10. WCW Backstage Assault
Ok, ok, so this is quite the auspicious start for this list. Pretty much everyone agrees that WCW Backstage Assault, released in 2000 by Electronic Arts, is utterly useless, and one of the worst pro wrestling games of all time. The game didn't sell well, and amongst the few hundred thousand copies sold, it was not well-received. The game doesn't actually feature a wrestling ring, at all. Matches take place exclusively in 'backstage' areas, and are pretty much just weapons-based brawls. In truth, there isn't much strategy involved, other than choosing which weapons and environmental attacks to use, which seem to mainly involve Irish-Whipping your opponent into things. So, what makes the game worth playing if it's so terrible? Well, there's a certain charm about it all, which admittedly can be said for most things, but Backstage Assault does directly correlate with the WCW product at the time, it's chaotic, and shows that the promotion were fighting hard to find ideas which could pull them back into competition with the WWF. It might not hold up at all today, and actually wasn't even that groundbreaking for the time, but it's nonetheless a brave idea from WCW and EA to release a game based on professional wrestling, without including an actual ring. This is a curious release, one which captures a certain time and place, right before the company would hit the skids.
Jamie Kennedy
Lifelong wrestling, video game, music and sports obsessive who has been writing about his passions since childhood. Jamie started writing for WhatCulture in 2013, and has contributed thousands of articles and YouTube videos since then. He cut his teeth penning published pieces for top UK and European wrestling read Fighting Spirit Magazine (FSM), and also has extensive experience working within the wrestling biz as a manager and commentator for promotions like ICW on WWE Network and WCPW/Defiant since 2010. Further, Jamie also hosted the old Ministry Of Slam podcast, and has interviewed everyone from Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels to Bret Hart and Trish Stratus.
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