so you can toss them over the ropes to win, gaining a title shot in “Road to Elite”. This is the game’s story mode, where you take any AEW star (or a custom wrestler) on a year-long story, making friends and enemies and winning championships as you go. Win or lose (and it’s fine to lose matches here), you’ll earn AEW Cash to spend in the in-game shop and Skill Points to spruce up your custom wrestler. AEW Cash can also be spent on better hospital treatment or buying items to boost your health, momentum, or Skill Points. Between matches, you’re given four “turns” to either workout, see the sights, eat, or do other bizarre tasks like press conferences and talk shows. If you work out, you’ll lose energy but gain momentum, but also risk getting injured. Eating restores your health, as do some other tasks, and seeing the sights increases your chances or meeting other wrestlers. There are multiple story paths to experience, all triggered at random, with you forming tag teams, being betrayed, joining or battling against one of AEW’s many factions, and vying for the company’s top prize. It’s a decent mode, but quite short to invite replays and can get repetitive as you have little control over what you’re doing outside of a match (save for a few dialogue choices). You can take selfies with AEW stars for your collection, sometimes endure horrendous gauntlets or fight while injured, and play a bunch of weird mini games for additional points.

Presentation:
AEW: Fight Forever generally impresses with its visuals, particularly the wrestler models. Unlike the WWE videogames, AEW: Fight Forever opts for a slightly exaggerated, action figure-like aesthetic not unlike WWE All-Stars (Subdued Software/THQ San Diego, 2011). Each AEW star closely resembles their real-life counterpart, even down to their in-game grunts and taunts (with Sting howling and “The Machine” Brian Cage shouting at the crowd), though the game was noticeably outdated at launch and is even more behind the times now. The women, especially, come off really well, which is nice to see as they often look monstrous in the WWE titles, and each has their accurate entrance music, including “Le Champion” Chris Jericho coming out to “Judas” and CM Punk using “Cult of Personality”. Unfortunately, AEW: Fight Forever opts to use truncated entrances like WWF No Mercy. While you can press buttons to activate pyro and other effects, this may be disappointing to some (not me, though, as I always skip entrances anyway). However, I was disappointed by the lack of commentary, even for signatures and finishers, opting for a customisable soundtrack instead, which was a shame. In fact, voice acting is very sparse, with the odd sound bite or insight cropping up now and then but the game primarily relying on text and dialogue boxes. While it obviously helps make the random story paths more manageable, it does come off as a little cheap, similar to when you visit various landmarks in “Road to Elite” and are met with laughably low quality still images. I occasionally saw some texture warping during these cutscenes as well, and some graphical glitches (such as entrance weapons disappearing). Similarly, there aren’t many options for wrestler customisation and skins, with only a handful of AEW stars having true alternate looks. However, I would say AEW: Fight Forever looks and performs far better than a lot of recent WWE games, likely because it’s a far simpler and stripped back title.

A flawed focus on bizarre gimmicks result in a solid, if barebones, experience.

If the trimmed entrances and lack of commentary didn’t give this away, the barebones arenas sure do. On the one hand, I’m not all that fussed as the arenas are largely superfluous and their presentation does recall the likes of WWF No Mercy. On the other hand, this game came out in 2023, so I’d expect the crowd to look less basic. The audience is seeped in darkness and indistinguishable most of the time, though the fans are very loud and add a lot of ambiance to matches. There are only a handful of arenas here, though, so things can get visually repetitive very quickly. You can build your own custom arenas, but I find these always look stupid and this isn’t helped by the weird fixtures, decals, and colour schemes the game offers. Strangely, AEW: Fight Forever doesn’t allow for backstage brawling, with no backstage areas included, or brawling in the crowd, which is just bizarre. The Exploding Barbed Wire Death Match adds some visual variety, and the “Stadium Stampede” DLC shows what the game could be capable of, but the developers apparently thought it more important to waste resources on weird-ass mini games. These see you playing baseball, participating in quizzes, collecting tokens, shoving opponents from the ring and onto coloured balls, matching Penta El Zero M’s movements, smashing coloured boxes, and running across football fields avoiding hidden holes. These certainly add some visual variety, but they’re so out of place that it’s like the developer’s notes got mixed up. Similarly, you’ll see cutscenes of your wrestler working out, chatting, visiting the hospital, getting beaten up, or meeting fans when playing “Road to Elite”, all things that are certainly different and fitting for a wrestler’s lifestyle but seem out of place. Finally, live-action footage, clips, and voice overs interspersed through “Road to Elite” show key moments in AEW history, which was nice, though you oddly don’t recreate many of these moments as you play.

Enemies and Bosses:
Naturally, every wrestler on the roster is your enemy, even your allies. While every wrestler controls and fights the same, with a set number of moves and abilities, your strategies may alter depending on who you fight. As each wrestler has multiple Skills, it’s worth becoming familiar with them as it does impact your play style. Custom wrestlers will set and refine these in the “Road to Elite” story mode, AEW stars have theirs set and cannot change them, and some even have unique Skills, such as “Freshly Squeezed” Orange Cassidy’s “Sloth Style” where he fights with his hands in his pockets. “Mr. Mayhem” Wardlow snatches guys out of mid-air, Powerhouse Hobbs briefly becomes immune to strikes, Maxwell Jacob Friedman/MJF bails out of the ring, and “The Bastard” Pac evades strikes and grapples with cartwheels and rolls. Similarly, you must adapt to superheavyweights like “No More B.S.” Paul Wight as undersized wrestlers will struggle to perform their usual moves due to the weight difference. Highfliers like Rey Fenix are smaller and more agile, often striking fast, quickly countering, and flying from the top rope. Jon Moxley lives up to his reputation as an insane brawler by focusing on strikes and excelling in hardcore environments, guys like “The American Dragon” Bryan Danielson are more technical, sporting a repertoire of submission holds and take downs, and career tag teams like Matt and Nick Jackson (The Young Bucks) have flashier double team moves to keep you off balance. In many cases, you can simply wait out or fight through your opponent’s unique skills, such as spamming combos on Wardlow until he starts feeling them and avoiding the top rope when facing opponents with the anti-air Skill.

Different matches and wrestler abilities can change the difficulty and complexion of a contest.

Some competitors (particularly custom wrestlers) may surprise you, however, as even smaller wrestlers can counter mid-air attacks or finishers. Generally, your opponents are only as difficult as you set the game and the match type dictates. For example, a 4-Way match pitting Darby Allin against Luchasarus, “The Redeemer” Miro, and John Silver will be an uphill battle for the colourful daredevil. Similarly, tag team matches can be a chore as the opponent’s partner constantly rushes the ring, just like in the old AKI games, and the Casino Battle Royale can end in an instant if you’re jumped from behind. Sometimes, your opponent’s attacks land faster and with more accuracy than yours but, other times, they simply stand there like a goober. The more you beat your opponent, the weaker they become, but the momentum bar charges ridiculously fast, and the match can change on a dime if your opponent gets a few good hits in or activates a buff. Generally, opponents rush you once the bell rings, so be ready to counter their attack…if you can get the timing of the blocking down. When playing “Road to Elite” on “Easy”, I found matches fluctuated. While I easily dominated most opponents, winning with a single finisher or even regular moves, others proved surprisingly aggressive, such as MJF with his dirty tactics and Pac, with his odd combination of speed and strength, yet I absolutely crushed Paul Wight, destroyed Chris Jericho, and easily toppled champions. This is true even in multi-man matches as you can get into a rhythm of wearing down a specific opponent (or keeping an eye on who’s taking a beating) and time your pins to happen as the other opponents are distracted for an easy win. “Road to Elite” got annoying for me simply because many paths push you into tag matches or gauntlets, and due to its random nature. You can access different paths and matches with different wrestlers, even competing in a Exploding Barbed Wire Death Match and battling a shadowy reflection of your wrestler in certain paths, and your opponents seem to be randomised each time to mix things up, though your general strategy of wearing them down to score a win remains the same.

Additional Features:
There are thirty-eight Achievements up for grabs here, which sounds like a lot but they’re surprising simplistic. Thankfully (but oddly), none of them are tied to online play. You’ll get an achievement for clearing “Road to Elite” once and then ten times, others for creating a custom wrestlers or competing in a custom arena, and another for winning a championship in an exhibition match. There’s an Achievement for buying an item, another for hitting a signature and finisher and scoring a victory, and another for hitting an opponent with a barbed wire bat in a “Lights Out” match. If you successfully perform certain tasks in “Road to Elite” (such as eating and working out), you’ll get more Achievements, and there are Achievements for utilising certain Skills in matches. Nothing too taxing, which is nice, but the Achievements also lack a lot of creativity and encourage repetition rather than replayability, which are two different things. There are additional “Challenges” too, daily, weekly, and untimed normal challenges. These award AEW Cash for defeating opponents, challenging harder difficulties, and performing a bunch of moves over time (such as 100 running attacks). It’s something to do, I guess, but hardly that innovative compared to other games. As you’d expect, you can go online to play in ranked, casual, and private matches. Sadly, you cannot download custom wrestlers or arenas, which is very surprising but hardly a big loss considering how lacklustre the game’s create-a-wrestler is.

Some expected and bonkers inclusions can’t ease the sting of the barebones creation suite.

The create-a-wrestler mode is so lacking that it’s inferior to even WWF No Mercy, reminding me more of the laughable options seen in WWF WrestleMania X-8 (Yuke’s, 2002). You’re limited to picking set expressions and altering the basics of your wrestler’s appearance rather than changing every aspect, are given a paltry selection of clothes and accessories focused more on patriotic attire than AEW gear, and have so few options that it’s basically impossible to create current AEW stars. While there are a lot of names and moves to pick from and entrance options, it’s all disappointingly barebones, with even the shop offering little extra content. Team entrances are especially limited, it bugged me that I couldn’t even put a vest on my wrestler without picking a body suit, and it’s almost insulting how few options there are for masks and face paint. You can modify the AEW roster, but the options are again incredibly limited, meaning you can’t rejig “The Natural” Dustin Rhodes to look like Goldust. The create an arena is just as pointless, I couldn’t care less about the unlockable badges and such, and there’s little incentive on spending real-world money for the DLC wrestlers unless you simply must have Adam Copeland on your roster. They do add additional skins and moves, to be fair, and the “Stadium Stampede” mode (which is free to download but you need a subscription to play). This is a bizarre free-for-all arena battler where you compete against thirty other players on a football field, utilising horses, golf carts, and abilities, attacking enemies for poker chips to level-up your character. Lastly, you can use AEW Cash to purchase “The American Nightmare” Cody Rhodes and referee Aubrey Edwards, and unlock Paul Wight, “The Exalted One” Mr. Brodie Lee, and even the legendary Owen Hart by playing specific paths in “Road to Elite” for the former or winning 100 exhibition matches for the latter.

The Summary:
While I generally enjoy the WWE videogames put out by Visual Concepts and 2K, it has to be said that the formula has become very stagnant over the years. The games are great simulations of the televised product, but I miss the fast-paced, action-orientated arcade style of the good old days, when WWF No Mercy captured my attention for hours on end. I’m also a fan of AEW and seeing them try something new, so I was excited to get AEW: Fight Forever despite all the negativity surrounding it. On the surface, it delivers what I wanted: simple, pick-up-and-play arcade action that recalls the AKI/THQ wrestling games of old, updating those mechanics for modern gamers. Playing matches is a lot of fun, with moves being simple to pull off, the game performing really well, and a great deal of satisfaction coming from every victory. I liked that “Road to Elite” was quite varied and encouraged replays with its different, random paths, and that it tried something new by mimicking a wrestler’s lifestyle. Unfortunately, the game is handicapped by barebones options, with perhaps the worst create-a-wrestler I’ve seen for some years and nothing worth unlocking apart from a couple of extra wrestlers. The focus on ridiculous mini games was a bizarre choice that adds confusion and tedium rather than variety, and it was disappointing to have so little control over “Road to Elite”. While the game mirrors WWF No Mercy in many ways, content is not one of them, with key elements omitted from popular game modes for absolutely no reason. The Exploding Barbed Wire Death Match was a great inclusion and this was probably the first time I’ve enjoyed a ladder match in years, but there are surprisingly few match types to pick from, the roster is severely outdated (with basically no way to update it through the creation suite), and some matches and CPU behaviours can be needlessly frustrating. It’s a shame as there’s a lot of potential, but it seems the lengthy development time got strangely side-tracked with unwanted features (those damn mini games) rather than offering a truly memorable alternative to the WWE’s videogames.

My Rating:

Rating: 2 out of 5.

Could Be Better

Did you enjoy AEW: Fight Forever? What did you think to the throwback gameplay and arcade-style action? Were you disappointed by the barebones creation suite and strangely limited presentation? Did you enjoy the Exploding Barbed Wire Death Match? What did you think to “Road to Elite” and its bizarre mini games? Would you like to see a sequel improve upon the game’s mechanics and potential? Who was your go-to wrestler to play as an why was it Sting? Which of Sting’s eras, personas, and matches are your favourite? Whatever your thoughts on AEW: Fight Forever, and Sting in particular, feel free to voice them below, check out my other wrestling reviews, and donate to my Ko-Fi if you want to see more wrestling content.

Wrestling Recap: Sting vs. Triple H (WrestleMania ’15)

Dr. KLeave a comment

The Date: 29 March 2015
The Venue: Levi’s Stadium; Santa Clara, California
The Commentary: Michael Cole, Jerry “The King” Lawler, and John “Bradshaw” Layfield/JBL
The Referee: Charles Robinson
The Stakes: No disqualification singles match

The Build-Up:
For an unprecedented eighty-four weeks, World Championship Wrestling (WCW) dominated the “Monday Night Wars” thanks to big-name star power, big-money contracts, and ground-breaking storylines involving the New World Order (nWo). During this time, Hulk Hogan, arguably wrestling’s greatest icon, experienced a career revival as the villainous “Hollywood” Hogan and his clash against WCW stalwart-turned-dark avenger Sting became the stuff of wrestling legend on this day in 1997. On 26 March 2001, the wrestling world changed forever when World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) bought WCW and claimed ultimate victory. However, while many WCW wrestlers jumped ship to the WWE for an ill-fated “Invasion” angle, Sting repeatedly turned down offers to join the WWE and instead spent nearly ten years signed with Total Nonstop Action (TNA). Over the years, WWE repeatedly tried to negotiate a contract and fans longed to see the Icon clash with the Undertaker in a dream match. However, it wouldn’t be until 2014, when Sting was shockingly announced to be included in WWE 2K15 (Yuke’s), that the WCW Icon finally decided to sign with the company. At the time, the WWE was in one of its worst ruts as weekly television was dominated by the Authority, a stable of wrestlers and corporate figureheads led by Triple H that routinely interrupted matches and quashed fan favourites. It was in the midst of a multi-man match against the Authority’s representatives that Sting finally made his presence felt. He debuted at the 2014 Survivor Series to help Dolph Ziggler fend off Triple H and pin Seth Rollins to remove the Authority from power. Although this only lasted for a few weeks, Triple H was incensed by Sting’s interference and challenged him to a face-to-face confrontation at Fastlane. Sting accepted and the two brawled, with the Icon besting Triple H’s signature sledgehammer. However, the simple story of Sting being a “vigilante” looking to oust Triple H from power was quickly muddled by the ridiculous decision to reframe the feud into a battle for the honour of the long-dead WCW.

The Match:
As a massive Sting fan, I was super pumped about him finally signing with WWE in 2014. Sure, he was getting on a bit but there were still so many opportunities for dream matches there, especially with a light schedule and a bit of smoke and mirrors. Sadly, things were kind of botched right from the start. After Sting helped remove the Authority from power, he really should have been placed as the replacement authority figure, one who favoured putting on interesting matches and seeing things go down in a fair and just way. Also, they never should have replaced his WCW music with that generic, awful quasi-goth metal track. I didn’t expect the WWE to pay for Metallica’s “Seek & Destroy” but they bought WCW, so they owned the rights to his original Crow music that is so iconic to the character, so they really should’ve used that. Finally, as much as I feel like Triple H vs. Sting was definitely a match to do while he was about, this is not the match people wanted to see. People wanted Sting vs. The Undertaker, even back in 2014, and I’ll never understand the decision to veto that in favour of this except to stroke the egos of a bitter Vince McMahon and the vindictive Triple H. Speaking of whom, the Game came to the ring following a pre-taped introduction by Arnold Schwarzenegger, flanked by T-800 endoskeletons, and decked out in Terminator-themed apparel that might’ve looked cool if the match hadn’t taken place in broad daylight! I get that this was a tie-in to the event’s sponsor, Terminator Genysis (Taylor, 2015), but it actually didn’t make much sense since the last time Schwarzenegger and Triple H interacted, the Austrian Oak slapped the shit out of the Game. Oh, and Triple H looked ridiculous in his cheap cosplay outfit, too. The bell hadn’t even rung before Michael Cole was repeating the ludicrous diatribe that Triple H’s goal was to destroy the last remnant of WCW. As if that wasn’t bad enough, JBL constantly kept ragging on Sting throughout the match, questioning his ability to hang in the WWE, and pretending like he’d been absent from the business for the last ten/fifteen years. Just absolutely pathetic stuff all around from the commentary team, really. WCW was dead and buried and Sting had a whole career after it, so all they succeeded at here was sending mixed messages about the legendary figure.

Sting dominated the early stages of the match until D-Generation X rushed the ring!

After milking a brief outburst of “This is awesome!” (which, to be fair, it kind of was because it was Sting at WrestleMania!), the two locked up. Sting knocked Triple H down with a shoulder block so the Game countered with another lock up to show some off his fundamentals and then hit a shoulder block of his own. Sting bounced back with a hip toss and a dropkick that sent Triple H scurrying into the corner as Sting pandered to the crowd to chants of “You still got it!” Though hesitant, Triple H engaged in another lockup, but this time he turned the match into a brawl. Sting shrugged off Triple H’s patented knee smash and sent him scrambling to the outside to avoid the Scorpion Death Lock. After clearing his head on the outside, Triple H returned to the ring to slug it out with Sting once more only to end up back outside after taking his little flip over the top rope off an Irish whip. This time, Sting followed but crashed and burned into the barricade when the Game dodged a Stinger Splash. Triple H chucked Sting shoulder-first into the ring steps and hefting him back into the ring with a suplex off the apron for a two count. Triple H maintained his dominance with some mounted punches, a whip into the corner, and relished in seeing Sting fall to his knees at his feet. After another near fall, Triple H slapped on a rest hold as, apparently, all this action was just two much for the competitors. When Sting tried to mount a comeback, the Game shut him down with his signature spinebuster for another two count before returning to his rest hold. This time, Sting fought out with the Scorpion Death Lock after countering a top rope attack. However, Triple H’s old D-Generation X buddies, “Bad Ass” Billy Gunn, “Road Dogg” Jesse James, and X-Pac, rushed the ring, forcing Sting to break the hold to fight them off. Sting even countered the Pedigree and launched Triple H from the ring, and then took all of D-X out with a top rope dive! Unfortunately, a momentary distraction from Billy Gunn was all the opportunity Triple H needed to plant Sting with the Pedigree but, incredibly, Sting got the shoulder up before the three count.

While faction warfare broke out at ringside, it was Triple H’s sledgehammer that made a chump of Sting.

Stunned, Triple H retrieved his sledgehammer from under the ring but he was interrupted by, of all people, “Hollywood” Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash, and Scott Hall of the nWo! Yes, Sting’s long-time enemies, who he vehemently opposed during arguably the most memorable moments of his entire career, actually helped him! This led to an admittedly awesome moment as the nWo finally got into it with D-X, it just had no place being in this match as it made no sense for them to defend either him or the “honour” of the long-dead company. Regardless, in the chaos, Sting dropped Triple H with the Scorpion Death Drop for a two count. Sting then reapplied the Scorpion Death Lock and Hogan moved the sledgehammer out of Triple H’s reach, which really should’ve been the finish to the match. Instead, Triple H grabbed the ropes (which shouldn’t have counted as it was a no disqualification match…) and Sting was blasted by a Sweet Chin Music from the ”Heartbreak Kid” Shawn Michaels! Since Triple H was slow to cover, Sting kicked out, so D-X slid Triple H his sledgehammer and Sting’s hated enemy, Scott Hall, passed him his trusty baseball bat. Sting not only nailed Triple H with the bat, he also comically snapped his sledgehammer in two before unleashing a flurry of strikes in the corner. A Stinger Splash followed but, rather than hitting a second and bringing the match to a close in a feel-good moment, Triple H blasted Sting in the head with the tip of his sledgehammer and pinned him for the three count! To make matters worse, the two shook hands in a show of respect after a tense showdown between their factions! This match feels like it was put together by someone who had no idea about anything that happened in WCW and just wanted to see D-X and the nWo have a scuffle while putting the final nail in the coffin of the long-dead company. Sting looked pretty good but it was clear from the rest holds that he was getting a bit gassed by the middle and, honestly, this match should’ve made better use of the no disqualification stipulation to help with this. Instead, it was tonally all over the place, with Sting proving a daunting figure but being buried by JBL, him getting the better of Triple H but being beaten by a sledgehammer to the face, and then him shaking Triple H’s hand afterwards like he was beaten by the better man and not a brute who cheated to win.

The Aftermath:
Since Sting lost this match like a chump, Triple H and the Authority continued to dominate the WWE, especially as their golden boy, Seth Rollins, had captured the WWE World Heavyweight Championship in the main event of WrestleMania ’15. Thanks to having the Authority in his corner, Rollins successfully defended the WWE World Heavyweight Championship throughout the year and even toppled John Cena in the main event of that year’s SummerSlam. To honour him and his accomplishments, the Authority presented Rollins with a commemorative statue, but were stunned to find Sting in its place. Despite the fact that he lost his big match, Sting challenged Rollins for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at Night of Champions, a decision that would’ve made a lot more sense if Sting had won at WrestleMania ’15 and spent his time afterwards continuously opposing the remnants of the Authority. This also could’ve tied into Rollins’ later rivalry with Triple H as he could’ve claimed to beat the man who beat his mentor. Unfortunately, Night of Champions would spell the end of Sting’s in-ring WWE career as he suffered a debilitating neck injury from Rollin’s trademark Buckle Bomb. Although the remorseful Rollins got some flack for this (and, honestly, he really should’ve stopped using the move from that point), Sting maintained that it was a freak accident. Despite announcing his retirement during his induction to the WWE Hall of Fame, Sting jumped ship to All Elite Wrestling (AEW) in 2020, where he took on a mentor role to youngster Darby Allen and even returned to the ring for a handful of matches.

My Rating:

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Pretty Good

What did you think to Sting’s long-awaited WWE debut? Were you disappointed that he faced Triple H and not the Undertaker? What did you think to the involvement of D-X and the nWo and do you think it made sense for the nWo to help Sting? Were you annoyed by JBL’s commentary during the match and the anti-WCW narrative being told here? Did it annoy you that Sting lost and how do you feel about his time in the WWE? Whatever your thoughts on Sting, and this match in particular, feel free to voice them below and be sure to check out my other wrestling reviews!

Wrestling Recap: Kurt Angle vs. Sting (Bound for Glory ’07)

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The Date: 14 October 2007
The Venue: Arena at Gwinnett; Duluth, Georgia
The Commentary: Mike Tenay and Don West
The Referee: Rudy Charles and Andrew Thomas
The Stakes: Main event singles match for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship

The Build-Up:
On the 27 May 1996 edition of WCW Monday Nitro, Scott Hall declared war on World Championship Wrestling (WCW). He, Kevin Nash, and their “third man”, Hulk Hogan, hijacked WCW programming as the New World Order (nWo) and WCW dominated the “Monday Night Wars”. WCW’s saviour in this period was Sting, who disappeared into the rafters for almost a year before returning in a persona heavily inspired by The Crow (O’Barr, 1989; Proyas, 1994) to defeat “Hollywood” Hulk Hogan for the WCW Championship in an infamous match on this day in 1997. By 2007, however, the wrestling landscape had vastly changed; the unthinkable happened on 26 March 2001 when Vince McMahon, chairman of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), appeared on Monday Nitro to officially announce his purchase of WCW, thus ending the Monday Night Wars. While a handful of WCW wrestlers jumped to the WWE for an ill-fated “Invasion” angle, many chose to sit out their big-money contracts, and one WCW star who repeatedly turned down WWE was “The Icon”, Sting. Instead, Sting signed on with upcoming promotion Total Nonstop Action (TNA), an alternate to mainstream WWE founded by Jeff and Jerry Jarrett and initially part of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). Initially, Sting’s time in TNA was focused on opposing Jeff Jarrett, who held a stranglehold over the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, and in various feuds with Christian Cage and Abyss. When the NWA stripped TNA’s champions of their belts, Sting briefly captured the newly-christened TNA World Heavyweight Championship in a match mired in controversy. While Sting was undoubtedly one of TNA’s biggest signings, so too was former Olympic champion Kurt Angle, who made a shocking debut on October 6, 2006 and captured TNA’s top belt by making Sting tap out earlier in the year. After a short run with the TNA World Tag Team Championships, Sting earned himself another shot at the big belt and these two wrestling legends met once more in this one-on-one contest.

The Match:
As much of a wrestling fan as I am, it’s always been difficult for me to watch WWE on a consistent basis; over here in the United Kingdom, we usually have to pay extra for sports channels to watch the weekly shows, which is something I’ve never been interested in, so it was rare and exciting to have wrestling programming available on channels I was already paying for as part of my television package. TNA was one of those shows, and I dipped in and out of the product for quite some time; I watched some of the early years in the Asylum, where many of the low-tier WCW and WWE guys would battle it out over that piece of scrap tin the NWA called a championship and got my first taste of future stars such as AJ Styles, Abyss, and Samoa Joe as well as seeing personal favourites like Raven return to the ring. My peak for the company was when it transitioned to Impact Wrestling, a move I still disagree with, but I remember them signing big names like Sting and Kurt Angle and it really making me sit up and take notice. Sadly, a series of blunders meant that TNA/Impact never quite managed to reach the same level as the WWE but, for a while there, it was easily the number two wrestling promotion in the United States and things were legitimately very exciting in this much-needed alternative to the WWE mainstream. Where else, after all, would you get to see Sting and Kurt Angle battle for a World Heavyweight Championship? All this context is to say that, while TNA wasn’t quite as polished as the WWE powerhouse, they did the best they could to provide a different brand of wrestling and put on some truly exciting matches, and their hype package for this main event was emblematic of that as the video, while not to the standards of WWE’s production, set the stage for these two wrestling icons clashing in Georgia, the birthplace of WCW and Sting’s most memorable moments and of Angle’s Olympic gold medal victory.

A lengthy feeling out process soon saw Kurt Angle take control.

A couple of things I really enjoyed about TNA, especially during this time, was that they used a six-sided ring instead of the traditional four; while I’m sure this was difficult for many performers to adjust to, I always thought this helped the promotion stand out from the competition and thought it was a dumb move to remove that feature when Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff came along. Mike Tenay and Don West also liked to breakdown the match and its performers in a “Tale of the Tape” segment, which always lends an air of legitimacy to the contest in my eyes and essentially paints both competitors as being on somewhat even ground, although Angle was benefiting from a recent edge to his character and an association with Kevin Nash. Sting came out first to the unanimous support of the admittedly small audience and his absolutely dreadful TNA theme (nothing beats Metallica’s “Seek and Destroy”, in my opinion) and carrying his trusty baseball bat; Kurt Angle followed and man, it is weird not hearing the crowd chant “You suck!” at him and to see his vices still taking their toll. Once the bell rang, the two seemed a little cautious; they exchanged collar and elbow tie-ups and go-behinds at the start as part of a feeling out process, with Sting backing away whenever Angle grabbed the ropes to break his holds, but Angle’s wrestling prowess saw him get the upper hand in the early going with a takedown and a wrist lock. Sting showed he wasn’t just some showboat, however, by giving as good as he got; both men targeted the wrist and arm (a strange strategy considering both favour a leg-based submission hold…) and tried to out-wrestle each other with headlock takedowns. Things finally started to speed up once Sting whipped Angle off the ropes; Angle scored with a shoulder block, but Sting landed a beautiful hip toss that was enough for Angle to flee to the outside. Angle took his time getting back into the ring and switched from indulging him with tie-ups and went on the offensive with a gut kick, a European uppercut, and some knife-edge chops against the ropes.

Sting’s tenacity took a beating thanks to Angle’s resourcefulness and Nash’s interference.

A burst of adrenaline saw Sting shrug these off, however; he landed some chops of his own followed by the ten punches in the corner. An awkward reversal exchange saw Angle block Sting’s next attempt to whip him into the ropes, but he ate a dropkick and took a clothesline to the outside after Sting frantically kicked him off a potential Ankle Lock attempt. Sting eventually followed and rammed Angle into the guard rail and onto the announcer’s table before tossing him back into the ring. Angle’s attempt to regain some momentum saw him fly shoulder-first into one of the ring posts but a rake to the eyes allowed him to escape the Scorpion Death Drop. Suddenly, the match turned in Angle’s favour; he planted Sting with a snap German Suplex, followed up with a backbreaker and a couple of unsuccessful pin attempts, before once again beating on Sting and choking him in the corner. A vertical suplex scored a two count, then Angle locked in a body scissors around Sting’s ribs, which he transitioned into a headlock and ended with a belly-to-belly suplex that tossed Sting across the ring. Angle continued the pressure with a chin lock to keep Sting grounded, allowing both men to catch their breath and building tension as Sting rallied for support to power back to his feet. A double clothesline saw led to a dramatic ten count and another chance to the clearly winded competitors to recuperate; a slugfest followed, which saw Sting repeatedly plant Angle with a series of clotheslines and a big spinebuster. Sting’s first cover of the match resulted in a two count and directly led to him hitting his patented Stinger Splash on an absolutely drenched Angle, and then another to the champion’s back followed by a running faceplant. Oddly, Sting then went to the top rope; not sure why or what the hell he was thinking but it was a moot point as Angle leapt up and tossed him down with a big suplex for another near fall. Sting slipped out of an Olympic Slam and tried a roll-up for another close two count, then Angle got pissed and started pounding the life out of Sting with not one, not two, but three successive German Suplexes. Feeling the intensity raging through him, Angle dropped the straps and slapped on the Ankle Lock, but Sting was able to roll over and, inexplicably, reverse it into the Scorpion Deathlock! Unfortunately for the Icon, Angle’s wife, Karen, rushed to the ring the distract him and the referee, which allowed Kevin Nash to plant him with a clothesline.

In the end, Sting’s trusty bat and finishing move secured him his first, if brief, TNA Championship.

Angle then scored with the Olympic Slam but the referee was busy dealing with Karen so he was a little too late for the count, meaning Sting kicked out. Angle then sat Sting on the top rope but, while Sting was able to fight out of a belly-to-belly suplex, his attempt at a diving splash saw him eat nothing but knees, though he still kicked out of the pin. Angle then planted Sting and hit this trippy somersaulting knee drop, like a version of the 450 Splash, but it still only got a two count. Frustrated by Sting’s tenacity, Angle went for the Ankle Lock again, this time right in the middle of the ring; Stin rolled out and sent Angle flying into Nash. However, when Sting ducked Angle’s wild clothesline, referee Rudy Charles got taken out and thus Sting was left frantically motioning for a new referee after planting Angle with the Scorpion Death Drop. Referee Andrew Thomas tried to make the three count but Nash yanked him out of the ring and punched him out before putting a beating on Sting in the corner. Sting took both Nash and Angle down with a double clothesline, however, but got a good ol’ shot to the nuts from Angle for his efforts. Tenay tried to say that Sting managed to block a shot from Angle with his own baseball bat but he clearly wasn’t fast enough as you can see the bat hit him and he ends up bleeding as a result. Still, Sting snatched the bat away and busted Angle open before finally taking Nash out of the equation. Sting then hit another Scorpion Death Drop and Rudy Charles came around long enough to make the final three count, thus awarding Sting another World Heavyweight Championship, much to the delight of the crowd, the announcers, and Sting himself. Sadly, though, this was quite the lethargic affair; considering the two had a bit of a grudge heading into the match, the energy was lacking and it was a very slow and by-the-numbers affair, possibly to cover for Sting’s limitations and Angle’s physical issues. Both guys seemed to get winded very quickly and the referee bumps and interference weren’t really necessary, and the whole contest felt like it was on the verge of kicking into a higher gear but just never got around to it.

The Aftermath:
Sting’s first of four reigns as the TNA World Heavyweight Champion wouldn’t last long; he dropped the belt back to Kurt Angle two days later on an episode of TNA Impact! after interference by Kevin Nash. The two then faced off again the following month at Genesis in a tag team match; Sting and the recently-debuted Booker T took on Angle and Nash, with Angle again emerging victorious. Sting then took a bit of time away from TNA and even teased his retirement, before returning in 2008 and joining forces with Angle, Nash, and Booker T and Scott Steiner as the Main Event Mafia to battle TNA’s younger stars in a turf war. This not only saw Sting reclaim the top belt but reignited his feud with Angle, which eventually led to the stable turning on the Icon, and he and Angle continued to trade wins, losses, and the championship belt even as Sting’s sanity began to slip. Sting and Angle last shared a TNA ring together in 2013 when they reformed the Main Event Mafia to oppose the Aces & Eights stable; both men were inducted into the TNA Hall of Fame (with Sting being the very first inductee) and the WWE Hall of Fame and even showed up on WWE programming later down the line. However, while Angle officially retired from in-ring competition in April 2019, Sting bounced back from what seemed like a career-ending injury to become an active mentor and competitor in All Elite Wrestling (AEW).

My Rating:

Rating: 2 out of 5.

Could Be Better

What did you think to the contest between Sting and Kurt Angle at Bound for Glory 2007? Were you excited to see Sting and Angle be a part of the TNA roster at the time? Did the pacing and interference bother you? What did you think to Sting and Angle’s time in TNA and what are some of your favourite matches and moments from their time there? Were you a fan of TNA? Which of Sting’s “Crow” eras, personas, and matches are your favourite? Whatever your thoughts on Sting, and this match in particular, feel free to voice them below or leave a comment on my social media.

Wrestling Recap: The Outsiders vs. Sting, Savage, & Luger (Bash at the Beach ’96)

Dr. K8 Comments

The Date: 7 July 1996
The Venue: Ocean Center; Daytona Beach, Florida
The Commentary: “The American Dream” Dusty Rhodes, Mike Tenay, Bobby “The Brain” Heenan, and Tony Schiavone
The Referee: Randy Anderson
The Stakes: Six-man tag team match to repel the Outsiders’ invasion

The Build-Up:
On 4 September 1995, World Championship Wrestling (WCW) changed the shape of the wrestling industry by airing the first episode of WCW Monday Nitro, a weekly broadcast that included the unexpected WCW debut of Lex Luger and kicked off the start of the “Monday Night Wars” as the show ran in direct competition to the World Wrestling Federation’s (WWF) Raw is War. Over the course of a staggering eighty-four weeks, WCW would dominate this ratings war thanks to signing a number of wrestling’s biggest names to lucrative contracts; two of the most prominent of these were Scott Hall (formerly WWF’s Razor Ramon) and Kevin Nash (formally Diesel), who regularly gatecrashed WCW programming to declare war on the organisation, assumedly as “Outsiders” sent explicitly by the WWF to disrupt WCW. Though this was later downplayed to avoid legal issues, the two constantly hassled WCW Executive Vice President Eric Bischoff and goaded him into forming a three-man team to face the duo and their mysterious “third man” at Bash at the Beach. A random drawing saw Sting, Lex Lugar and “Macho Man” Randy Savage chosen to oppose the Outsiders, but Hall and Nash refused to reveal the identity of their third man until the show; although Sting was initially said to be up for the big turn, the mystery man turned out to be the legendary Hulk Hogan, whose act was becoming a bit stale by that point. Hogan’s turn to the dark side legitimately shocked the wrestling world and reinvigorated his career; rechristened “Hollywood” Hogan, the once colourful wrestling hero led the New World Order (nWo) in hijacking WCW’s programming as the WCW World Heavyweight Champion, eventually leading to a year-long storyline where Sting underwent a complete character change to oppose Hogan in their infamous Starrcade match. While the nWo eventually outlived its welcome, there’s no denying the impact this match had on the wrestling industry; it made WCW must-see television and forced the WWF to undergo a dramatic change of attitude to outpace and ultimately dethrone their competition and it all started here with this iconic three-on-two tag team match.

The Match:
I find it interesting looking back at the Outsiders’ arrival in WCW; even Michael Buffer’s introduction hypes up how the duo threatens the sanctity, the very existence, of the company, which I find a little amusing. You’re seriously telling me that two men are really that much of a threat? Admittedly, I haven’t watched the weeks leading up to Bash at the Beach but it seemed all the two did was interfere in matches, attack a few wrestlers, and accost Bischoff while claiming to have a third man in their posse. These days, an invading team would be at least three men to start with, if not six to eight, and would constantly disrupt programming, attacking everyone and destroying the ringside area, but back then all it took was a former bodyguard-turned-disappointing World Champion and an upper mid-carder with a tragic drinking problem to threaten the stability of one of the biggest wrestling companies in the United States at the time. After weeks of speculation and anticipation bout the duo’s third man, Hall and Nash sauntered to the ring by themselves; even I, with little exposure to WCW or even the WWF back in my fledgling wrestling fan days, was aware of the nWo and Hulk Hogan’s turn to the dark side thanks to WCW’s Nintendo 64 videogames, which featured “Hollywood” Hogan and his black-and-white cohorts in prominent roles, but WCW were determined to drag the reveal out for maximum impact. Naturally, the commentary team were more than a little biased towards the WCW competitors and “Mean” Gene Okerlund was less than impressed at their lack of a partner; however, the duo was completely unfazed maintained their arrogance even in the face of the two-on-three disadvantage they would be in throughout the match.

With Luger taken out, the Outsiders worked over Sting’s ribs and cheated for an advantage.

Sting, Luger, and Savage came to the ring together, so united as a team that they even wore matching face paint, and things quickly got tense as Luger and Hall got into a slanging match all while the commentary team bickered distrustfully amongst themselves since the Outsiders had done such a good job of sowing dissension throughout WCW. Hall and Luger started the match; Hall disrespectfully tossed his toothpick in Luger’s face, earning him a good ol’ slap to the jaw and a forearm shot across the forehead despite beating on Luger in the early going. Luger was all fired up, even taking a cheap shot at Nash, but Sting was forced to save him from a Nash headlock with a Stinger Splash in the corner. Unfortunately, Luger bashed his head on the ring post, evening the odds as doctors stretchered him away. Regardless, Sting went after Hall in a flurry, bashing his head off the mat, planting him with an Inverted Atomic Drop and a facebuster, but Hall was able to counter Savage’s top-rope axehandle with a shot to the gut. Rather than tagging out, Hall goaded Sting, distracting the referee and allowing Nash to hit Savage with Snake Eyes, but he immediately recovered to clothesline Hall to the mat for the first near fall of the match. Hall tagged in Nash; Savage (accompanied by Rhodes’ shouts of “Who be bad now?!”) used his quickness at first but the big man shut him down with some slow shots and a big body slam. Thankfully, Savage avoided an elbow drop and tagged in Sting, but he immediately took a beating in the corner from some repeated elbow strikes before being choked by Nash’s long, unstable leg. Sting countered a whip into the opposite corner and floored Nash with a dropkick but couldn’t get him over for a sunset flip pin and ate a lifting choke for his troubles. Hall tagged back in, hitting his trademark Fallaway Slam for a two count, but Nash came back in for a Big Boot and starting working over Sting’s ribs. Sting was able to duck under a clothesline and hit a low dropkick to bring Nash to the mat, but Hall tagged in to cut off both his opponents before dropping a bunch of elbows before wrapping the Stinger up in the Abdominal Stretch (with an assist from Nash) to really milk the crowd. Even when Nash slipped in behind the referee’s back to take over the hold and continue to work over Sting’s ribs and Sting was able to break free, he was too hurt to make the tag and got cut off again by Hall, who scored a two count of a clothesline.

Savage’s comeback was cut short by Hogan’s shocking turn and the infamous formation of the nWo!

After a brief sleeper hold, Hall dumped Sting to the outside, where Savage threatened to attack Nash with a steel chair when the Outsider made a move towards Sting. Back in the ring, Sting continued to play “face-in-peril”, eating a big Sidewalk Slam from Nash but kicking out at two, who was so frustrated that he rammed Sting’s head into the corner. Sting finally started to mount a comeback with a bunch of punches and leapt at the big man with a standing crossbody to tag in Savage. The crowd erupted as the Macho Man took out Hall, smacked his head into Nash’s, and started pounding away on Nash, landing repeated top-rope axehandles on Hall. A shot to the balls shut down Savage’s assault, however, leaving all four men lying; the crowd erupted again as Hulk Hogan came to the ring, presumably to help his fellow WCW teammates out, but instead chose to Hogan hit the Atomic Leg Drop on the prone Savage, twice, before high-fiving Hall and Nash. Hogan tossed the referee from the ring, hit another Atomic Leg Drop on Savage and then pinned the Macho Man as Hall made the three count. The crowd wasn’t really sure how to react at first but, as the smirking trio celebrated, cups and other trash started to fill the ring; one enraged fan even tried to rush them, only to be rightfully beaten down as a result. In the aftermath, Okerlund demanded answers from Hogan, who cut a scathing tirade against WCW, its fans, and heralding the birth of the “New World Organisation”. Finally having had enough to the fans and the businessmen taking his fame and popularity for granted, Hogan vowed to tear WCW down and destroy everything in his path to dominate the industry, with the three men absolutely revelling in the crowd’s disgusted reaction. Honestly, the match wasn’t too much to shout about; it was a fairly standard tag team bout, with the bad guys cheating for an advantage and setting up Savage for a big hot tag, but the ending is what makes it truly memorable. Once Hogan came to the ring, I think you could probably guess that he was going to turn (Heenan screaming “Who’s side is he on?!” didn’t help…) so it might’ve been better if he’d come out alongside, say, Luger to cast a bit more doubt over him and the after match promo was a bit long-winded, but there’s no denying that this marked a significant turning point for all involved.

The Aftermath:
Of course, this event saw the birth of the nWo and Hogan’s transformation into the arrogant, embittered “Hollywood” Hogan. The nWo immediately reinforced their message over the next few weeks by brutally assaulting WCW wrestlers after their matches and backstage, before establishing their dominance when Hogan captured the WCW Championship from the Giant at the next pay-per-view event, Hog Wild. Soon enough, the nWo became the hottest thing not just in WCW but the wrestling world; audience tuned in every week to see what they’d get up to next, who would join the increasingly growing group, and bought their t-shirts and merchandise by the thousands. The nWo proved so popular that Bischoff proposed giving them their own television show, but this fell through and an nWo-centric pay-per-view proved less than successful. As established, during the nWo’s first year, their greatest threat loomed in the rafters as Sting bided his time before challenging Hogan, but Hogan’s revived career wouldn’t be so easily upended. Even as the nWo splintered into other factions and began to wind down, WCW continued to milk the group for all it’s worth; they were such a prominent faction that, when Hogan, Hall, and Nash finally returned to the WWF in 2002, they were brought in as the nWo for a short-lived and poorly-handled revival. Although the group was officially disbanded later in 2002, they continued to make sporadic appearances; generally represented as the original three, sometimes alongside their “sixth member”, X-Pac, the nWo bizarrely defended Sting during his WrestleMania match against Triple H and were inducted into the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) Hall of Fame in 2020.

My Rating:

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Pretty Good

What did you think to the clash between WCW’s defenders and the invading Outsiders? Were you excited by Hall and Nash’s shocking appearance in WCW at the time? Who did you think the third man was going to be? What was your reaction when it turned out to be Hulk Hogan? Were you a fan of the nWo and, if so, who were your favourite members of the super group? What are some of your favourite matches and moments from WCW’s Bash at the Beach pay-per-views? Whatever your thoughts on the nWo, Bash at the Beach, and WCW, feel free to voice them below.

Wrestling Recap: Hollywood Hogan vs. Sting (Starrcade ’97)

Dr. K7 Comments

The Date: 28 December 1997
The Venue: MCI Center; Washington, D.C.
The Commentary: “The American Dream” Dusty Rhodes, Mike Tenay, and Tony Schiavone
The Referee: Nick Patrick (with Bret “Hitman” Hart as the guest official)
The Stakes: Main event singles match for the WCW Championship

The Build-Up:
On the 27 May 1996 edition of WCW Monday Nitro, Scott Hall (the former Razor Ramon) gatecrashed the broadcast and declared war on World Championship Wrestling (WCW). He was soon joined by Kevin Nash (formally Diesel) and, together, they began interrupting WCW programming and challenging the company to assemble a three-man team to face them and their “third man” at Bash at the Beach. Though Sting, Lex Lugar and “Macho Man” Randy Savage opposed these “Outsiders” at the match, they (and the entire wrestling world) would be stunned to find the duo’s partner to be none other than Hulk Hogan, who turned his back on the fans and WCW to form the New World Order (nWo). Reinvigorated by this heel turn and rechristened “Hollywood” Hogan, the once colourful wrestling hero led the nWo in hijacking WCW’s programming and capturing the WCW World Heavyweight Championship from The Giant at Hog Wild. Tensions were raised between the WCW defenders when Sting appeared to join the black and white supergroup, leading to him walking out on his WCW team mates at Fall Brawl for being so easily deceived by the fake nWo Sting. The next night on Nitro, Sting cut a scathing tirade against his doubters and then disappeared into the rafters for almost a year, adopting a trench coat and black and white face paint inspired by The Crow (O’Barr, 1989; Proyas, 1994) and refusing to speak. As more and more names jumped on the nWo bandwagon, WCW took a commanding lead in the “Monday Night Wars” and the nWo became the hottest storyline in professional wrestling. Now a dark avenger, Sting would occasionally test the loyalty of the in-ring competitors by offering them the chance to attack him with his signature baseball bat and would often rappel to the ring and attack the nWo in an emphatic statement of defiance but repeatedly refused to re-sign with the company unless he was granted this infamous one-on-one match against Hogan at Starrcade for the WCW Championship!

The Match:
Although I’d been aware of wrestling as a kid since Hulk Hogan was just that big of a multimedia icon, I didn’t actually start properly watching it or getting into it until around 1999 and 2000, and even then my experiences were limited to the Nintendo 64 videogames since I didn’t have the channels that carried the two main promotions. Consequently, I’ve always been somewhat fascinated by WCW; while many have talked at length about how bad the company got in its latter years, I actually quite enjoy watching the odd WCW match or pay-per-view here and there when I get the chance since the presentation was so different to the then-World Wrestling Federation (WWF). As a massive fan of The Crow and supernatural wrestlers like Kane and the Undertaker, Sting naturally caught my eye; his whole presentation during this time really spoke to me and I’ve always gone out of my way to try and catch up with his career highlights once DVDs of his matches started to be produced. I mention all this simply to say that I don’t have the benefit of having lived through some of WCW’s biggest or most infamous moments as they happened; the Monday Night Wars didn’t really exist for me as I could barely watch WWF programming as it was, so there wasn’t a choice for me, and they ended soon after I started watching anyway, so I generally tend to watch these old WCW matches in an isolated bubble rather than from a position of nostalgia. One of the things I really enjoyed about WCW is that they featured legendary boxing announcer Michael Buffer as the intro man for their main events; his delivery, his explanation of the competitor’s and their stories, the way he rattled off the wrestler’s accomplishments and nicknames and, of course, his signature cry of “Let’s get ready to ruuu-uuu-mblll-llle!” really helped to sell WCW’s main event bouts as a big deal.

The long-awaited clash between Hogan and Sting was a highly anticipated contest with major stakes.

First to the ring was the WCW Champion himself, the devious and sly Hollywood Hogan and, I have to say, I always hated the nWo’s theme song; though iconic, the tune is grating and annoying and probably one of my least favourite entrance themes in all of wrestling. As for Hollywood Hogan, I have to give the man props for his dramatic reinvention; Hogan was a household name, a hero to kids and fans everywhere, and to turn his back on that and take on this villainous persona was a hell of a gamble, but one that absolutely paid off for the aging Hulkster, who became more relevant than ever before simply by swapping his red and yellow duds for black and white and acting like an absolute underhanded jackass who relied on cheating, cheap tactics, and his running buddies to protect his spot at the top of the WCW pantheon. After a year away from in-ring competition, the audience was hyped to a frenzy at the anticipation of seeing Sting make his entrance; accompanied by lightning flashes, a light show of his painted face, and an ominous introduction, Sting sauntered to the ring with his trademark baseball bat, his face a stoic mask of implacability even as his pyro (and the audience) exploded around him. The commentators did a great job of hyping up how Sting, once the colourful, energetic heart and soul of the company, had been changed by Hogan’s arrival and the betrayal he suffered from the fans and his peers. Though his blank visage barely twitched during his entrance, Sting made a big show of making his intentions absolutely clear by repeatedly pointing his baseball bat at Hogan. However, Sting immediately let Hogan know exactly what he thought of him by delivering a quick bitch-slap to the Hulkster after Hogan shoved the Stinger and threw his bandana at him. This riled Hogan up so much that he retaliated by…pacing around the ring, threatening the camera crew, and hurling abuse at the crowd to further milk the anticipation for their inevitable lock up.

The match gets off to a slow, uninspired start as the two stall and plod around the ring.

Hogan further stalled for time after Sting got the better of their first exchange in the corner, but quickly became the aggressor after luring Sting in with the promise of a test of strength and blindsiding him with a gut kick that, in all honesty, Sting really should have seen coming. Hogan then started pummelling Sting with right-hands and repeatedly taunting him with growls of, “Come on, “hero”!” and Sting was quickly overwhelmed by Hogan’s patented offense of punches, eye pokes, splashes in the corner, and the ever-devastating back rake! A quick body slam took Sting to the mat, but the painted-up warrior easily avoided Hogan’s three attempts at an elbow drop and send the architect of the nWo tumbling to the outside of the ring with a sudden dropkick. After stalling again on the outside, threatening fans and really dragging this anticipation out, Hogan eventually returned to the ring and then put the Stinger in a headlock. Just as the crowd started to become restless (I think I even heard a brief “Boring!” chant), Sting got out of the hold, leapt over Hogan’s charging body, and sent him tumbling outside again with another dropkick. More stalling followed before the two locked up again; this time, it was Sting who put on the headlock right as Schiavone claimed that Sting had “never looked better”, a bold statement considering how disappointingly slow and lethargic the match had been up until that point. Although he managed to shut down Hogan’s attempt to power out of the devastating headlock, Sting wasn’t able to avoid Hogan’s clothesline; despite wasting time and energy hurling abuse at the fans, Hogan was then able to further press his advantage with a suplex…but Sting completely no-sold it, much to the delight of the fans. Stunned at Sting’s…well, I guess “resilience” is as good a word as any, despite it being a little too generous since the match was a complete snooze-fest…Hogan then found himself on the receiving end of a battering in the corner.

Although Hogan clearly wins this mess of a contest, Bret Hart ensured Sting got the big victory.

Realising that Sting isn’t to be underestimated, Hogan again went for the eye poke and then dumped Sting to the outside, where Hogan smacked his foe’s face off the ringside table and then smashed Sting over the back with his own baseball bat (which, somehow, didn’t result in a disqualification). After smacking Sting into the ring post and off the apron, Hogan wily dodged out of the way of an attempted Stinger Splash, which resulted in Sting crashing into the metal barricade right on his ribs. Winded and hurt, Sting was helpless to stop Hogan from crotching him over the barricade. With Sting little more than a lifeless sack of potatoes, Hogan easily dropped him in the ring and planted him with his patented Big Boot. Hogan then taunted the crowd, landed his patented Leg Drop, and Nick Patrick counted an empathetic three count. Despite the fact that Hogan clearly (and with a ridiculous amount of ease) just pinned WCW’s would-be saviour, the ring bell never sounded and Hogan wasn’t named as the victor (even though he clearly was…) because Bret Hart interjected himself into the proceedings to keep another screwjob from happening…even though there was no screwjob here. Hogan pinned Sting clean as a whistle; it wasn’t even a fast count, so there’s no controversy to call into question. Regardless of logic and fact, Hart used his authority as a WCW referee to restart the match; he laid out Nick Patrick, tossed Hogan back into the ring, and the match finally got a jolt of energy as Sting fired up and went nuts on Hogan. He whipped him into the corner, crushed him with the Stinger Splash, fought off the nWo’s Buff Bagwell and Scott Norton, and then hit another huge Stinger Splash in the opposite corner, all as the crowd leapt to their feet in thunderous applause. Hogan staggered to the mat and Sting wrapped him up in the Scorpion Deathlock; with the submission move firmly locked in, Hogan had not choice but to tap out and WCW wrestlers rushed to the ring to celebrate Sting finally wrestling the WCW Championship from Hogan’s hands.

The Aftermath:
Sadly, though, as exhilarating as those last five minutes were, this was a dreadfully painful match to sit through; considering all the emotion heading into it, I would have expected a much faster, more aggressive affair but, instead, Hogan completely dominated Sting and even won the damn match! Even though the crowd popped hard for the last five minutes, and the ending was framed as this big moment, the match was a complete mess of stalling and plodding offense as the two men just didn’t gel well together in the ring. To make matters worse, the botched finish meant that the WCW Championship ended up being vacated, necessitating a rematch at Fall Brawl VIII, which Sting won. Sting’s title run didn’t last long, however; he dropped the belt to Randy Savage in April, and Hogan regained the belt the day after. Additionally, despite this victory for WCW, the nWo storyline continued with a vengeance; the group even split into two factions, one of which Sting joined! Hogan would recapture the WCW Championship for the fifth time (under controversial circumstances) when the group reformed in early 1999, and this wouldn’t be the last time Sting and Hogan shared a ring together even after WCW went defunct. Both men eventually found themselves in Total Nonstop Action (TNA) and facing off in match comparable to this one at Bound for Glory 2011 and Hogan (and the nWo) even bizarrely tried to help Sting in his big WrestleMania match against Triple H during Sting’s disappointing run in World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE).

My Rating:

Rating: 2 out of 5.

Could Be Better

What did you think to the long-awaited match between Sting and Hollywood Hogan at Starrcade 1997? Were you excited to see Sting return to the ring at the time? Did the constant stalling and screwy finish bother you? What did you think to the nWo storyline and do you think it should’ve ended here? Were you a fan of Sting’s “Crow” persona and what are some of your matches and moments of his? Which era of WCW, or Sting’s career, was your favourite? Whatever your thoughts on Sting, and this match in particular, voice them below.

Game Corner: WWE 2K18 (Xbox One)

Dr. K2 Comments
GameCorner
WWE2K18Logo

As may already be evident, I have a long-standing preference for the WCW and WWF videogames released by AKI/THQ back in my youth; however, another WWF videogame series I have been particularly fond of and spent many hours and days of my childhood playing has been the WWF SmackDown! series released by THQ and Yuke’s on Sony’s PlayStation in 2000. Eventually, this series evolved into the WWE SmackDown! Vs. Raw franchise, which was released on multiple consoles between 2004 and 2010. I believe I came into this series with WWE SmackDown! vs. Raw 2008 Featuring ECW (Yuke’s/Amaze Entertainment/THQ, 2007) and bowed out with WWE SmackDown! vs. Raw 2011 (Yuke’s/THQ, 2010) as, by this point, it was pretty clear to me that I was simply purchasing the same videogame every year with additional wrestlers, some new match types, and minor improvements to the graphics and gameplay. As a result, I decided to buy a new title every two years or so and, after enjoying WWE ’13 (ibid, 2012) and deciding that WWE 2K15 (Yuke’s/Visual Concepts/2K Sports, 2014) was far too stripped back on features to justify the price tag, I settled on getting WWE 2K14 (ibid, 2013) and biding my time.

WWE’s videogames eventually aped the yearly formula of the FIFA series.

As a result, I have not bought or played a new videogame in 2K Sports’ WWE 2K series for about four years now, and with good reason; as the series made the jump to the Xbox One and PlayStation 4, reviews and feedback ranged from resoundingly negative to mediocre displeasure as 2K Sports apparently removed many expected gameplay mechanics and features in what was nothing less than a blatant attempt to sell features seen in previous PlayStation 3-era titles as being “new”. Despite the additions of never-before-seen superstars such as Sting, AJ Styles, and Samoa Joe, I decided to wait it out until the release of WWE 2K18 (ibid, 2017) to give the series a chance to iron out these kinks and to create an ironic sense of symmetry given that the last title I played was WWE 2K14. As such, it took me a little while to become accustomed to WWE 2K18’s control scheme; previously, these titles allowed you the option of controlling your wrestler with the directional-pad (or “D-pad”) and taunting with the analogue stick, which is my preferred control scheme given how it mirrors that of the AKI/THQ titles.

WWE2K18Submission
WWE 2K18 loves these little wheels of death!

However, WWE 2K18 does not allow you to change the control scheme, meaning that I was forced to control my wrestler with the left analogue stick and taunt using the D-pad which, for an old school player like myself who dislikes change, took some getting used to. One of the other main reasons I prefer D-pad control is that I find it easier to direct and aim my opponent during running attacks or Irish whips; I find the analogue stick makes such aiming harder as the stick is more sensitive. WWE 2K18 also features some new mini games which replace the ones I had grown accustomed to in WWE 2K14; when being pinned, for example, you now have to press X on a little wheel rather than stopping a little bar that bounces back and forth. This is actually a lot trickier than it sounds as it seems the videogame is set up to make kicking out of pins harder than before to, I guess, allow for more “realistic” matches. Additionally, there is no longer the “Breaking Point” submission system; instead, there’s either a tricky mini game involving the analogue stick or you must mash one of the four action buttons when they appear onscreen. I went with the button mashing option but have found that winning a match by submission is not as easy as it used to be, potentially because you can no longer select a match to be either quicker, normal, or epic; this, and the improved attribute system, means that you are forced to work for your submission victory.

WWE2K18Triple
Suffer enough damage and you’ll roll from the ring to take a break.

Other gameplay changes can be seen in multi-man match; now, when you or another player receives enough damage, they automatically roll out of the ring and you must mash buttons to fill up a bar and re-enter the match. It sounds good on paper and, again, appears to be tooled towards making matches more “realistic” but I found it more annoying than anything else as you could end up stuck on the outside and lose the match. This mechanic carries over into ladder/TLC matches as well, making them considerably more frustrating than usual as you incur far more damage much faster in these matches so you’ll spend a lot of time mashing buttons to get back into the matches. Also, in ladder/TLC matches, you no longer pull down the belt of briefcase using the right analogue stick; instead, you have to play a little mini game where you must fill up segments of a circle by rotating a ball into a small hole using the right analogue stick. It’s fun but quite distracting; I found myself concentrating more on the mini game than the match and, if you get interrupted with only a couple (or, even worse, one) segments left to fill, you are almost guaranteed to lose the match as the next wrestler to play the mini game will probably complete the circle while you’re busy mashing buttons to get back into the match.

WWE2K18TLC
Multi-man TLC matches are still the worst.

The Royal Rumble match is also noticeably different and, technically, more difficult; rather than hitting buttons in a quick-time event as in WWE 2K14, you now have to mash a button when trying to eliminate an opponent. Honestly, I’ve played a couple of these matches and never once eliminated anyone using the button-mashing mini game no matter what their health and stamina. I found the best way to eliminate wrestlers was the tried-and-true Royal Rumble finisher, clotheslining them out of the ring or countering a run attack, or by exploiting a glitch where, if you whip the opponent onto the apron and quickly punch them repeatedly, they simply fall from the ring.

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I struggled to legitimately eliminate anyone in the Royal Rumble…

As I always found ladder, TLC, and Royal Rumble matches tedious any way, these gameplay changes don’t bother me that much; you are not forced to play these matches and, on the whole, I would just avoid them. Some good changes have been made to tables matches, though; every time you hit your opponent with or into a table, it fills up a break meter and, once it’s full, you can smash the opponent through it using some new and expanded options. 2K Sports have also introduced a carry system, similar to the one from WWE SmackDown! vs. Raw 2007 (Yuke’s/THQ, 2006), which allows you to smash your opponent off the ropes, turnbuckles, apron, and other objects. They’ve also brought back in-crowd fighting, to a degree, allowing you to smash your opponent through (or hit them over) the barricade at ringside or toss them from the stage area to fight in little areas near the crowd.

WWE2K18Universe
Universe mode is back, bigger and better than ever.

Although create-a-story and create-a-finisher are no longer options, WWE 2K18 is still full to the brim with creation options. I honestly spent maybe five days or so setting everything up the way I wanted it and creating wrestlers, entrances, victories, shows, and teams in the expanded Universe mode. As before, Universe mode allows you to create a show, place wrestlers and championships on the show, and then create monthly pay-per-view events for that show. I like to recreate the product as closely as possible so I created a Raw, SmackDown! Live, and NXT brand (with 205 Live and Main Event as minor shows) and, for all the Legends and duplicate wrestlers, a WCW Monday Nitro brand (with some crossover between them all). You can create more than one Universe at a time but I prefer to have it all in one place rather than jumping backwards and forwards all the time; I then moved every pay-per-view event to their correct calendar month and also created some additional pay-per-vews for my NXT and Nitro brands; this is extremely in-depth, allowing you to choose from a whole bunch of preset or created arenas (with scene transitions, an array of screen filters, a bunch of different referees, and more).

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There are loads of colour and customisation options.

You can still create your own championship belts as well, if that’s your thing; given how many old school belts are in the videogame, I don’t tend to do much with this, though. Instead, my focus was on the massively deep create-a-wrestler mode; created wrestlers look more realistic than ever before and you can choose from a whole bunch of options, from wrinkles to scars, facial and body hair, eye colour, veins, muscle definition, and even how much body oil your created wrestler has! There are also a whole load of attire options, including blank attires that you can customise as you desire and also pre-set attires worn by the featured roster; you can change not only the colour of these attires but also the material type, which allows shirts and jeans and the like to be leather, take on a metallic hue, or even glow in the dark! Finally, there are far more options for names for your created wrestler this year and the in-game commentary team will refer to your created wrestler by these throughout their matches.

WWE2K18Store
Apparently you can put a price on greatness.

Although there are many WWE and superstar-related images available to you in this mode, there are noticeably less options for body tattoos this years, unfortunately. This is where the Community Creations option will come into play; you are able to upload images to the 2K Sports website and transfer them into the videogame, meaning you can search in the WWE 2K18 for a whole bunch of professionally-designed images, logos, and tattoos to apply to your created wrestler. You can also download created wrestlers created by others to account for those wrestlers omitted from this years roster, though you are limited to twenty downloads a day and cannot download created wrestlers that feature aspects from wrestlers you’ve yet to unlock or purchase. Speaking of which, WWE 2K18 features an in-ring store mode, as is the norm for this series now. As you play matches, you are awarded virtual currency based on how many stars your match scored; the more stars you get through move variety, countering, and such, the more currency you earn. You can then spend this in the store to unlock Legends, and additional arenas and championships and, make no mistake, this is the only way to unlock this extra content. Previously, in WWE 2K14 at least, you could unlock new wrestlers by playing the 30 Years of WrestleMania mode but, here, you can only do this by purchasing them.

You can do this by playing any match in any mode and, also, through the MyPlayer mode, which is the career mode of the videogame. You have to create a wrestler, using far more limited tools and options, and work your way through training and wrestling on NXT before being called up to the main roster. You can make some limited decisions to decide whether you are a Company Man (a heel) or a Fan Favourite (a face). In my playthrough, I was initially called up to Raw and forced to lose a bunch of matches, so I jumped to SmackDown! Live, where I won the United States Championship, Money in the Bank ladder match, and Royal Rumble match and am currently feuding with Triple H and the Authority on the path towards the WWE Championship. Along the way, you can partake in side quests to earn rewards (new moves, attire, and currency), make a signature t-shirt to earn some extra cash, and perform in-ring promos and run-ins.

WWE2K18MyPlayer
You’ll need to pay to get the most out of MyPlayer mode.

Overall, this mode is quite enjoyable but, honestly, it’s a poor substitute for a Road to WrestleMania-type of mode. There are a lot of load times and some noticeable frame drops; you are also forced to walk/run from the garage to the producer and back every single week, which begs the question why they bothered putting in the free-roaming backstage area at all rather than just have a set-up similar to the PlayStation 3-era titles where you had a locker room with a phone and just did everything through text. There are some inconsistencies; I was regularly teaming with Sami Zayn then, randomly and with no explanation, my partner suddenly became Fandango. I was also once asked by Tius O’Neil to attack Primo Colón one week but, when I couldn’t find him, ended up attacking Kassius Ohno. There are also a lot of times when you do more promos than matches, when the match objectives aren’t completely clear (the Money in the Bank match springs to mind), and when your matches end due to interference more often than not but, these issues aside, it’s a pretty decent mode, though I found it more enjoyable and profitable to play Universe mode more than anything.

It’s interesting that the load times for the MyPlayer mode are so atrocious as, normally, they’re not that bad; matches in Universe mode load much faster than in WWE 2K14. I learned from some of my mistakes in WWE 2K14 and don’t have nearly as many custom arenas or created wrestlers, which may help with this, and also towards limiting crashes. WWE 2K14 would crash all the time, usually after a match but sometimes before one, and it was very frustrating. I have had a few crashes in WWE 2K18 but, as the matches and the videogame loads up a lot faster, it’s not as annoying. One bug that is annoying is, when downloading a created wrestler, attached logos and images will sometimes not download, meaning you’re left having to either find them separately or with an incomplete created wrestler/attire.

I haven’t played WWE 2K18 online yet, mainly because I don’t have Xbox Gold or whatever you need to do that but also because online players are trolling, move-spamming sons of bitches; also, the learning curve for timing reversals and having competitive but enjoyable matches that I actually won was quite steep. Sometimes, you’ll have a match and be in complete control and all the opponent has to do is a couple of moves and you can’t recover, then you get hit with one finisher and its over. A good feature, though, is that miss-matched opponents (like Braun Strowman against Kalisto) often trigger a squash match, where you gain full momentum and a finisher after your first hit and win the match in seconds for a decent payday.

WWE2K18STINGS
All the Sting you could ever want!

The roster in WWE 2K18 is as deep as you could want; there are some noticeable omissions from NXT but, otherwise, everyone you could want and more is in the videogame alongside some decent and surprising Legends. Hulk Hogan and Yokozuna are gone but Vader and the Big Boss Man are back; there are some crazy instances of numerous duplicates, such as five (five!) versions of Sting and separating Finn Balor and his Demon King attire (though the Demon King does still act as an alternative attire to regular Balor) but, mostly, there’s some good inclusions this year. The soundtrack, apparently “curated” by the Rock, is mostly miss rather than hit, with the only decent track being a radio edit version of Disturbed’s Down With the Sickness, though a similarly-edited version of Limp Bizkit’s Rollin’ is used as the entrance theme for Undertaker ’00 despite this particular version of Undertaker’s biker gimmick actually being more associated with You’re Gonna Pay. The in-game commentary is all-new, at least for me anyway, including the three-man team of Michael Cole, Corey Graves, and Byron Saxton; mostly, it is far better than what I experienced in WWE 2K14 but there still times when they refer to women as “guys”, talk inanely about things not even relevant to the match in progress, or ask each other questions that are never answered.

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Graphically, WWE 2K18 is very impressive.

Overall, WWE 2K18 is a challenging and enjoyable affair; Universe mode is bigger and more expansive than ever, with shorter load times and significantly less crashes and glitches (so far), and the star rating system does make it feel as though each match is important and worth something. MyPlayer suffers a bit (though admittedly this may also be because I don’t want to waste my virtual currency upgrading the MyPlayer character unless I absolutely have to as I want to unlock the Legends) but is, otherwise, fun enough for what it is. I would have also liked to have seen, at least, Showcase matches similar to previous titles or themed around a wrestler (this year’s pre-order bonus, Kurt Angle, for example, or Shawn Michaels, or even the cover star, Seth Rollins) to assist with the unlocking of extra content. Creation options are deep and versatile; you can waste hours and even days crafting the perfect created wrestler (I know I did!) or downloading extra attires and wrestlers to fill out the already impressive roster. I am glad that I waited for 2K Sports to add in many of the features they previously omitted and refine their current-generation gameplay engine as it seems to have paid off; matches are far more realistic and challenging than in WWE 2K14, where I could win with a minimum of effort, which is good once you’re used to the control scheme and what is expected of you, if admittedly somewhat detrimental to those who just want to pick it up and play a quick match without any obligation to simulating a real-life WWE match. Based on my experience with this title, I will probably wait until WWE 2K20 for my next entry into the series as I would never recommend anyone buys these titles on a yearly basis but, if like me, you’ve been away from the series for a while, I would definitely recommend picking this one up.

My Rating:

Rating: 4 out of 5.

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