Should you be Hyped About AEW Fight Forever Ft. Michael Hedden

what's up and welcome to the Single Player Experience. As always, I'm your host, Sebastian Malden, and today we're doing a deep dive preview into one of my most anticipated games of 2023, and that's a e w fight forever. So for those of you who don't know me, I am a huge fan of pro wrestling and pro wrestling video games. But for this episode today, I thought I'd bring in another expert in this genre. So my guest today is none other than Michael, the Canadian destroyer. Hidden. Michael is a longtime wrestling fanatic. He is a avid gamer and he has an amazing YouTube channel that you should check out called Mikey Wrestling. And this episode, Mikey and I are gonna talk about a W fight forever. Everything we're looking forward to about this game, everything that has us worried and everything in between. So if you like pro wrestling video games and you wanna know about a W fight forever, then you're in the right place. So without further delay, let's ring the bell and start the intro. Dj, start the intro. Mine.

What's up everyone? Like I said in the intro, we have a very special guest joining us today. He is a hardcore wrestling fanatic. He's an avid gammer and he has an amazing YouTube channel that you should check out called Mikey Wrestling. This is the one, the only Michael, the Canadian destroyer hidden. How you doing today, Michael?

After that introduction, man, I feel like a million bucks. I feel like I just main invented WrestleMania for the heavyweight championship. I honestly wish I could introduce myself, how you just introduced me, cuz that was, that was a, that was an s, s plus man, s plus rank of an intro. And thank you so much for having me on this show. I am absolutely excited to just talk wrestling, talk video games with you, and I cannot

wait, man. Man, glad to have you on the show. Absolutely ecstatic to have you here. So Mikey, for the people who don't know you, can you introduce yourself to the audience?

Yes. So I am the one behind the YouTube channel, Mikey Wrestling. I am just a guy who loves wrestling, loves video games, and I was like, I need to do a hobby. I need to express my love for wrestling and video games. So I was like, let's start up this YouTube channel. And you know what? It's actually slowly kicking off. Every day I get more subscribers, and that's the battle is just getting more subscriber, and I just can't wait to see what the future holds for me. Right now, I'm at 286 subscribers, I think. So just my goal for 2023, make it small, just 300. Even if I get 15, that's all, that's all it matters to me,

man. I feel you. I feel you. So, Mikey, I discovered you because you posted a really cool video about a e w fight forever. And this is a game that's been on my mind for a while because I am also like a huge wrestling fan and, you know, a huge gamer and those sort of like, that sort of love bleeds in together. And you popped up on my YouTube recommendations as for as a video. And I just, you know, on a whim, clicked on the video, absolutely loved what you had to say about the game. And then I thought to myself, this is one of my most anticipated games for 2023, so I'm gonna have him on the show. So I reached out, I captured a pigeon just in the, in the middle of the street. I tied a note to that pigeon's leg and I said, find Mikey. And he found you, you, he delivered the note just asap as soon as he possibly could. And all the way up to Canada from Texas. And you sent back a message with the same pigeon. I, I gotta respect you for a cap, recap the bird and actually sending a message back and you were like, I am down. Let's do it. So I am so glad to have you on the show That said, I gotta ask you one of the toughest questions I ask all my guests, and that is your top five games. But you know, I wanna mix it up because we're doing a wrestling edition of the show. So I gotta ask you, what are your top five wrestlers and then what is your history with gaming?

Okay, so my top five wrestlers, first off, shout to that pitch man. That's a lot of work coming up the cannon man. And it's cold up here. Yeah, I am ready to just go move somewhere hot cuz I just can't, I'm done with the cold but my top five wrestlers, okay, so I am Canadian, so, okay, obvious number one, Brett the hitman heart, his in ringing work. It's just phenomenal. And number two, I gotta give it to Sting I am a, I was a diehard W C W fan and I just, I was always big. The guys with the face paint the ultimate warrior, but Sting, I, I don't know what it was with Sting, I just loved his energy and the come on the Crow gimmick when he first mm-hmm. did that with the N w O. So sting's number two, he is still going strong today. And me being, I love it. And I know a lot of people, like he's old, he needs to give it up. I'm like, Hey, if he has another like year, two years in and let him go, man. Cause the biggest issue wrestlers have when they retire is they miss that pop, they miss that energy that they get from the fans. And it's like, they're like, what am they gonna do now? Mm-hmm. like, so if sync and still keep it up. And he's still doing awesome matches. He had that neck injury in w w E, but Do you, yeah. Yeah. Do you see him in a e w going through tables, taking power bombs? Like, this man has a lot in the tank and I don't know if it's like the W C W guys like Rick Flair Sting, just, they're like 70 going strong still. Like, shout out to them, man. Like I love it. And then number three. I'm gonna have to think here for a minute actually

now I'm right there with you though. On, on the Sting thing, while you're thinking about it, like, I love what Sting's been doing in a e w and really they're using him more as a manager role and then popping him into like sporadic matches every now and then. So it's like you get the best of both worlds. You get that manager like mentor kind of character with Sting, and then you also get the, the Stinger that we love, you know, from W C W I. I love it. I'm right there with you.

And then number three, I'm gonna have to give it to the undertaker. Ah, me and my brother, we love the Undertaker. And funny story, my brother actually ran into the undertaker at a Cracker Barrel of all flavors. You were kidding. No, I'm not kidding. Yeah, he was getting food. They were out in, I think they were in Florida going to Disneyland. Mm-hmm. And they were just at the hotel like, oh, let's just order some Cracker Barrel food. So my brother goes and picks it up and he like, looks over. He is like, that's the undertaker And then he like goes on and all like, shines up and he's like, Hey, like I just wanted to say like, uh, I appreciate what you, what you, what you do, and thank you. Cause I didn't wanna draw a crowd to you. Like all sell, all sell shocked. And he is like, and then he comes back and he is like, tells me, he's like, I just met the undertaker. I'm like, no, you didn't. He's like, no man. Like I, I a hundred percent met the undertaker. I had a, I'm like at a Cracker bale of all places that amazing. And then he was like, ask Amanda. And I was like, yeah, like my sister-in-law, Amanda never lies. And she's like, yeah, he a hundred percent met the undertaker. And I was like, and he was still undefeated. So he was still undefeated when my brother met him. And I was like, you're the reason why he lost Oh no. He was the curse

He was the curse. Oh no. Yeah. That's amazing, man. Oh man. I would probably just be. Shell shot. I'm talking about like absolute fli acid to meet like the undertaker. That's amazing. Yeah. And the only people I

ever met, I had to pay for autographs and photos.

it's not quite the same, is it? Yeah. No, it's not the same No, for sure not. So what's your number four

and then number four? I'm gonna have to say, it's gonna be a tough one now. Mm. Because I, I, I got, I got my top three very easily. Those are, those are always gonna be my top three, but it's the four and the fives that I'm like, depending on the day you asked me, it's gonna be someone different. Okay. And I feel like number four,

it's a hard one. It is a hard one because like while you're, while you're thinking about it, I can read off my top four, I mean my top five pretty easily. It's, I got rock stone cold. I am, you know, like you said, any, any given day they can kind of flip flop and change, but like, I'm going, Michael's here. I love me some. H B K especially like after he came back from the back, back injury. Hbk off. Mm-hmm. So good. He put on my, probably my favorite matches were with, with that version of The Heartbreak Kid. And then like, um, I would probably say after that, rock Stone cold, H B K I'm probably going to go with, Hmm. I'm probably gonna go Jericho. And I, I know that's a weird one to say, but like, he's been entertaining me his whole life and the way he always mixes up and shakes up his characters. Love it. Absolutely love it. Like to go from the list to going from like the pain maker the way he's, he's been in a w to the wizard in a w mm-hmm. to, to the sports entertainer. Like he says right now. I, I absolutely love me some Y two J, but, um, probably that. And then I would probably say, Ooh, this last one's a hard one because you're, you're leaving so many people off the list, but, oh my goodness. Um, Ooh. I would probably say, I'm just gonna say Eddie, for, for the sake of off the top of my head gun to my head, I, I love to meet some Eddie Guerrero. I loved some Latino heat, uh, all the way to like the latching ceiling, Ellie. So like, those are probably my top five at, at, at least in this moment. That's perfect.

That's actually an awesome top five list there. Mm-hmm. And then, you know what, cuz I'm a smaller guy, I'm only like five, seven, maybe five, six and a half on a good day. You

wait, you

shrunk on a good day. No, I, I am actually five seven, but um mm-hmm. I'm gonna get to Ray Mysterio. Oh, that's, he's a good one. He's been around for so long and going back to his W C W days where like they took off his mask and he was fighting the Giants of the day, like the Kevin Na, the Giant. No matter other size, he can work with you. And he is been doing it for so long and he just shows that you don't need to be the biggest guy in the ring in the building to be a great wrestler. And then number five, I am gonna have to give it to the ultimate warrior.

Oh, okay. Yeah.

As a battle, as a kid, as a kid, I love the Ultimate Warrior. Now that I'm older, I'm like, hmm. He wasn't really the best wrestler. His promos, he was just B blabbering on about nothing. But it's like, you know what? It's his persona. When he came out to that ring, he was running full steam down that ring, shaking the ropes, getting everyone excited. And I was like, you know what? Yeah. It's gotta be Warrior for five

for me. Okay. I like that. I like that. So, Mikey, for my next icebreaker questions I gotta ask you. If Kirby absorbed you, what kind of powers would he get? Oh man.

What? Kirby's about to get. It's not a superpower. It's not a superpower, but he is gonna get the knees. Of a 98 year old person that has arthritis. Oh, nice. I have, I have the worst knees ever. I've blown out both my knees. I've had knee realignment surgery on my right knee and after I met with a surgeon after that, he said, well, this might work. Might not work. If it doesn't work, then you're gonna need knee replacement surgery. Oh wow. I'm only 35 years old and like, and that's why for me, for winters, like in on, cause I'm in Ontario, just outside of Toronto there, the cold, it's like a damp cold here and like it hits into my bones and it's like some days I'm like hobbling sometimes I get my cane out, all my family makes fun of me. I was like, Mike, you're like a 98 year old man, so congratulations Kirby. You are getting so I'm really bad knees. I hope you

enjoy it. Oh man. So Elise in Hi. In your version of Super Smash Brothers, this version of Kirby's gonna have a nice little cane to like hit people with. Yeah,

exactly. So when he go boo, he gonna get a nice

little cane. Okay. I like that. I like that. That's creative. So let's get to the topic of the show. I invited you on the podcast to talk about a e w fight Forever, a game that you know, it is gonna be a E W's first video game. Well, first real video game. We're not talking about their mobile game here, but like a first real console video game. I'm excited about it. I got some, you know, got some reservations about it, but you have some videos talking about it on your YouTube channel. So I wanna get your thoughts. How do you feel just early impressions so far based on what we've seen so far about a e w fight forever, right out the

gate? Just for the fact that it is another wrestling game that we are getting that is not just a w e game, cuz that is what has have hurt the wrestling video game is that we only have w w E to play with. You don't like wwe e there's not really any great alternatives to wwe e to play. Sure, there's some, a few indie titles, but like. I wanna play as actual wrestlers. I don't wanna have to play as Jim Bob Jones, the lumberjack. Mm-hmm. and seeing a e w Once Tony Conn announced that they were gonna be doing a video game, they're gonna be bringing back the guys Yuks, AKI No Mercy. Here comes the Payne. Like, those are my favorite games. And to know that we could be getting a successor to those games, oh man. Like I, I'm speechless just thinking about how excited I am about this game. I cannot wait. But with the lack of information that we are getting on it, I am a little bit concerned. Okay.

Okay. So, well, sorry to interrupt, but I gotta get your, your read here. It sounds like you've been a long time fan of pro wrestling games. What, what was the origin story there? Okay,

so this is going back to the Super Nintendo. The very first wrestling game I played was W F Royal Rumble, and I absolutely loved that game. That was the first wrestling game I got to play. And what I loved about that game was me and my brother, we obviously were brothers. We loved wrestling, so we wanted entrance music for our superstars so we can walk down. So we'd go to this superstar select screen. We would select like Brett Hart, it would play his music in like 16 bits sound. And we'd be like, mm-hmm. And then he would come down to like the undertaker. And it was like, so we would quickly switch and then we'd pause the game, have our wrestling match, and then. we'd end it. And then after that I got WF Raw for the Super Nintendo. Love it. Mm-hmm. And, and what I l what I'm jealous about actually is that I never liked Sega. And I think Sega got the better superstars for raw. You got to play as a Quang. We also got like Papa Chango, I'm pretty sure. Okay. And then for us, we didn't really get that many people. And, but I gotta admit, for the Royal Rumble game, we got Yoku. Zuna. Mm-hmm. and Yoko Zuna. Phenomenal, phenomenal wrestler. And actually going back, I can't believe I forgot, Yoku Zuna.

But man, hey, there's so many people. Like there's, we're talking about like years and years of wrestling lineage here. You know, there's some people that are just gonna get left off the list. Cuz like, as soon as I said in my top five, I was like, man, I'm missing out on so many, like, flair was, I love me some flair. I was a big Mc Foley fan growing up. Love some Triple H. Like there's Kenny Omega right now is absolutely one of my favorites. So I'm like, there's so many people. Yeah. It's hard to get everybody on that list, you know? Yeah. so you were talking about like your lineage with wrestling games in general. But I gotta ask you like, I am looking forward to a e w fight forever because like you, it is a pallet cleanser, so to speak. the read on it is that it's gonna be more no mercy than it is going to be what we've been, I guess you could say, getting from like the WWE two K series, does that excite you a lot or do you feel like there's some reservations there? Uh, no.

I am absolutely excited that it's focusing more on the arcade style of wrestling video games, just because me personally, I want my video games like superheroes. I wanna be able to do crazy stunts off the cage. I wanna be able to have, like someone who I might not be into wrestling, I wanna be able to sit them down, play a few matches, and them actually enjoy it. Cuz trying to get, like, I'll use my spouse for example, we wanna play a rest. I'm like, oh, you wanna play wrestling with me? She's like, gotta figure out the controls and stuff like that. And it's mm-hmm. the fact that there's no pickup in play if you're not a gamer for a wrestling game. And going back to wf, no Mercy, what I loved about No Mercy was that I had friends that were video game fans, but they weren't wrestling fans. Mm-hmm. and every morning, Me and my buddy Jerry would walk over to my buddy Victor's house and we would all play wf, no Mercy, and we absolutely loved it. And then we'd come home from school, we'd all go back to my buddy Victor's house, play some more at wf. No Mercy. And I think it speaks volumes to a game when you can get someone who doesn't care about wrestling, loves video. But absolutely plays that no mercy night and day all the time and loves it. And that is what I think makes a game great. And to know that we could be getting that with a e w fight forever. I am so happy and I'm so excited that we are gonna have something different than WWE two K, WWE two K, fantastic games. But it's the fact that they focus so heavily on the stimulation now, it's just, it's not fun for me. There's no fast pace to the matches. They're slow and just, I just feel dull. Um, I'm drained. I'm bored of WWE E two K games and to know that we got something new that's different. I'm absolutely all four cuz you don't know what two K might do given the success of a e w fight forever. You might be looking at the fact that we could be getting WWE e games back on the Nintendo Switch. Like we got WWE two K 18 and that was absolutely atrocious. Yeah, the frame rate is so bad and now that we have the PS five, the Xbox Series X 120 frames, I went back to play two K 18 on the switch and I, I played for like two minutes. I couldn't do a match. I was like, this frame rate is so bad and the, I. and I can't wait for a e w to be on the switch cause I wanna see how well it sells. Nintendo Switch is one of the bestselling consoles. Mm-hmm. fans are dying for a wrestling game on the switch. You see it in the comments all the time. Going back to the T HQ Nordic Showcase, all the Nintendo fans wanted to see a e w on the switch and that game is just gonna sell so well and it's finally gonna put a light bulb in two K to say, Hey, we should probably be looking to get some resting games. Maybe not the two K 20 threes. Maybe they can do something different for the Nintendo Switch. Maybe go back, maybe scale down the graphics, maybe look at maybe like a wrestle fest. If you could give us the style of a Wrestle Fest on the Nintendo Switch it, it would sell. It would sell so well, and I don't understand what two K is doing with not wanting to get a W game on the Nintendo Switch.

You know, you brought that up, like the diverse portfolio or lack theof that we've gotten with WWE e games. We did get like all stars a little bit like, um, a while ago and it really just didn't set the world on fire. Do you feel like that's the type of game that you'd want on the, the Nintendo Switch right now? Like, yeah. Yes. Like that's Sal all

All Stars. I'm so glad you mentioned All Stars. I loved all stars. It was such a great game now. Yes, it was like I had a few issues with it. Like I didn't like the fact that you couldn't pin the guy whenever you wanted. You had to knock him out to win the match. Mm-hmm. And it's like, that's not really a wrestling game. Like let me do pitfalls, let me do submissions to win. So I didn't like that aspect, but like it's the over the top moves that you could do in the game that I absolutely loved. And I was worried that you were gonna bring up two K Battlegrounds for a minute. Mm-hmm. and I was gonna be like, don't you ever mention that Oh that game never been shit made. And that is the perfect example of just a lazy game being made.

Yeah. No I wasn't gonna do Battlegrounds cuz no disrespect to the people who made the game, but it wasn't great. But like at least we're getting some variety here because I bring this up because like a w fight forever has confirmed that they're only going to have very bare bones game modes, so to speak. Like we're getting into career mode, we're getting into exhibition mode. We got create a character and uh, online mode, and I think that's about it. Like, am I missing any?

Nope. That that did you hit the nail bit on the head. That is what we're getting and that is my biggest concern with that.

Yeah, it doesn't seem like it's gonna have legs there because of the lack of game variety there, like the career mode. A lot of us will, uh, especially us wrestling fanatics, will probably mow through that in probably like maybe a month, maybe two months. And, and then like the exhibition mode, what's the long-term play there? I know this game is probably meant to be picked up and played similar to No Mercy with your friends, but like, you know, I kind of wish there was some sort of GM mode. Yeah, and I'm

actually glad you mentioned that cuz g like, I love GM mode. I love being able to pick who I wanna be the GM as I love being able to set my rosters, set my rivalries, and be able to compete with other shows. When you look like I'm gonna use, are you familiar with the game Retromania of Wrestling? Yeah, I am. Yeah. Okay, good. Perfect. So that game I think is a perfect example of you shooting your shot for a wrestling game, giving these fans who are dying for an alternative to WWE e to give us all these modes, all these amazing D L C characters. And that game's been out for like, what, three, four years? Mm-hmm. we only got one D L C wrestler and they advertise D L C story modes. We don't have that yet. So the biggest concern for me with a e w is the fact that we have that, what they call a deep career mode. I really wanna know how deep that career mode is in terms of replayability. Cuz when you look at, for example, no mercy, that career mode you had branching story paths that you could take depending if you lost matches, one matches. And you can go back and do different titles. Now, the career mode, are you gonna be able to go be a female and go for the women's title there? Are you gonna be able to go for the t n t title with different stories or is it gonna be more like that? Here comes the pain where you just pick your one superstar and you play that one year of the season mode with the same storylines playing out.

Yeah. Uh, that, that's, that's gonna bother me as well because like I, if you only have one mode, at least do your damnedest to make it the best mode possible. Because like, I don't want this to be just the one season to where like, quote unquote, you have like, uh, your character start off at the beginning of the year and you just like fight all the way until their version of WrestleMania, which is probably, you know, like probably gonna be what, all out maybe? Yeah, probably. Yeah. I don't probably, yeah, I don't want that. Uh, I, I would hope that this is like a career mode that has maybe, maybe five or six years in the making because like, WWE for all of its faults, has tons of pay-per-views. So they have tons of, like, you almost have a reset of a storyline like that you can factor in because like, Hey, at Helen the sale, this story, this storyline ends a a w doesn't have that because like there's only what, five pay-per-views every year.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So their pay reviews

are limited. Yeah. So their pay-per-views are limited. So that means like the format of how they're going to do their career mode has to be different. Because like you can't just have like a story for just four weeks and then culminate at the pay-per-view. You have to have like long to long term storytelling similar to what they did with Hangman Adam Page to where like the, when a e w first started their, the company, like there was already a plan in place to have for the hangman to have this big, long, expansive storyline. That's lasted two years now and even now it's like evolved into a different branch of that, of a very similar storyline there, but like I need there to be some meat on the bones of this, this career mode. How do you feel about. Yeah, and I totally

agree with that. And you gotta, like a lot of people, like this is an alternative. The WWE e and W two K, it is a great game. It has its faults and I think that's where a lot of the hype is coming from is that it's a different alternative. And when you look at the modes, it's just you have a singles match and it's tag team match three-way, four-way. Like here's the thing, when you have a wrestling game, you gotta think of the staple matches the fact that they don't have a steel cage match. Ugh, I don't understand that whatsoever. Yes, I know we have their exploding barbed wire death match. I'm excited for that match. But a steel cage has been around for so long and to know that it's not in the game, it's like, where's the modes? Yeah. Like, I like that's, that's, that's my biggest concern is I know they're gonna update the game, but you gotta think, when will we get these updates? How often will we get the updates for the new modes and are the updates just gonna be superstars? Are we actually gonna get different match types?

That's a good question cuz right now, um, listing out the, the match types here we have singles match tag, team match three-way match, four-way match, ladder, match, casino, bow, uh, fay like falls count anywhere, unsanctioned lights out match, which is basically like an extreme rules match, so to speak. Barbed wire, death match and online co-op multiple layer matches. These are the only match types we have so far. So I'm. So I feel like out of all the matches we've seen done on a e w television, like we couldn't get the blood and guts match. We couldn't get the cage match. We couldn't get like a lot of the marquee matches that has made a e w what it is today. And for them missing that, it feels like a huge kind of letdown, the tag match. They didn't tell us whether or not this was just going to be like a two on two tag match or we have trio's titles now, or we're gonna get that three on three ti tag match now. So I'm like, I, there's so many questions about this game and this game is slated towards like the first half of 2022 right now. Like I, they're going to need to do a quote unquote, Nintendo direct style showcase of what this game has to be because there's too many question marks right now.

Yeah. And I'm glad you actually brought up the trios. Mm-hmm. cause. I feel like they're only gonna have four superstars in the ring at a time.

I think that's crazy. Well you know, like how do you do the casino battle Royal Match, which is four superstars.

I that's, I think they're gonna focus too heavily on like the days of No Mercy when you only had four players and I think you're only gonna be having four players in at the time. Oh wow. Because when you look at the online mode, it's only four players online. And if they do the casino Battle Royal online with only four players, God only have four players in the ring. Right. Oh,

and that's, that's disappointing. Yeah,

that is very disappointing. Cuz I was like, cause I was excited. I was like we can have trios. And I was like, but they only ever talk about four. For the game, which makes me think that they're gonna try and focus too heavily on games of the past, which, looking at it now, it was fun. At the time you had four players, cuz that was new at the time, having four players was new. Mm-hmm. we're about to have 10 men in the ring at a time, and you're gonna be going back to only four players like. That I don't, I don't like that.

I don't either because like I, in comparison to what we've gotten with the WWE two K series, like we've gotten, um, the elimination chamber matches, we've gotten Armageddon, hail, and the cell matches, which features six men in the Ring at one time, a, uh, like WWE has been doing the, um, the three man tag matches. The six man tag matches forever now, like absolutely forever. I, I like the, the retro feel of going back to what made no Mercy special. But you also have to take in the considerations of like, we've evolved as like a gaming society since then because like we have modern day consoles now. I, I get it. You have to also like dumb down a lot of things for a switch because switch isn't as capable and as powerful, but like make a separate steam switch version for this game. Like if this switch version, it has to be dumbed down and there's only features that are specific to this switch. I'm fine with that. Like, but. There are tons of people like me who are gonna be playing this on the Xbox Series X or the PS five, like though this feels like it's gonna be so, so underwhelming for what the, that system can bring to the table because like the PS four could play WWE two K 22 and play it decently. Not necessarily as well as the PS five by any means, but like play it decently. This game needs to come outta the gate swinging to really stand like really just mark its stamp into like, hey, wrestling games are back in a big way. And in WWE is not the only like competition in town. Like this is a good alternative. You have to, you have to come out swinging. And I, and I feel like there are so many ways they're kind of missing the boat there. How do you feel about this? I

feel the exact same way. And um, basically for me, I just don't want a e w to turn out to be the modern day battle totes for me. Oh. Cause I loved battle toads back in the day and when I found out that they were bringing back battle toads, but there was no online for Battle Toads. Mm-hmm. like, are you kidding me? Like, I understand you wanna focus on the nostalgia, but my, me and my brother played battle toads. We were so excited to play Battle Toads. He lives way in another city. Like how we, how much Supposed to play battle? I never played Ballad. It's the new one. And it, it, and I just don't want that to happen to a e w cuz they focus too heavily on the nostalgia. But you are right with the fact that I feel like they should just make a separate version for the Switch. Mm-hmm. even just give it to another company to port it over to the switch. Um, cuz for the Xbox, a hundred percent I know I love Nintendo. I'm gonna be playing this game on the Xbox Series X and I want as many wrestlers as I can get in that ring. I wanna be able to have the eight man royal rumbles like I do in w2 K. Mm-hmm. I don't wanna have to sit there and just beat with four people, stick to one guy at a time, eliminate 'em, and then someone else comes in. And the biggest issue, like it's just, you gotta go back to the fact that we don't have any information on this game either. Like we don't know the Creation Suite, we don't know anything about much the roster. No. Who makes the roster?

No. Uh, I'm, I'm glad you brought that up because like, do you know how long that Casino Batter Royal is gonna take with only four people in the ring at one time and you have 21 men Ha uh, that have to come in, so to speak. Like that's gonna be a long match. Like the Royal Rumble in WWE two K is 30 people, but at least you have like, what, six to eight people in the ring at one time? So it kind of flies

by. Yeah. And like when I go back to when I had Royal Rumbles and Don't Mercy. Sure. They were fun. They were a blast to play. But I was doing that for like almost over an hour. Yeah, exactly. So it's. You want people to be able to, you focus so heavy on picking up and play. Anyone can play it. It's Arcadia. But it's like you think someone who doesn't really play video games or doesn't follow wrestling wants to be in a royal rumble for like an hour. No,

probably not. No. And I, you know, like I want, uh, the pickup and play element because like, I want people to experience and get into wrestling games, especially the lapsed wrestling game fan. But like, let's be honest here, the majority of people who are going to try to play this at least like more actively, like day in, day in and day out, are the fans like you and I, the the hardcore wrestling fans who have been playing wrestling games for their entire lives. So you like people like you and I are probably going to want to play this game like at least once or twice a week. We're probably going to dive into the career mode. Whereas like a Laps wrestling gamer might just play this because it's coming on Game Pass by the way, like day in and day out game pass, they're probably gonna play the exhibition mode, might play the career mode for about 20 minutes, maybe a day or two in, then just drop off completely. Mm-hmm. I want this to have legs and I want this to have longevity. But going back to your, um, point, because I completely agree. Like I want this game to be poured over to switch, but very much dumbed down. How do you feel? about the roster though. Let's, let's focus on the roster here. Like, we haven't gotten much information. How do you feel about it so far? The

roster is, I'm gonna say it's, it's, it's interesting. Mm-hmm. and um, I know they have let out, like they have left out a lot of big name wrestlers who have been with them for quite a while now. They've left them out, they're gonna add them on later on. So how I feel about why they did that is they know they're going up against the juggernaut, W W E and they want the game to sell. So that's why CM Punk is a big man. Everyone loves CM Punk. He came back, everyone's all excited. Yeah, there's a bit of controversy going on with him right now, but you're a father, you see that CM Punk, he is probably the biggest superstar in that game. So you wanna make sure you get him on the roster.

He's taken off of the the the page, right? The title page for Yes.

Yeah. So he was taken off the page now for a e w, but he's still gonna be in the game and he is the biggest superstar that they have. And you gotta look at the people like F T R. Why are they not in the game at launch? And why are you saying that? This game is so-called coming soon, but we only know like a handful of superstars.

Yeah, that's, that's terrible. That's absolutely terrible. I, um, I'm looking at a roster right now and I am, I want you to read on this, um, I'm gonna read out some of the names that have been confirmed so far and you, and we can kind of bounce back and forth on, on who's missing. We have Abbadon, um, Adam Cole. Bye-bye. Um, hangman, Adam Page. Brian Danielson, Chris Jericho, C Punk, Cody Rhodes, Darby Allen, um, Dr. Bri Baker, d m d Ha, Carida, Jade Cargill. We have John Moxley, jungle Boy, Kenny Omega, Chris Stalin, the current a w, world Heavyweight Champion, MJ f Nila, rose, orange Cassidy, Owen Hart, Paul White, Pentagon, sting, um, thunder Rosa and um, Yuki. Um, I don't know this one. Um, yukis, um, Saki, I'm, I'm not familiar with her.

I don't think I am either. I'm actually just looking it up right now. Yeah.

Yuka. Yeah. I'm not really familiar with her. It's Y U K A, so I, I'm mispronounced her name. My, my apologies there. But yeah, so we are officially missing some big names there cuz I didn't say the books. Um, I didn't say Ruby Soho. Um, that, that already strikes me as like, we're a bit missing, a little bit of like some of the other people. And cuz the books have been there since day one. I don't, I don't know where that's coming from. Yeah. And

what about Pentagon?

Um, we have Pentagon, but we don't have, um, Phoenix. Oh,

Phoenix. That's it. Yeah. Sorry. Phoenix. Yeah.

That's who it was. Yeah. I'm like, we have Pentagon, but we don't have Phoenix. And I feel like you can't have one without the other. So, yeah. No, exactly. No. Um, I, and I actually,

what was that? I was gonna say, I actually forgot that Owen Hart was in the game. I did too. So that, that, that, that's huge. Mm-hmm. Like having Owen Hart and investing game again, it's been so long since we've had him been a wrestling game.

Yeah. I, you know, still we're missing so many people. Like how do you have Jungle Boy on the list? Um, and not have Lucha source. Lu Source. Yeah. I. Like, how do you have a jungle boy? I mean, you, and these are like day one a e w lifers, so to speak. We're not even talking about like the Christian cages of the world who like came in at that midway point where everyone was sort of coming in. But like, we don't have Buddy Matthews, we don't have Samoa Joe, Tony Storm, we don't have Kala Raleigh. Which, you know, I think he's still confirmed to be on the roster even though, you know you haven't seen him. Yeah, we haven't seen him in a while. I think he's hurt. But like we have Keith Lee, um, that they need on the roster. Both Hardy boys, like we're missing them. Um, Isaiah Scott Swerve, swerve Strickling, basically, um, Suzak we're missing all them missing private party. Yep. So I'm like, you have, they have to be like gearing up to announce all these names, like in the full roster. Because right now what I'm seeing right now is 24 names, like 24 names. That is pathetic for a roster list, for a game of this magnitude.

Yeah, exactly. And I know they said that they're, I think they said they're gonna have, was it 50 wrestlers at launch? Mm-hmm. and like, I know she's kind of newer, but like Jamie hater, man, you gotta have her, you gotta, you gotta have her, you gotta have her in that game. She's, she's the champ right now. And it's like, you gotta include all the current champions in the game, no matter how soon they came to the CO or how late they came to the company. And it's like, that's who I was excited to play as in this game. I'm a Oh, really big. Yeah. I'm a huge Jamie Hater fan. I absolutely love her work. And that was gonna be my main for the game. So hopefully she's in the launch roster and she's not gonna be in like an update from a few months ago. Cause I don't know how long I'm gonna play this game, depending on the lack of modes and VOS that we have.

Yeah, I'm, I'm right there with you. We definitely need the current champions. I, I'm so curious because like, I. I don't know if they're gonna have their TRIOS titles. They need to have like the All Atlantic Championship in there. I don't really care one way or another about the F T W Championship. No. Like it can be in there. It cannot be in there. I don't really care. But like, you gotta have that one in there. You've gotta have, um, um, the t and t championship in there. You absolutely have to have the world championship. Of course. But like, you gotta have everyone who's holding those titles in there and you have Orange Cassidy in here. You gotta have the best friends, right? Yeah. You got. if you're gonna do d o c, like you can have the, the new J, new Japan like tie-in D O C and maybe like the AAA tie-in d o c. The what I'm alluding to is this game has the potential to be one of the biggest rosters ever because you, like a w works with so many outside companies. It, I 50 doesn't even seem like enough because like we got 24 here and adding another 26 seems like it is not, it's still lacking some of the big names that we really need. Their tag division is the best tag division on the face of the planet. How do you not have the, the majority of the TAG teams on here? Yeah.

And it's the sense of, you look at what WWE two K games has for rosters. Mm-hmm. we're in over the hundreds and it's like a e w has one of the largest rosters and like you have like the Ring of Honor guys now too, and it's. You g better have all these superstars in this game just to give us a replayability of this game. You're gonna have so many superstars to play as. And I

just, hell Jericho himself has like eight people in his own stable right now. That's, yeah. Just in his stable right now. I'm like, you're missing out on quite a bit. But you know, we've, we've been, come across this a little negative, but, so I wanna like have a positive spin on this. What is some of the aspects that you're looking forward to about this game? Uh, well the biggest aspect

is that it is something new, something different. It's gonna be a huge nostalgia trip for me to be able to go back to the arcade games and that's what I'm excited about. And it's the fact that one of my favorite wrestlers Sting, he was in WWE EQ k games and then Cuz w e didn't really use him all that well. And then he unfortunately got injured with his neck to know that I'm gonna be able to play a sting again. I am so happy and the fact that we're getting Owen Hart, I can like, I don't have to sit there and go back to W W F War zone. Mm-hmm. just to be able to play as Owen Hart. And what I'm curious to know with kind of still sticking to the wars, the roster here a little bit is do you think we'll get legends in

the game? Got to. I mean, they pay homage to too many legends, but like there's a licensing deal there that, you know, like we, they could do a lot of legends, but. They don't necessarily have access to the, the music for those legends. So it's kind of like, I don't know, I don't re necessarily know where, where they can kind of pick their spots, so to speak. I'm like, can they get the Rock and Roll Express there? Maybe, maybe not. Can they get the Dudleys? I'm like, is it the t n a kind of dudleys, because they, they damn sure probably can't have like the Dudleys from like the Attitude era music in the game. At least. They, um, the Hardy Boys music, we do have the Hardy Boys music in the, in, in, um, a a w right now. So that one's, that one could probably fly, but like, I don't necessarily know if you can get some of the licensing for their tracks and such and is it gonna feel the same if you don't have that, you know? Yeah,

exactly. And I feel like if you kind of still focus on like the a e W Legends, I guess you can say, like you could still bring in like a Jake Roberts, you could still bring in like a D D P, you could bring in like Arn Anderson. Maybe you can get the great mood to come on over too for that. Yeah. So like I think if you just keep like a small legends roster's not too high, I think it'd still be

good. Yeah. I'm just worried though. I'm like, cuz they don't own the, the W C W library of like of media. So I'm like, if you have d D P in there, are you just gonna have d D P walk down to like no interest music?

When he did wrestle in a W that one time, he still had entrance music. So depending how that licensing with that music goes. Yeah. That sure they could still use it. And that's why I was trying to focus on more like the guys who were still in a e w. Mm-hmm. like Jake Roberts was in there for a bit. Great meter showed up so they could still kind of use the licensing music. Obviously we're not gonna get probably the real legends that everyone wants. No. But still I think it's nice to have like the old guys cuz then you could actually, newer fans can actually witness the older guys and be more experienced and see watch older wrestling. Mm-hmm. And the biggest thing that I'm just excited for this game is that, like I said, it's something new for us fans to play and it's gonna be so much fun to know that I'm not just stuck playing a simulation game. I love arcade games. The crazier the better. And I'm excited for the updates, although I've been kind of negative on the lack of what we're gonna know and how they're gonna pull off the updates to know that this is not gonna be an annual release game. Oh, that's amazing. They're, they're gonna continue to support this game for years to come. So what I'm really interested in in is looking at an A e W fight forever, three years from now compared to what we got at the launch. There's so much stuff that they can continue to add to this game and we get the benefit from it cuz it's all gonna be free d l c updates for the game. We don't have to spend any more money. We don't have to buy a season path. Well I hope we don't have to buy a season pass cause that could change. You never know. They have enough confirmed anything. But it's a continue updates that I'm so excited. Like they, even though they don't have the seal cages, they could add it in, they could add in a dog collar match.

Like, oh man, you gotta have the dog collar match. Yeah. Like that

is the, that's what I'm most excited for is cuz it gives longevity to the game. Mm-hmm. is continuing to update the game and the biggest example for that is, I will use Destiny. Destiny has been going on for so long, they continue to give season passes, updates, expansions. You might fall out a bit after a little bit, but then when they drop that new expansion, all you and your buddie, you're jumping back in for a few more months game and as long as they can keep those people coming back.

Yeah, I think, um, you're right there on the money. Like, uh, another example, um, is EA sports, um, U U F C four, where like that game came out in um, 2020 and they haven't like it ha it's not, they haven't dropped a five yet. They're not, I, from my understanding, they're not planning to yet. They just keep updating the roster and then they make tweaks to the roster that you currently have based on like their standings in real life. And that's something I think a e w can adapt and take advantage of is like, You know, like orange, Cassie goes on a hot streak and let's just say he starts winning the matches like crazy. And the next thing you know, he's the world champion. Like, I'd love to see his, his rating go from like 84 in the game to about 92 or 93 to where like, it, it reflects real life and what's kind of going on there. And a like u UFC four does that really well. I think, um, like if, let's just say Jericho right now, the storyline, you know, in real life is that he's kind of on a, a losing slump. And he's sort of like, you know, uh, there's kind of that question, has he lost an edge? You can reflect that in the game by like taking him from a 90 rating all the way down to maybe like a 82 and like seeing how that kind of plays out. And then, A a w also has, they're, they're a long enough tenured company now to where maybe we can get different versions of different characters, so to speak. Like, um, Jericho Hill has had four, um, personas in a e w now, so maybe you can get those four personas, maybe you can get the, that sort of thing to where like, maybe he's the pain maker, Chris Jericho armed now. Maybe he's the Wizard Jericho. So at least let us choose the attire if you don't want to do four different characters there. Yeah, exactly. And I

absolutely love that. And the dynamic, like a dynamic rating system. Mm-hmm. I've been wanting that in the WWE e game for so long, and the fact that we never get it, like I, I don't like having to change the rating. Manual manually. Mm-hmm. manually to update it in real time. And it's like, just do like a hot and cold system, like you said, like Jericho's on a losing slump. He drops down a few ratings in game, you don't have to worry about it. He's not as great as he used to be. And then someone just takes off like Warren's Cassidy, he goes up to like an 88 and you're just like beating up the best of the best. It's like I've been wanting a dynamic rating system in a wrestling game for so

long. You know what I would also want, I would, I want a single player rating system and I want a tag team rating system to where like they're, you have separate attributes for each thing because like a d w is so unique to where a tag team wrestler means something like jungle Boy and Luaus, where Luaus didn't quite take off as a singles wrestler. But Jungle, Jack Perry has like some pedigree there and like he might be a better single wrestler. So instead of having like Jungle Boys overall rating being slightly higher than Lutra Source, maybe you'll have them like the same rating but one's better as the singles than one's better as a tag. I think that would be a really cool twist as well. Yeah,

no, that would actually be awesome cuz going to w W two K. Mm-hmm. I never understood why the TAG team wrestlers were rated so

low. Oh, absolutely

low. Why is F T R A 74 mm-hmm. are you kidding me? They're one of the best tag teams you have. in WWE right now? Well, this is going back a bit. Yeah. Mm-hmm. but like why are they a 74? They should at least be like an 88 in a tag team.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, I'm right there. So I'm like having that aspect I think would really flesh out the game a little bit more because like you can have like maybe like a, no, no offense to private party, but like you can have their singles, um, attributes being like a 71 or 72 or maybe even like a 69 or so, but their tag team, you know, rating being like a 80 to where like it balances out like they are. And it makes you feel like you have specialists there, like where there's, they are tag team specialists versus a wrestler, like a Brian Danielson to where he can be in a tag team, but his tag team rating might be like a 77 versus like his singles rating, which might be a 90. And I feel like that level of nuance there would really add, add flavor to the game. Yeah. You know

what'd actually be really cool is if they even tweak that a little bit where like just say you get like a Brian Danielson who's not in tag team. Mm-hmm. and you put him in a tag team cuz he's not really a tag team wrestler. That should hurt that, that tag team. Yeah. So you for sure, I think the rating should drop a bit for both cuz that mm-hmm. that would be a lot of fun to mix and match and stuff. I would, I would like that idea

a lot. Yeah, for sure. For sure. How do you feel they're gonna do with the, the title situation in the game? Do you feel like it's just going to be like titles that switch in exhibition mode? Or do you feel like there are going to be like a system in place to where like, hey, like you have like records and such like that and we keep track of like, who's champion, who's been champion. Like how do you think they're gonna do that in this game?

I, I. they have records in this game because like I am a big belts records leaderboard guy. And what I loved about WWE is that when you go into universe mode, you have how many times they've had the title, how many times they've won and they lost. And you gotta be able to defend those championships in exhibition. Mm-hmm. you have to like, if you can't do that and you can only, they'll only attach to the career mode. That's a huge, that's a huge L in my opinion. And I really hope with the ratings, cause like we already have the wins and losses mm-hmm. in their entrances that will update in real time, which is awesome and it's gonna be so cool. And I hope you can kind of share your ratings with your friends online. You have like that Kenny Omega, I hope your like just say 10 and oh shows up in the entrance for them. Mm-hmm. And there's just so much you can do with the ratings and the belts and I feel like you're gonna have. The heavyweight, you're gonna have the women's, you're gonna have the T B S, you're gonna have the T N t. I don't think they have the F T R title. And I feel like you'll have the TAG team and then that's probably about it. But I'm curious to know, cuz if you remember the trailer you had Thunder Rosa. Mm-hmm She had the older title.

I bet they update that. That seems like an easy update.

Yeah, I was gonna say, I feel like they have to update that. And you also gotta think, are they gonna continue to update? So if they do change those titles going forward, are they gonna continue to update those titles, make sure that's as relevant as current as possible. Yeah,

I, I'm right there with you. One of the things I am curious about is if like Fight Forever is gonna have Coretta Belts, do you know if we're gonna have that? I

don't think so. Because when you look at the customizations that they've already announced, they said Wrestler retires appearances, customer arenas. And then I think it was move sets, mo sets and entrances. Okay. They didn't mention anything about creative belts. Me personally, with creative belts, I don't care for creative belts.

Honestly, I'm the same way. It's, it is just one of those things, if they never really update the belts, sometimes I'll go in and like, you know, like how n wwe, um, over the years, like the intercontinental title has changed, uh, its appearance, like the black strap to the white strap sort of thing. So sometimes I like maybe swap that out a little bit to make it kind of like as modern as possible. Or maybe like sometimes I like look and see, oh, okay, like they don't have, this year they didn't have like the eagle belts, like the WWE title Eagle belt. Sometimes I might go download that if someone had that cor that in the curated suite. But like, I'm like you, I'm not like the hugest curator belt kind of person. As long as I can have historic belts, that's what I usually generate too. But like, hey, e w doesn't have that many historic belts, so I, I think it's what you see is what you get. Yeah,

exactly. And I know there's gonna be a lot of people who are gonna wanna create their w e superstars, put 'em in mm-hmm. maybe bring those titles in, kind of do their own like invasion angle with that. So I could see where creative belts, and I feel like they, cuz they, although they didn't announce it, it seems like in that, um, their showcase they had way back in August they were mentioning that they didn't have community creations. But later on it appears that that has changed. So I feel like they might be kind of looking at, for updating, maybe giving us a community creations. Cause me personally, I, I suck at creating wrestlers. Same here. I'm so bad. And to know that I can get someone else who's done a fantastic job and they look amazing. Is it, it's, it's amazing that you can do that and that. Something that a e w they have to have that in a modern wrestling game, you have to have some form of community creations. You gotta have more custom ability. You gotta have the creative belt, although I'm not a fan, you gotta have it for everyone else that will

enjoy it. Uh, yeah. I'm right there with you. I am very much a person who will go into the community suite and just see what other people have created. And I'll be like, I'll filter in by like, top downloads are top rated and, and see what everyone's created because like, I'm not a fan of it, but of like creating it myself, but I love downloading them and just kind of like playing around with it. Um, I want them to also have that creator arena and, and for, so I can continue to download different arenas like that people come up with because like, there are so many cool ones that like people have done. Like Bad, bad Blood was one of my favorite, like WWE old school arenas back in the day. Mm-hmm. And I like, I like downloading that one when I get a chance. This one I'm like, I feel like you have to have like, maybe some of the retro double or nothing sets There's all out's. The one that's usually around rumble time. Yeah. Um, revolution double or nothing, all out. Um, and then you have full gear. Yeah. Yeah. So that's, that's, those are the big ones. And then all like, outside of that, you do have like the small, the smaller ones like fight or fist, um, forbidden door I would argue is kind of on the smaller scale. Mm-hmm. um, battle the belts and rev, um, like beach break. All those feel like they're kind of like that smaller tier below that. But like, my point is like to have like the retro sets for all those would be kind of cool as well. Cuz like beach break, they, there was one cool one where, I think this was around the Cody era where he was like t t champion where they had like the sand around the, the yeah. The interest set. Yeah. I thought that was really cool.

Yeah. Yeah. Cuz uh, one of my favorite arenas back in like W C W was up like bash at the beach. Yeah. Where they had like the stand, like it got so unique and that's the one thing that I've not really liked investing lately is. The venues. Mm-hmm. the stages. They're just so bland now. So I hope a e w can get creative, bring those old venues back, like the beach break there. And the one thing too that I'm curious about with the arenas is cuz a u w, they're still relatively new mm-hmm. for venues in arenas. So it's like, are they gonna give us unique arenas for creative arena? Are they gonna just give us the bare bone templates like WWE gives us? Or are they gonna actually get crazy with it and just give us some unique, like, give us a spaceship, like just give us something different that we can customize, throw in there. And that's the one thing I've been intrigued about is the customer arenas with this game. Oh

yeah, for sure. And then another thing, another aspect is like a w just changed our look for dynamite as well. Like, can we go back and, and play in the r like the OG style where we did have like the heel tunnel and like the face tunnel or are we just locked into that? And is the new, the new, um, arena gonna be in the game this late in the development cycle? Like the one that they just put out for dynamite now. So there's so many questions about this game. So you say you're gonna name Chris, um, not Chris Dentler. You say you're gonna main, um, Jamie Hader. Like who on the male side of things? Who You, who you make me. Okay. Yeah. I was gonna say, we

don't even know if Jamie Hater's gonna be in the game at launch. Yeah. So, but I, I wanna play as her really deeply, but for the man, for the male super. I'm gonna be going to my, my favorite Sting. Sting all the way. Yeah. I play sting all the time. I still go back to two K 19 just to play a sting and he's gonna be my main, I'm gonna play a CM punk a lot just because I haven't played as him in for so long. I think it was like, Two k was it? Was it two K 14? I think

he was both. I I'm about say 13. Yeah, I think it thirteen's

been a long time last, right? It's been a very long time since we played CM Punk. So that top three that I'm gonna do is sting cm Punk. And then for the third one, I'm definitely gonna be going with Kenny Omega. I want us play as Kenny Omega's move set so badly. And just to know that I can do the one winged angel from the top rope. Yeah. Like, oh man, like let me set up a table. Put the guy. Oh man. Just the possibilities man.

Oh, uh, man, I like the one wing angel a lot, but that v trigger man has a special place in my heart. I love the V trigger move. Um, I'm probably gonna do like Adam Cole. Bye-bye. Um, I'm probably gonna do him a lot. I'm probably going to do, I have a feeling Darby Allen's gonna be really fun to play as because like that, that like fast place, kinetic, like phonetic energy I feel like is gonna be really fun. So I'm probably gonna do Darby. Kenny Omega and I'm probably, I like killing it up a lot of the times. So I'm probably going to do either MJF or probably, I don't know, like MJF are probably, Hmm, I maybe even Christian, cuz Christian has a really interesting move set depending on what moves they put in the game. Like if his finisher is going to be the spear or if it's, if that's going to be more of like the kill switch, um, like depending on what his move set's gonna be, I think he, he's gonna be an interesting person to play as. So I think those are gonna be my main three. And then the tag team, of course I'm probably just going to go. Probably with the Lutra bros, cuz I don't think anyone else is gonna be as fun to play as in that game. Yeah, yeah. No, definitely

the same tactic for me. It's definitely the Lutra Bros band. Yeah. I just can't wait. It's getting, just talking about this game. I have a smile on my face. I just, I I'm so excited and like coming soon. Like it's gotta be coming soon,

right, It's got to be, I mean so far, I think they said first half of the year. Uh, I'm, I'm looking forward to this game. Are you, so you're playing this on Xbox, right? Yeah, so

I'm gonna be playing this on Xbox and Nintendo, cuz I love Nintendo console, so I'm definitely be buying it twice. So You're welcome. A a w you're gonna get my money twice But yeah, so I'll mainly play on the Xbox cuz I, my switch is just hooked up here to my monitor. Mm-hmm. uh, my Xbox and my PS five all hooked up to the actual good big TV downstairs. And I love my video games with the big screen in front of me, so I'll definitely be playing on Xbox a lot.

I gotcha, I gotcha. So any final predictions for this game? Final

predictions? Hmm. Let's see here. How do

you, do you think fans are gonna be like, I'm gonna read out some predictions and you give me your feedback on them. Okay. And you tell me if they're, you feel like this is valid or not? I feel like, okay, so prediction number one, a w will be an extremely fun game to play, but people will be ultimately disappointed by this game. Yes, a hundred

percent. Because what I, because whenever you hype up a game and you're excited, it's something new, a lot of people are gonna want what they want in the game, not realizing that this is the first game for AE W. And a prime example of that is look at when W U K just brought back GM mode. Ah, everyone was so excited. Like, yes, GM mode, we're gonna be able to do so much stuff. And it's like, you get it. You can only do single matches. They don't have the tag team titles in. Yeah, they added them later on. You can't do multi man matches. So, yeah, you got to play that minute for what a minute. And then you got bored of it. You went on to something else in the game. So I feel like a lot of people are gonna love it. There's gonna be the hot topic of the week, the month, and then after that I think people are gonna be like, this is it.

We need more. Yeah, I understand. I understand. Do you think the Lake Grape Brody is gonna be in this game? Yes. I'm pretty

sure they've already confirmed that Brody Lee is gonna be in the game.

Okay. All right.

So, yeah. Yeah, yeah. They announced that on one of their, uh, all elite gaming channels. I'm pretty sure they announced that Brody. Okay, that's good. Gonna be in the game. And I like that. I love that. I wish that we would get his son in the game too. Maybe even just as like a manager. Mm-hmm. stuff like that. But like, don't actually have him in the ring, obviously. But I still think that would be a cool touch if maybe he came down with his son or something like that. That'd

be sweet. Yeah, that'd be sweet. So the next prediction, Do you think that Allister Black. and the House of Black is gonna be in this game at Launch. I want them

to be so bad. I want, you gotta at least give me Alistair Black and Brody King. Mm-hmm. So like, as long as we get them in the game, I'm okay. I don't, I just don't know. I don't know if they'll be in the launch game. I don't think so. Okay, okay. I don't, I don't think they'll be in the launch of the game. Oh.

Oh man. That's gonna be hard. That's gonna be a, a huge blow, I feel like. All right. So do you think r o h the brand and the roster from r o h will be at the game in launch? No.

No, it won't be. And, and this might be a bit of a hot take with that. I don't think we're gonna get much r o h in this. At all? You don't think so? I don't think so. I think they're gonna strictly just focus on the a e w talent. We're still gonna get, like Samoa Joe. We're gonna get Soro. Like, we're gonna still get those guys. But as far as like the other r o h guys, I don't think we're gonna get them.

Okay. Okay. Do you think there's going to be a developmental like system in this game? Like whether it be that you're rising up the ranks from a w dark to like the main quote unquote, the main roster? Or do you feel like they're going to have their quote unquote, like, um, what is it, what was the, the Nightmare Factory sort of thing to where you're, you're rising up through like independent rankings in the career mode of this game?

I would love to see them actually start you off at like, the basics. Start me off at the Nightmare Factory. Mm-hmm. because I love to, like, I want to create a story. I want to be able to see my character grow as I go on. I don't want to already start at the top. I want to go through the Indies. I want to be able to work my way up, get better, and I want you to be able to feel like, yeah, at first you just have a few little simple move sets, nothing too crazy, nothing too, and then you kind of work your way up. You unlock better moves that you can perform, you upgrade your finishers. I want to be able to feel, so at the end of the game, I worked my way to the top and I became the greatest superstar. And that's the one concern I also have is with the career mode. I feel like they're gonna, because you're gonna be able to put actual superstars in the career mode, I feel like it's not, you're not gonna be starting at the Nightmare Factory I feel like you're probably is gonna start on a e w dynamite and Oh wow. This might be like, I feel like maybe, maybe you'll start at dark, but I think there just might be just a generic career mode where you start at a e w and it's just a random story. They start you in. Maybe you. Or just the up and coming, you started off with a telling, you lose your first match and that's how they started. That's how I feel like they're gonna start the career mode.

Okay. Do you feel like most people are gonna be disappointed with the roster In in what, regardless of what they do in this game? Yes. Okay. I understand that. Yeah. I, I, I feel like they're gonna be

disappointed cuz everyone has their favorites and I feel like some people who people are really looking forward to are gonna be left out even if they're left out longer than expected. But I think people will be a little bit disappointed with the roster. And that brings me to my next point actually with the updates. Is the updates gonna negatively affect the

roster? You like people gonna take it off in the game?

Yeah. Like just say maybe Christian's contract is over and he's like, okay, I'm done. And maybe he returns the w e Is he gonna be like, okay, can you guys remove me from the game now? How long are the contracts if the superstars are signing for the game?

I imagine it's just, they're just gonna pay out one, like a one, like a one time payout for like all the people who are in the game. Because like, if you look at it, Cody is still on the roster for this game, and he's been in WWE for months now. Uh, almost, almost like half the time this game has been developed. He's, uh, he's been like in that gray zone of whether or not he would resign and, you know, n wwe. So I'm like, I'd imagine, you know, they're just gonna pay him out and just say, Hey, you're in the game. You know, like, we're, we're just gonna deal with that because like, I, you know, funny feeling. I have a, I have a feeling like that, um, I, I'm gonna say Rue, even though that's not his a e w name, it's going to go back to WWE e that's like my 2023 prediction is that he'll probably go back depending on whether or not Vince is in charge or not, but like, I think that anyone who's gonna be in this game on, like is, is still probably going to be in this game for the long haul. Like William Maral, if he's in this game at Launch, I don't think they're gonna take him off now that he's back with nxt, you know? Yeah, yeah. I I, it is just, just that funny feeling cuz it's like, I don't think historically speaking on the WWE two K side of things, like people have left and went to impact and all sorts of different things and they can take 'em off the game. I think they just do that same mantra to where like, they pay you for your, your appearance in a video game and you just go on with your day. Yeah. Yeah. It's

actually a valid point actually. I didn't actually think of

that. Yeah. But no, I'm like, to your point though, I'm like, There's so many people that they could add throughout the history of, like they, they, they could almost do like an update a week. And that would almost be exciting to me. Like if you, if the game came out and then the next week they updated it with like a women's package to where like they added a Athena to the game, they added like a, um, ICAR Rashida to the game. Or maybe they added like, um, a Julia Hart to the game to where maybe they added like five people every single week. I'd be perfectly okay with that. I'd almost, yeah, I'd almost be okay with like the like 24 ro, 24 people at launch. If they, if they gave me like five people every week at that point, you know? Yeah, yeah. No, exactly.

And you have the roster to do it. Mm-hmm. and that's gonna keep people playing it. Yeah. Cause more superstars you can play as

the better. Oh yeah, for sure. Cuz I'm like, if you add like that second week to where you added like Lance Archer, you added the ass boys so to speak, you added a, um, a pack, which I, I hope Pac was there at launch. He's been there since day one. But yeah, you get my point though. If you added like Ricky Starks or Samo Samo Joe, like that to me feels like it'd be a very fleshed out roster over like a month and a half. I feel like we would have the roster that we'd want, at least the majority of the people, you know? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, I mean, we've missed some people, like, uh, I can't believe we mentioned the sister, boys, you know, like, do you feel like they're gonna have like a generic wrap or do you feel like they'll have like, what, maybe like three or four different kind of wraps? I think cuz

the, the entrances that they do in this game, it's like shortened versions of it where like they just do one little, like, maybe like a 32nd clip. Mm-hmm. So I feel like for them they're just gonna have

one single wrap. Oh, okay. Yeah, because it'd almost be funny if they like just basically recorded all the raps that he's done with everybody he's, um, worked with and just had 'em in the game for like, uh, like let's say he was there against like, um, lethal and Jeff, Jared, who might, may or may not be in this game, but like having them have like that predisposed rap already in the books and just hit the play button every time they like face off against one of them. I, I think it's just perfect to me, but like, I know that's not really a feasible thing, but like I'd love to see it in the game.

Yeah, that would be awesome. And it would go back to the point of, um, like Mortal Columba. Mm-hmm. uh, they do voice lines for different characters and stuff like that. So whenever you play up against different people, they drop a specific voice line for that character specifically. So that would be an awesome, nice little touch to the game.

Yeah. But, uh, like you said though, like we are with Nick Gen consoles right now. We don't necessarily need the whole like, entrance nowadays. Like we can get to the meme, meme, potatoes of the action, but like, yeah, I, this game is like, man, it has so many question marks. It's still one of my most anticipated games though. Yeah, I know. It's

definitely still my most anticipated game. And the, like, going back to like, just the lack of information, I feel like, With a e w. This is the first game they really need to hammer home what this game is gonna be. And you gotta give us as much updates as possible. You just gotta be transparent. Like you can't say coming soon and then six months till say, coming soon. And like, you want people to buy us game no matter what, people are gonna buy this game. And I'm, I'm still excited. I just cannot wait to see these matches. And like going back to the barbed wire death match, like how is that match gonna play out? You know, like you're gonna have explosions barb wire like that, that's never gonna be in a WWE e game. So the fact that we're gonna get matches that are not in w W E is just gonna be awesome, and I cannot wait to play this game and I'm just so

excited for it. I got a question for you, Michael. Are you ready? As the one Triple H once. Oh, I am ready. Okay. Well, that's a good thing because it is time for our pro nerd trivia. It is the portion of the show where we ask you five different questions based on five different categories. And if you get it right, you're immortalized in the Pro Nerd Hall of fame. So far, we've only had one person be immortalized in this illustrious category. Michael, you could be this second. So without further ado, let's get started. Here we go. I'm spinning the wheel and whatever the category the wheel lands on will be your category of choice. So, Mikey, here we go. In the world of BC comics trivia, do you feel confident in this category? If it's

Batman, I feel pretty confident. Anything else? Okay. I'm, I'm, I'm a fish outta the water man. Okay,

good. We'll see. All right, so in the world of DC comics, How did the Flash acquire his power? Ooh, in most invitations, that is fun. Fact, I

don't watch anything to do with the flash, but I'm gonna say of all the characters that, I don't know, I just don't follow the Flash I'm gonna say he got his powers from some kind of, oh my God. He must have been like shocked or zapped from some kind of like, like a, not a, not a coil. Yeah. I'm just gonna say he got like shocked or electrically from like a Tesla coil or something like

that, you know, it's so, it's in a gray zone. I'm gonna accept that answer. He actually got shocked by lightning, so I'm gonna accept that, that that's, that's.

That's, that's what I was thinking about too, out of the box. That I guess that would've been like a simpler answer, I guess is getting shocked by lighting. But yeah, I don't think you, you would survive. But

yeah, he, well, I mean he had chemicals all around him and that sort of like, I kickstarted everything. Um, but yeah, I, I'm gonna accept that answer. I think that one's, uh, so close enough that I feel like I'd be picky not to. So I like that. I like that you got the first one, correct.

Well, thank you for giving me that. Gimme there.

Now we're moving into what I like to consider a very much harder category. It is Lord of the Rings. Are you confident in Lord of the Rings? Nope. I, I wouldn't be either. So in Lord of the Rings in Moreor, what kind of food does Freto say he can't remember the taste of in Lord of the Rings in Moreor. What kind of food does Freto say? He can't remember the taste of bread. Oh, that's very close. Unfortunately, that is not the answer. It is strawberries.

bread was a gas.

Yeah. Hey man, I, you know, they were eating bread on their way over there, so I'm like, I feel like that that was a pretty good gas.

I've never seen any of the Lord of the Rings. You haven't at all? No, I have not washed a load of the rings at all. Oh, okay. I even Harry Potter. I've never seen the Harry Potter movies.

Oh my goodness. Okay. Let's see what the wheel, hopefully the wheel didn't give you. Harry Potter next

Oh, that's coming.

We'll see. We'll see. All right. In the world of the M C U Marvel Cinematic Universe, uh, are you pretty confident in this one? Yeah, I feel I, I feel pretty confident. Okay. Okay. I like that. I like that. So in the realm of the Marvel Cinematic universe, Ooh, this one might be a little hard. All right. So Captain America,

I've never seen the Captain America movies. He's the only guy I haven't watched You haven't seen him at all? No. I just couldn't get into his movie. I just found him boring.

Oh, okay. Okay, gotcha, gotcha. Captain America has a best friend. What was the name of his best friend?

Uh, it's gotta be that Winter Soldier guy. Uh, I'm just gonna say Kevin. Kevin's a

I guess Kevin's a good answer. You're right. It is the Winter Soldier, but his name is Bucky Buchanan. Bucky Barnes, that's it? Yeah. Bucky

Barnes. I didn't know his actual name. I was like, maybe it's a Kevin. I don't know. I'm just gonna pull Kevin out. Kevin's a

good, Kevin's a good guess. Kevin's a good guess. All right. our next category. Let's see what the wheel lands on round and round and Oh my goodness. It's like it was meant to be. It is pro wrestling, pro wrestling trivia. Oh my goodness. Okay. All right. You, you looked out here cuz you, you sort of got a, a strong category for you. Yeah, I got lucky. Yeah. All right, so which character defeated c punk? Whoa, I'm reading that wrong. Let me just refresh that question. The question was, which character did John Cena get defeated by Aunt Money in the bank? 2011. And it was CM Punk, Sam Punk. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I read the, I read the question backwards, so lemme refresh.

Let's just, let's just spin the wheel again. Let's see what else I got.

Let's go. Okay. I like it. Yeah, let's go. Let's go. I like it. That's your gutsy there. All right, so the wheel has landed on Game of Thrones. You pretty confident in the Game of Thrones swirl? Nope.

No? Oh no. Me as a nerd, I am not into this stuff, unfortunately.

Oh no. Okay, gotcha, gotcha.

Guess I should have stuck with

wrestling. Yeah. Which character is known as the Mother of Dragons? Oh,

so the D uh, uh. It's like, not Dragon this, it's uh, da Is it d nes de nes.

I'm a, I'm a We're gonna count it cuz the pronunciation is so close. It's Denaris. That's it. Denariis. You

got it. I was just trying to think how to I pronounce. I was like, it's like De Jane Nas or Visionaires. I was like, it's something along those

lines. I like it. I like it. So you, you got two, correct? Right. Now you are on the final question. Are you get a category of A or B? Which one do you want to choose? Let's one with B. B is a good one. I like B. Okay, so B is in the realm of Nintendo. Nintendo trivia. I should be, be good with this. Okay. Okay. I like the, I like the, at least the enthusiasm towards it. All right. So in the world of Nintendo, here we go. Mm. All right. So there is a console, one of the Nintendo's best-selling console's, handheld console of all time. This console was known as the console with two faces because it has two different screens. What was the name of this console? Three Ds. Yes, the Ds family. So you got three? Correct. How do you feel about this?

A lot better than what I thought I was gonna be doing. You did pretty well. Once I started hearing those topics, I was like, Ooh, hello. The rings I don't watch. I was like, Harry, pause. Know 'em. I don't watch. But we didn't get that thankfully. And Lo Game of Thrones, I was like, don't watch Game of Thrones. So, but three outta five, not bad. That a pass and I'll take it. Yeah.

Yeah. So do you wanna experience the road not taken and see what the question would've been for a Oh yeah, let's do it. Yeah. A the, the realm was James Bond. So in, in the world of James Bond, what body part is missing by doctor? No. So what body part is It's a finger. No missing. It's a finger. I'll take it. It was, it is technically hands, so yeah, it, it's basically his fingers. So yeah, I'll take it. You would've got it right either.

Nice. I love it. Once I heard James Bond, I was like, I know some James Bond, so I might get lucky. And then I was like, you have something to do with his hands. And I was like, I thought it was like a finger, but hands, finger, same thing

for me. Yeah, same here. What, so where is Dr. Noah part of

Uh, he is, is it the Roger Morris that it was Dr. No, I think it was when Roger Moore was doing James Bond. Okay. I'm just trying to think of that was when they did Goldfinger.

So it was during that era of bond? Yeah,

the, the one of the older ones? Yeah. Like the first ones. Yeah. Okay.

I gotcha. I gotcha. So before we get up outta here, Michael, I have one last question for you. Where can the good people find you?

Well, the main place people can find me cause I do have social medias, but I'm, I'm never on them to be honest. And it's funny cuz when I started my YouTube career, I was constantly like tagging my videos and I was like, you know what, I'm just gonna stick to YouTube, upload myself on YouTube, see what happens. And I've had the most growth from just sticking to YouTube. Okay. But, so you can find me on YouTube at YouTube slash Mikey wrestling. You can also find me on Twitter at MJ headin. That is mj, h e d d e n. And you can also find me on Instagram at MJ headin.

Michael, it's been fun having you on the show. I gotta have you back soon when this game comes up. We gotta do our, our review and reaction for it. You

down Oh, 150%. Sign me up, No, that's true. I cannot wait for this game. I'm so excited and to review it is gonna be so much fun. I just love wrestling games and I'm definitely down man. Whenever you wanna do it, whenever the game comes out. And if you wanna do, uh, three years from now a e w fight forever,

I'll be on that as well. Sounds good, Michael, man, it's been great getting to know you and it's great having you on the show. until next time, peace. so that's a wrap for today's show. I'm going to give a special shout and thank you to Michael Headon for being on the show today. I also wanna let you know about the single player experience Discord server. It's the perfect place for single player gamers to talk about the good single player games they've been playing lately, and to get video game recommendations. Think of it kind of like a book club for single player gamers. The link to join will be in the description. Once you're in, feel free to share your video game backlog list. Talk about the good games you've been playing, or give your feedback on the show if you have a game that you think should be recommended or that you think I should talk about. Let me know in the single Player Experience Discord server. I'll see you there. Before we go, I just want to thank you so much for listening to today's episode. Stay safe, stay gamming, and I hope to catch you in the next one. Peace.