Ranking The Best Wrestling Video Game For Each Major Console

Exploring the very best wrestling games of the past 35 years.

by Andrew Pollard
mankind smackdown 2 know your role
THQ

Here in 2021, wrestling fans still have a bad taste in their mouth from the totally turd-tastic WWE 2K20. But while that release was genuinely shocking with how glitch-ridden it was, thankfully there have been so many other great wrestling games over the years.

Since video games came to the fore in the 1980s, there have always been professional wrestling offerings in some form or fashion. From console to console, from generation to generation, there has continued to be a constant flow of new wrestling games, serving up the promotions and superstars of the day.

Going back to the heyday of the NES and SEGA Master System years, here we're exploring the very best wrestling game for so many of the most beloved video consoles in history. Handheld systems are off the table, and it goes without saying that PC games aren't included (shout-out to Total Extreme Wrestling!), but the majority of your other favourite consoles are in the spotlight here (remarkably, not a single wrestling game released for the Wii U).

From those 8-bit days of old, to the consoles of the present day, then, here are the very best wrestling video games offered up on these systems over the decades.

15. SEGA Master System - WWF WrestleMania: Steel Cage Challenge

mankind smackdown 2 know your role
Acclaim

For the SEGA Master System, there were only really two actual wrestling games of note - and one was hands-down better than the other.

1986 served up the vanilla Pro Wrestling, but that was followed in early 1993 by the infinitely superior WWF WrestleMania: Steel Cage Challenge.

To be fair to poor old Pro Wrestling, that was released a whole seven years before Steel Cage Challenge and was focused solely on clunky tag bouts. For WWF WrestleMania: Steel Cage Challenge, it had the benefit of being released towards the end of the Master System's lifespan - and that meant that game development had come a long way since the console was first launched back in 1985.

WWF WrestleMania: Steel Cage Challenge may not be much to look at right now, but it's hard to explain how cool it was for a long-time Master System gamer to be able to take control of a Bret Hart or a Papa Shango and slap Hulk Hogan around.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.