15 Best Wrestling Games Of All Time
1. WWE SmackDown: Here Comes The Pain
Admit it, you knew this had a fair chance of snatching number one spot.
Shut Your Mouth was a class wrestling game, but SmackDown: Here Comes The Pain was an improvement in all areas. The new grappling system made it feel like there were more moves to choose from, and a body damage display made it easier to win by submission. If someone's arm is in the red, lock on an arm bar. If their leg is damaged, go for a Sharpshooter.
Some didn't like that the free roaming parts of SYM had been stripped back to menu screens, but that made the Season Mode play faster. Overall, the story mode was enhanced and felt like another step in the right direction following Just Bring It's half-baked restrictions and brevity. There are still fans who go back and play through Here Comes The Pain's career over more modern MyRise versions.
Body damage made things tactical, but over the top action remained a general rule of thumb for THQ and Yuke's. Some of the spots players could pull off in-game were insane. Who could ever forget hitting elbow drops from a helicopter? Or how about riding through backstage areas running over opponents in a forklift?
Legends were part of the roster for the first time in HCTP too. That might've been a response to the aforementioned Legends Of Wrestling series. If so, then it was a clever move on WWE's part. Newer match types like Elimination Chamber also made their debut in the series, and that was so much fun to play with friends.
The visual style of Here Comes The Pain still holds up, the gameplay is outstanding, and the variety of modes and matches on offer makes it the most must see wrestling game in existence.
What other wrestling games deserve to be on this list? For more like this, check out Every Change That Happened During WWE’s Transfer Window and WWE 2K25: 10 Biggest Reveals (So Far)!