For more than 30 years, the sport of human chess in the squared circle has long been a favorite for video game programmers. There's been pro-wrestling games on almost every video game system released from 1983's arcade game "Tag Team Wrestling" (aka The Big Pro Wrestling!") by Technos Japan to Absolute Entertainment's "Title Match Pro Wrestling" on the Atari 2600 to the succinctly titled NES "Pro Wrestling" (A Winner is You!) to exceptionally popular series such as "Fire Pro Wrestling" to modern multi-platform installments in franchises such as "WWE 2K14". Counting examples of "real life" wrestlers can be a challenging and subjective process. Should 1985's Mat Mania "The Golden Hullk" and Super Fire Pro Wrestling Premium X's "Ax Duggan" count towards Hulk Hogan? Are you counting both computer releases and video game consoles? With Create-a-Wrestler and Character packs, what's the proper count? How do you handle games where different characters were included withe each system (such as different rosters for 1995's "WWF Raw" for the SNES, Genesis and 32X)? What's the approach for when one wrestlers appears as several different gimmicks (i.e. Mick Foley as Cactus Jack, Dude Love and Mankind in 1999's "WWF Wrestlemania 2000")? For this article, I've combined personal research along with the GiantBomb website to estimate which pro-wrestlers appeared in the most video games. The counts may not be perfect, but the general ranking seems accurate.
33. Scott Steiner - 16+ games
The Big Bad Booty Daddy Scott Steiner broke into wrestling in 1986 following his brother. Rick first appeared in the 1990's "World Championship Wrestling" for the NES but it wasn't until 1994's "WCW Superbrawl" and "WCW: The Main Event" where both brothers appeared together. Scott took the lead with 2000's "WCW Backstage Assault" and racked up some additional WWE Licensed Video Game appearances for "WWE Raw 2" and "WWE Smackdown! Here comes to Pain" in 2003 in conjunction with his 2002-2004 WWE singles run. Selected Appearances 1994: WCW Superbrawl 1994: WCW: The Main Event 1996: Super Fire Pro Wrestling Premium X (as "Small Snider") 1997: WCW/nWo World Tour 1997: Virtual pro Wrestling 64 & Virtual Pro Wrestling 2 1997: WCW vs the World 1998: WCW/nWo Revenge 1998: WCW Nitro 1999: WCW Mayhem 1999: WCW Thunder 2000: WCW Backstage Assault 2003: WWE RAW 2 2003: WWE SmackDown! Here Comes The Pain (PlayStation 2) 2003: Legends of Wrestling II 2004: Showdown: Legends of Wrestling 2008: TNA iMPACT!
32. Road Warriors (Animal and Hawk) - 17+ games
Appearing in both WWF and WCW video game titles, Road Warrior Animal and Road Warrior Hawk first officially burst on the Video Game scene in 1990 as part of the NES' "World Championship Wrestling". Many may remember their pivotal role in the famous 1991 WWF Wrestlefest Arcade Game. As art imitates real life, while it was many years after their early 80s debut before the Legion of Doom officially appeared in the digital form, their look was appropriated many times over without their permission. In fact, many think that the character "Insane Warrior" in the 1985's Mat Mania arcade game is basically a Road Warrior Animal ripoff. Selected Appearances 1985: Mat Mania (The Insane Warrior) 1990: World Championship Wrestling (NES) 1991: WWF Wrestlefest 1992: WWF European Rampage Tour (Amiga, Atari ST, PC, Commodore 64) 1992: WWF Super WrestleMania (SNES, Mega Drive/Genesis) 1996: Super Fire Pro Wrestling Premium X (as "Iron Blaster") 1997: Virtual pro Wrestling 64 & Virtual Pro Wrestling 2 2002: Legends of Wrestling 2003: WWE SmackDown! Here Comes The Pain (PlayStation 2) 2003: Legends of Wrestling II 2004: WWE SmackDown! vs. RAW 2004: Showdown: Legends of Wrestling 2009: WWE Legends of WrestleMania 2011: WWE '12 2011: WWE All Stars 2012: WWE '13 2012: WWE Wrestlefest (iPad)
31. Mark Henry - 17+ games
While the World's Strongest Man made his earliest WWF appearances in 1996 (when he beat up Lawler and later signed his epic ten-year contract), it wasn't until 1999 that Mark Henry started appearing in WWF Video games: WWF Wrestlemania 2000 and WWF Attitude. His longevity with WWE has earned him a roster spot on many of the games over the last 15 years (especially in the years where he wasn't injured). Selected Appearances 1999: WWF Wrestlemania 2000 1999: WWF Attitude 2000: WWF No Mercy 2000: WWF Smackdown 2000: WWF Smackdown: Know Your Role 2002: WWE SmackDown! Shut Your Mouth (PlayStation 2) 2003: WWE RAW 2 2006: WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2007 2007: WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2008 2008: WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2009 2009: WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2010 2010: WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2011 2011: WWE '12 2011: WWE All Stars 2012: WWE '13 (including a Mark Henry 1998 version) 2012: WWE Wrestlefest (iPad) 2013: WWE 2K14
I'm a professional wrestling analyst, an improviser and an avid NES gamer. I live in Saint Paul, Minnesota and I'm working on my first book (#wrestlenomics). You can contact me at chris.harrington@gmail.com or on twitter (@mookieghana)
