The Perfect Wrestling Game

Wrestling video games are a mixed bag in terms of quality, but they're essentially all going for the same thing, a fighting game that's done Kayfabe style. (Kayfabe is the oldschool term for not acknowledging that pro-wrestling isn't a competitive sport, but is in actuality, real)

Some of the games like the Smackdown series are quite good at this, but they aren't what I want from a wrestling game, so anybody out there with the ability to produce a wrestling game, listen up, this is what I want to play.

I want a game that is like Madden Football. I want to be able to play the booker for a federation if I want to, with the ability to put together angles and characters and work with the roster booking shows and creating merchandise. I also want to be able to play through the matches as a wrestler, where a booker will tell me what my angle is and how the match will end, and I have to work with my opponent to build a match that the crowd is into in the time available, not going out there to beat the other guy.

I want a game where the measure of success in the game is in the ticket sales and response at shows and in the television ratings the show garners. I want to be able to shape someone's career as a booker, or ruin someone I don't like. I want open ended gaming that breaks Kayfabe and is a combination of sim and fighting. Let the wrestlers get injured and have to go out there and put on a good show. Have problem guys who don't show up on time, or stop cooperating and you have to work on the fly to make the match/angle work.

You can even throw in a basic fighting game for those who want that.

I don't even care if it's an authorized game, just give me a robust character generator so that I can make the wrestlers I want to make. Make it so that I can turn Hogan into a curtain jerker, or elevate Paul London to superstardom.

That's what I want in the game. Stop trying to make Virtua Fighter in a wrestling ring and put some brains into it.