They’re everywhere. Wrestlers are part of the videogame furniture, not content to stay within the confines of wrestling games, grapplers can be found in a huge number of games. I blame Zangief of course, eager to prove Wrestling’s superiority as a martial art he entered the 2nd street fighter tournament and opened the floodgates for wrestlers looking to make a quick buck out of whoring themselves out in all manner of titles. And in an attempt to justify their actions, I now present to you some of my favourite wrestlers to appear in non wrestling games.
Mike Haggar (Final Fight series)
The original wrestler turned politician, Haggar took the mayorship of Metro City with an aim to clean up the streets of crime. Most mayors would raise taxes to pay for a more efficient police force, but Haggar took a more hands on approach and decided to round up his buddies Cody & Guy, remove his shirt & give every street punk & transvestite a spinning lariat or piledriver. Say what you want but that’s the kind of proactive leadership we all can respect, unless you want a lead pipe upside the head. Haggar even recently found himself among the roster of Marvel vs Capcom 3, mixing it up against the Marvel Super Heroes and proving Haggarmania is still running wild.
Mask De Smith (Killer7)
Quirky horror adventure-come-shooter Killer7 managed to have 7 lead characters, each a different facet of the hero’s shattered psyche and bearing the surname Smith, one of these is the hulking Mask De Smith a luchadore decked out in wrestling mask, cape & sharp business suit and wielding two grenade launchers. Mask’s strength also comes into play as a progression tool too, as he can use his strength to break weak walls with ease. Luchadores are a theme within the games of Goichi “Suda 51” Suda, his earlier Flower Sun & Rain featured a Mexican wrestler, complete with mask, despite the game being a surreal murder mystery.
Travis Touchdown (No More Heroes series)
Another Suda 51 protagonist, it’s intimated during the opening section of No More Heroes that Travis spent some time training in Calgary, and can remember wrestling moves he learned there by finding Lucha masks hidden throughout the town of Santa Destroy. Of course when one thinks of training in Calgary, it can only mean that Travis trained in the legendary Hart Family Dungeon, and although Travis didn’t pursue a career in wrestling, the throws he learned stood him in good stead in his career as a lightsabre wielding professional assassin. The sequel also had Travis learning new attacks from reading “Weekly Backdrops” magazine to increase his repertoire. Although Touchdown never competed in an actual bout, he certainly did his part to prove “in fact, pro wrestling is strong”
King (Tekken series)
If you’re going to draw inspiration from something, you might as well look for the best. King in his early incarnations is so close to Tiger Mask you can still see the tracing paper, but his look quickly cemented him as a fan favourite, ensuring his inclusion in every iteration of the games. King also gives the developers a chance to have some fun with his move sets, and players to have some fun spotting which famous moves make it into King’s repertoire in each new game. The Rock Bottom, Frankensteiner and the giant swing have all been employed by the leopard masked luchadore and look to still be so as Tekken becomes ever popular. As a side note even King’s backstory is a reference as his bio refers to him becoming a priest in Mexico, aping real life wrestling clergyman (and inspiration for the movie Nacho Libre, Frey Tormenta)
Muscle Power (World Heroes series)
You can’t pull the wool over my eyes hulkster, you can change your name & throw on some America themed gear, maybe even shave your moustache but a rose by any other name, right? I understand why, I wouldn’t want the public to know I’d been competing in no holds barred street brawls against some of history’s greatest warriors either. Hogan, I mean Muscle Power is part of the line up of 2D beat em up World Heroes and it’s subsequent sequels alongside Genghis Khan, Rasputin, Joan of Arc, John Madden (sort of) and Bruce Lee. The game itself is okay really, but an unofficial appearance by the one & only Hulkster (again sort of) does raise it above the rest of the mid 90s fighting game pack somewhat.
Tina Armstrong (Dead or Alive series)
Women grapplers in fighting games are a rare thing, most female characters fall into the “speedy but weak” category, but Miss Armstrong is something of a breath of fresh air. Easy on the eyes she may be, but within her moveset lies a true student of the game. Predominantly based on the moves of the legendary Manami Toyota, Tina has also added the Ace Crusher and figure four leglock too her arsenal to ensure there is some substance to all that style. The only black mark against her character is that she only entered the Dead or Alive tournament in order to use the exposure to transition into a modelling career, which could be seen as a biting satire of women using wrestling to achieve fame in other fields, or possibly it’s just something concocted to fill in the bio section of the manual.
Brock Lesnar (UFC undisputed series)
Oh come on, you could never accuse the UFC games of being wrestling games, and you really couldn’t accuse Brock of being anything other than a wrestler trapped in a fighters world. This paragraph may be a passive/aggressive attack on western MMA’s reluctance to accept that it owes wrestling a huge debt of thanks, but when
players instigate a “no Brock” rule in multiplayer matches, you know who the star of the show is, it’s just a shame the developers didn’t include the F5 in the game for ultimate troll points.
There you have it, the first instalment of my favourite fictional wrestlers that appear in non wrestling games, have I left out your favourite? Let me know on twitter atwww.twitter.com/BunnySuicida and I’ll try & make them a part of future installments of this series. Plus let me know what you think of the list so far. Any and all feedback is appreciated, so until then folks have fun with wrestling, and don’t turn off the power during saving.
Martin Dixon
4crwrestling.wordpress.com 