RT Sports

Riddick Bowe plans heavyweight comeback

2011-12-03T21:03:00.001Z

Former undisputed heavyweight king Riddick "Big Daddy" Bowe is planning on making a return to the ring in January next year.

Although regarded as one of the four great heavyweights of the 1990s, alongside Mike Tyson, Lennox Lewis and his archrival Evander Holyfield who he fought three times, Bowe's boxing career was marked by controversy.

After winning the undisputed heavyweight crown (WBC,WBA and IBF titles) by defeating Evander Holyfield in 1992, Bowe relinquished the WBC title by throwing the prestigious boxing belt in the trash, seemingly to avoid another clash with the number one contendor Lennox Lewis, who had beaten Bowe in the finals of the 1988 Olympics. This was folowed by former champion's first fight with Polish heavyweight Andrew Golota in 1996 which resulted in a riot.

The 44-year old American boxer hopes that a successful comeback will help address his tainted legacy. In an interview with boxingscene.com, Bowe said he decided to come back after watching Wladimir Klitschko's easy win over British heavyweight David Haye.

"I watched that fight and knew that I had to come back for America.

"You take the Klitschkos, I can match them with experience and size. I am not intimidated by them. Everybody who fights them is intimidated by them. I have the whole package to beat them.

"I'm going to show them the Riddick Bowe of 1992 - if not better. I sat around for 10 years and gave the Klitschkos a chance to get it right. Now I feel I need to show them how it should be done."

With a weak heavyweight division and few new opponents to challenge the Klitschko brothers, who between them hold the WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO titles, perhaps Bowe might get his chance to become a world champion again if he can win his first few comeback fights. But in a 1998 trial for kidnapping his wife and children, Bowe’s defence claimed the boxer had suffered brain damage during his boxing career. Something confirmed by the ex-champs noticeably slurred speech before and after his fights with Andrew Golota, so like many fight fans I will be hoping “Big Daddy” will have second thoughts and stay out of the ring for good.

Scott Hall, a cautionary tale

2011-11-19T00:07:00.000Z

WWE, pro wrestler Scott Hall confront substance abuse, health issues -- E:60 - ESPN

Larry Zbyszko on Last Call with Scott Hall

2011-05-30T15:08:00.000+01:00

Great show. Check out other episodes of Last Call with Scott Hall on Scott Hall TV!

The Voice vs Hulk Hogan

2011-05-23T17:41:00.000+01:00

The Hulk remembers slamming Andre "The Giant" at WrestleMania III.

Bruno Sammartino documentary: Behind The Championship Belt

2011-05-14T13:41:00.000+01:00

Good documentary about the WWE's longest reigning champion.

Holyfield-Tyson II aftermath video

2011-03-20T08:40:00.001Z

With rumours of Tyson-Holyfield III still occasionally circulating on the Internet, here is the aftermath to their last confrontation.

Tyson-Holyfield III coming soon?

2011-03-13T03:43:00.000Z

Mike Tyson – Evander Holyfield III: Coming Soon | Ringside Report

David Haye vs Wladimir Klitschko fight is on!

2011-03-08T14:47:00.000Z

At last! If these two can cut a deal then maybe there’s hope for peace in the middle east yet.

Who will be the most important wrestlers of 2011?

2011-03-08T04:15:00.000Z

In recent years wrestling seems to have been stuck in a time loop, what with TNA degenerating into some kind of WCW Monday Nitro reunion show in 2010, a year which saw the return of former WCW and WWE performers like Hulk Hogan, Eric Bischoff, Scott Hall, Sean Waltman, and most bizarrely of all the Nasty Boys. And the WWE didn’t fare much better either last year with WrestleMania XXVI being headlined by an injured Bret “The Hitman” Hart and a sixty-something Mr McMahon. True the Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels rematch proved there is still a place for the legends in the main event, and if the rumours of Sting vs. Undertaker at this year’s WrestleMania are true I’ll definitely be watching it, but how much longer can the WWE and TNA continue to resurrect the superstars of the 1980s and 90s to sell pay-per-views? And at this point is there really anyone left to bring back who isn’t over the age of 45 or even 50?
Fortunately, a new crop of superstars seem to be immerging fast to fill their boots. So who will be the most important wrestlers of 2011? What with Dos Caras, Jr. already winning the 2011 Royal Rumble match, it looks like this year will be one of big surprises, upsets, and new stars in wrestling. These are my picks …

AJ Styles

2010 wasn’t the best of years for the “Phenomenal One” AJ Styles. TNA’s showstopper being downgraded from World to TV champion in order to make room for Jeff Hardy in the main event. The Ric Flair gimmick didn’t help things much either for Styles. Hopefully with Hardy’s legal problems TNA will realise that now that Shawn Michaels is retired they have the best performer in the business today and make him the face of their company in 2011.

The Miz

Perhaps the biggest breakout star of 2010 had to be The Miz, the former Tough Enough contestant winning both the Money in the Bank PPV ladder match and later that year the WWE championship. The way the fans are reacting to him, a cocky heel they love to hate, is somewhat reminiscent of the way they reacted to The Rock when he was billed as “The Corporate Champion” back in 1998 and 99, could The Miz become the new people’s champion in 2011? If (or when) John Cena turns heel the WWE Universe will need a new hero, could such an eventuality happen in 2011?

Sheamus

"The Celtic Warrior" shocked the wrestling world back in 2009 by beating John Cena for the WWE title. In 2010 he won the King of the Ring tournament. It looks like the Undertaker will most likely retire undefeated at WrestleMania but might the Irish giant emerge as the new best big man in the WWE following The Phenom’s imminent retirement? At 6 foot 6 inches tall, and only 33 years of age, he certainly meets all the criteria needed.

John Morrison

Together with his former tag team partner The Miz, the two dominated the tag team division in the WWE, winning the 2008 Slammy Award for Tag Team of the Year. Since their break up in 2009, though, The Miz has gone on to become WWE champion while Morrison has stayed a midcard performer wrestling for the IC belt. This turn of events has led to some calling Morrison a new Marty Jannetty. His recent win over Sheamus at the TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs PPV would signal the WWE have bigger plans than that for him in 2011 though.

Arn Anderson going into Hall of Fame?

2011-02-24T19:01:00.000Z

With Wrestlemania being held in Atlanta, Georgia, the WWE really should think about putting Double A in the Hall of Fame this year.

Bruno Sammartino shoots on Vince McMahon

2011-02-20T18:07:00.000Z

Bruno Sammartino remembers his last run in the WWE.

Sting in contact with WWE regarding WrestleMania debut

2011-02-18T16:56:00.000Z

Sting In Contact With WWE Regarding WrestleMania Debut WrestleHeat.com

Boxing is here to stay

2011-02-10T23:33:00.000Z

The decline in the popularity of boxing in the United States (boxing is still alive and punching in Europe) and the rise of MMA worldwide has led some fight fans to speculate that boxing won’t be with us much longer. This is simply nonsense, boxing has been around as a major sport for well over a hundred years, whereas the UFC only started in 1993 and only really began its climb in popularity with the debut of The Ultimate Fighter in 2005.

TNA pulls Sting from website

2011-02-09T23:47:00.000Z

TNA pulls Sting from website as WWE Universe hype grows - National WWE Examiner.com

Tyson at his best

2011-02-09T16:00:00.000Z

Clip from James Toback's excellent film about the rise and fall of the controversial former undisputed heavyweight champion. When boxing fans rate Tyson as a heavyweight they often think of his defeats to James “Buster” Douglas, Evander Holyfield, Lennox Lewis, Danny Williams and ultimately journeyman heavyweight Kevin McBride. It’s easy to forget that Tyson won his first 19 professional bouts by knockout, with twelve of them occurring in the first round and was 37-0 at the end of the 1980s. For a short time he was arguably the best fighter ever.

Vince McMahon returns to Raw and teases Sting at WrestleMania XXVII

2011-02-08T14:13:00.000Z

WWE CEO Vince McMahon returns to Raw and teases Sting at WrestleMania 27 - National WWE Examiner.com

Don King - Only In America

2011-02-08T13:10:00.000Z

He is a convicted killer and in the words of Tim Witherspoon spoon “an evil man.” But as the old saying goes "you have to give the Devil his due." Don King is not only the first black boxing promoter in America, he’s also the most famous boxing promoter in the world. And to go from setting in a prison cell to promoting the "Rumble in the Jungle” and the "Thriller in Manila” in just a couple of years isn’t just impressive, it’s inspiring. After watching this film I can see how so many top fighters, from Ali and Holmes to Mike Tyson, did business with King … even if they might have regretted it later.

Mike Tyson knockout fight scenes from the film Don King: Only in America

2011-02-08T00:20:00.000Z

Clip from the HBO film Don King: Only in America, which shows perfectly how not only did Mike Tyson’s boxing skills deteriorate under Don King’s influence, so did “Iron” Mike's character and the sport of boxing too.

Joe Frazier recalls 'Thriller in Manila' fight

2011-02-07T23:20:00.000Z

Ali is a hero, but since seeing this documentary it’s Joe Frazier I support when I watch their classic third encounter, the infamous “Thriller in Manila” fight. Almost 40 years on you can still see Frazier’s determination to win in his eyes.

Mike Tyson training highlight video

2011-02-07T13:30:00.000Z

Mike Tyson when he was on his way to becoming one of the greatest heavyweight fighters of all time, before Don King and the hangers-on got to him and ruined "Iron" Mike.

The top five boxing heavyweights

2011-02-05T00:36:00.000Z

I want to stress first that this is only my opinion as a fan of the sport and someone with a casual interest in boxing history, I encourage all readers to disagree and post their own top five heavyweights below. Also, perhaps the obvious name missing from this list is “Iron” Mike Tyson, had it been a top ten I think I would have included him, he’s definitely in my top twenty and there’s no doubt that in his prime in the late 1980s "The Baddest Man on the Planet” dominated boxing, but he lacked staying power. Tyson lost to both Evander Holyfield and Lennox Lewis, which is why I chose to include them instead of “Iron” Mike. The problem when you do a top five in boxing is there are about twenty or more guys who arguably deserve that honour but you can only pick five.

5) Joe Louis "I just give lip service to being the greatest. He was the greatest." - Muhammad Ali

Only the second African-American to hold the world heavyweight championship. "The Brown Bomber” earned his place in heavyweight history when he defeated German boxer Max Schmeling in 1938 and avenged his only defeat at that time.

4) Larry Holmes "And all of the judges, the refs, and the promoters can kiss where the sun don't shine...and since we're on HBO that's my big black behind!" - Larry Holmes after his second controversial defeat to Michael Spinks in 1986

Perhaps the most underrated heavyweight of all time. Larry Holmes started his boxing career as a sparring partner for Muhammad Ali, and despite defeating his former mentor in the Great One’s last fifteen-round fight, "The Easton Assassin” spent most of his career in the shadow of the former champ. The biggest criticism of Holmes from boxing fans being that he was “no Ali,” which is true, he was Larry Holmes, and he reigned as the undefeated world heavyweight champion for seven years. Falling short of matching Rocky Marciano's career record of 49-0 by one controversial but unanimous judges decision in 1985 when he lost his IBF title to Michael Spinks.

3) Evander Holyfield “People have been telling what I can’t do all of my life, I have made a career out of proving people wrong.” - Evander Holyfield

The only man to have held a major version of the world heavyweight title four times, "The Real Deal" proved himself more than just a blown up cruiserweight when he TKO'd Mike Tyson in their long awaited showdown in 1996.

2) Lennox Lewis "He needs to change his name to Has-Been Rahman now!" - Lennox Lewis after KO'ing Hasim Rahman in Las Vegas on November 17, 2001

Despite an impressive win against the American superstar Riddick Bowe in the 1988 Olympics, as well as defeating the likes of Evander Holyfield and “Razor” Ruddock in professional bouts, the British-Canadian with Jamaican parentage had struggled for years to get the respect he deserved in the United States. All that changed on June 8, 2002, at the Pyramid Arena in Memphis, Tennessee, when “The Lion” ended the myth that was “Iron” Mike Tyson and proved himself once and for all the best heavyweight since Muhammad Ali retired in 1981.

1) Muhammad Ali "I told you I'm the real champion! I told you I'm the champion of the world! All of you bow! All of my critics crawl!” - Ali after beating George Foreman in Zaire, Africa 1974

The 1970s is often remembered as the "golden age" of heavyweight boxing, and the man who cleared out the heavyweight division in the 70s was Muhammad Ali. After being stripped of his world title for refusing to fight in the Vietnam War, Ali returned from a three year layoff to regain the world title, not once but twice, defeating many of the names that would have made this list had it been a top ten or fifteen, fighters like Joe Frazier, George Foreman, Ken Norton and Leon Spinks to name just four.

Sting signs with WWE

2011-02-04T14:04:00.000Z

It’s official: WCW and TNA superstar Sting signs with WWE - National WWE Examiner.com

Dixie Carter on Jeff Randall Live on Sky News

2011-02-02T11:40:00.000Z

Good to hear TNA Wrestling will be back on UK TV. I’ll be watching on Challenge, but wish Jeff Randall would have done at least a tiny bit of research before his interview with Dixie Carter, TNA haven’t used the octagon shaped ring in months.

Interview: Irvin Muchnick on the epidemic of early deaths in wrestling

2010-08-22T16:23:00.000+01:00

Irvin Muchnick is the author of Wrestling Babylon and Chris and Nancy. In the wake of the recent tragic death of wrestler Lance Cade I decided to contact the wrestling writer and author and get his thoughts on why so many WWE superstars seem to be dieing prematurely.

RT SPORTS: I just want to start by saying thank you for giving the time to answer these questions, I’m sure your constantly busy so it’s very much appreciated.

How did you first begin following wrestling and do you still consider yourself a wrestling fan?

IRVIN MUCHNICK: My uncle – my father’s brother – was Sam Muchnick, the promoter in St. Louis, the president of the National Wrestling Alliance for almost all of the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, and perhaps the most important figure on the business side of the sport in the era prior to cable TV and global marketing spearheaded by World Wrestling Entertainment. So I’ve been following the industry since I was knee-high to a turnbuckle. When I was a kid, I met many top wrestlers backstage and in social settings. On the night of the Kennedy assassination, November 22, 1963 – when I was nine years old – my dad and I attended Lou Thesz’s NWA world title defense against Fritz Von Erich. Uncle Sam thought it was too late to call off the show, and he had the local media in his pocket and no one criticized him. Two days later National Football League commissioner Pete Rozelle decided not to cancel the pro football schedule and he was roundly criticized. Go figure.

As a professional writer, I found myself stumbling into the story of the growth and influence of the wrestling industry. Somewhere deep inside me, I’m still a soft-core fan. But I don’t even have cable.

RT SPORTS: Who were some of your favourite wrestlers growing up and how do you think the superstars of today compare to them?

IRVIN MUCHNICK: Everyone is impressionable and we think the talent we saw in our youth were the best ever. I have my own great memories of Lou Thesz, Pat O’Connor, Gene Kiniski, Dick the Bruiser, Edouard Carpentier, Fritz Von Erich, Killer Kowalski. But if you watch what survives of their stuff on YouTube today, it confirms that pro wrestlers then, just like pro wrestlers now, had a few patterned moves and ways to build a story. Tbe truth of the matter is that athletes in all sports have become bigger, stronger, faster, and in almost every way better. The best of today’s wrestlers do a wider range of things, and more impressively, than their counterparts of earlier generations.

But I want to qualify that statement in a couple of ways.

I saw Buddy Rogers as NWA champion in 1961-62 at what turned out to be the tail end of his career. I’m sure he was even more dynamic in the late forties, when he saved my uncle’s bacon in a local promotional war. I don’t believe there could ever be another wrestler better at drawing “heel heat.” Just before Rogers died in the 1990s I spent a day talking with him, and he wasn’t especially articulate about his craft, nor did he seem exceptionally intelligent generally. But he knew how to do his thing, and he did it not without comedy or cartoon interviews, solely by how he moved and manipulated a crowd. Whatever “it” was, he had it.

Here’s my other observation about yesterday vs. today. In the 1980s Vince McMahon ended the charade of “kayfabe” – that is, pretending to the naive that pro wrestling was legitimate. He did so to get out of state athletic commission regulations and taxes, and the effect was odd. Wrestling became a global entertainment and marketing franchise, and paradoxically, the ante was upped on hard-core realism, precisely because the magic-show aspect of the game had been exposed. Accounting for the terrible human fallout of this phenomenon – literally hundreds of unnecessary deaths in the name of maxed-out profits – is the theme of my work.

RT SPORTS: What do you think it is about wrestling that appeals to so many people from seemingly every kind of different background?

IRVIN MUCHNICK: Well, does it appeal to so many different backgrounds? Haha, I’ll have to take your word for it. Speaking for myself, in wrestling at its best there’s a dreamlike, almost erotic quality. I know others like the adrenaline, the blood, the release. To the extent that wrestling cuts across different tastes, I guess the common denominator is that it’s a blank canvas for all our fantasies – an alternative universe where every social difference is resolved by physical aggression.

RT SPORTS: How has the wrestling business evolved during your lifetime and do you think this has been a change for the better or worse?

IRVIN MUCHNICK: I think I’ve already answered that to some extent. Change is inevitable. There’s a lot more money today and the industry’s cultural profile is higher. I also think studies will bear out that there are fewer pro wrestlers making a living than in the old days of territories. I have no judgment on whether all of this is bad or good. Nor do I judge how the surrounding narratives and pageantry have evolved; the marketplace speaks. What I do judge is the pandemic of deaths caused by deregulation. That phenomenon is both avoidable and depraved.

RT SPORTS: In your book Wrestling Babylon you write about how wresting has influenced other sports and even the media in America. What exactly do you mean by this and can you give us some examples?

IRVIN MUCHNICK: I mean not only that wrestling is big, but that what we might call wrestling values have become deeply engrained in our public life. My country is in its late-empire phase, and this is more than a metaphor – it’s something you can feel in your bones on a daily basis. The examples aren’t just of Jesse Ventura getting elected governor of Minnesota or Linda McMahon possibly getting elected to the Senate from Connecticut. It’s in the infiltration of extracurricular nonsense and “attitude” into legit sports, which I now find harder to enjoy as a consequence. It’s in our debased political dialogue – the shouting nature of radio talk about the most important issues of our time is just as insipid as sports talk. On June 24, 2007, I was invited onto “The O’Reilly Factor” on Fox News to discuss the Chris Benoit tragedy, and Bill O’Reilly, out of nowhere, started yelling at me for no reason. Go watch it on YouTube. That wasn’t a dialogue, it was a scripted beatdown.

RT SPORTS: Wrestling has certainly seen too many tragedies the last decade or so, not all of them drug or steroid related, from Owen Hart’s death in 1999 to the more recent Chris Benoit tragedy. Why do you think so many wrestlers are dying before they reach 45 and how much do you think wrestling promoters such as Vince McMahon are to blame?

IRVIN MUCHNICK: Again, this is a basic theme of everything I’ve been writing on this subject for more than a quarter of a century. It starts with deregulation, the total absence of health and safety standards. In 1982 there was a horrible mishap during the making of The Twilight Zone: The Movie, as star Vic Morrow and two Vietnamese-American child actors were shredded to death by the rotating blades of a helicopter during a late-night shoot. Immediately, Hollywood made changes in filmmaking procedures and the state of California reformed its child-labor laws. No one asked whether director Jon Landis was making a fictional movie or a documentary; people were killed during the production of a movie, and everyone understood that was wrong. But wrestling is “just wrestling” and wrestlers are “just wrestlers,” and somehow otherwise intelligent people are rendered stupid. The Linda McMahon campaign is highlighting how segments of the public don’t understand that there’s a difference between soap opera plots and an enterprise in which the soap opera players are real people who are dying in actuarially impossible numbers.

RT SPORTS: Your latest book is Chris and Nancy, which investigates the Chris Benoit tragedy. The media were quick to blame steroids for the double murder suicide, would you agree that that’s a massive over simplification and what in your view might have been the root causes for Benoit’s actions?

IRVIN MUCHNICK: There is no single-bullet theory for what happened. Who knows? But I think the totality of the evidence, and of the authorities’ lazy pursuit of the evidence, shows that the Benoit tragedy is mixed up in what I call wrestling’s “cocktail of death”: steroids, painkillers and other prescription drug abuse, brain trauma from serial untreated concussions,. Nancy and Chris Benoit were around the ninth and tenth of around 21 wrestling personalities who died before their 50th birthdays in the year 2007 alone – the peak year of deaths catalyzed by the ten-year period, 1996 to 2006, when WWE eliminated its drug-testing for talent, which even in the best of circumstances is something of a PR sham. You would think one of the most sensational crime stories of the year would open everyone’s eyes. But a Congressional committee punted its investigation without even holding public hearings. Now, while Linda McMahon spends $50 million of wrestling profits trying to buy a Senate seat, two more of her “former” wrestlers have dropped dead. The autopsy of Umaga last December showed an enlarged heart, so where was the vaunted cardio screening of WWE’s so-called wellness program? Lance Cade took a chair shot to the head on international TV in October 2008, nearly a year after Vince McMahon falsely told CNN that the company was eliminating chair shots to the head. Then, when he died recently at 29 from “heart failure,” Linda said her industry was unfortunately riddled with addicts, apparently including Lance, whom she said “I might have met once.” Outrageous.

RT SPORTS: The WWE have basically deleted Chris Benoit from their archives and the tragedy doesn’t seem to have had the lasting impact on fans perhaps that it should of had. How much to blame do you think wrestling fans are for not putting enough pressure on the people running the wrestling business to clean the sport up?

IRVIN MUCHNICK: I’m not popular with many wrestling fans, and journalists who pander to them, when I point out their share of responsibility in the ugly dynamic of wrestling’s death mill. The response is that it’s not their fault that no one takes wrestling seriously. But that’s baloney on steroids. Fans want others to take wrestling seriously ... until someone actually does. Then they circle the wagons, just like fans of the St. Louis Cardinals (including myself), who were in denial about the role of performance-enhancing drugs in Mark McGwire’s home run record. But here’s the thing, Richard. There’s a difference between fake records in a real sport, and real death in a fake sport. The former is cheating. The latter is a public-health issue.

RT SPORTS: Finally, what do you think needs to be done to prevent any more wrestling tragedies?

IRVIN MUCHNICK: Regulation, including drug-testing, by an independent authority, not by a bunch of doctors and labs hired by Vince McMahon for political cover.

RT SPORTS: Thanks Irvin, please feel free to plug any websites or blogs you might have and where people can buy copies of your excellent books.

IRVIN MUCHNICK: Thanks for having me, Richard. My main blog is www.wrestlingbabylon.wordpress.com. You can get information about my books, including how to order them, at www.benoitbook.com and www.wrestling.muchnick.net. I’m @irvmuch at Twitter. My YouTube channel is www.youtube.com/WrestlingBabylon. And from the links at www.muchnick.net, you can find out about my proudest achievement, the freelance writers’ case at the U.S. Supreme Court, Reed Elsevier v. Muchnick.

Primus reviews Legends of WresleMania

2010-08-05T02:00:00.000+01:00

Nice review from my friend Primus over at the official Binnall of America forum.

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Legends of WresleMania
By Primus

WrestleMania. For wrestling fans the name alone conjures images of Hulk Hogan bodyslamming Andre the Giant or Stone Cold Steve Austin refusing to submit to Bret Hart with his face a proverbial crimson mask. It has been called the Superbowl of wrestling and the showcase of the immortals and for twenty four years it has thrilled us and spiritualy closed out the WWF (now WWE, however since this covers events before the name change I will refer to it as WWF) season. Now, THQ has given the old school wrestling fans what they have wanted for years, the ability to relive classic matchups from years gone by with Legends of WrestleMania.

The tag line of the game is "Relive. Rewrite. Redefine." which plays into the main mode of the game, Legends Tour. In it you are given the chance to compete in certain matchups during the first fifteen WrestleMania events. In relive, you play as the victor of the match and try to duplicate that victory. In rewrite, you play as the loser and try to win the match. Redfine mode is where it is the most fun as you can choose either wrestler and battle in a gimmick match of some sort such as making the WrestlMania match between Yokozuna and Bret Hart a steel cage match. Each match has certain goals in it such as a certain number of top rope moves or recreating specific moments of the actual match to try and accomplish, these aren't needed to clear the match and opoen new ones, but they are used to unlock medals or achievement points. Before each match there is a two to three minute video highlighting the feud that centers around the match. These videos are taken straight from the original broadcasts with the original commentary and are a nicely done piece of fan service (and also a nice way for WWE to advertise their DVD's and WWE 24/7 cable channel) that really help to give the match a big feel.

There is also the Legend Killer mode where you use a created wrestler (more on the create a wrestler later) to take on ten opponents in rapid succession with just the energy you have, although you do regain a bit after each match. Every move you do gives you experince points which you can use to enhance your creation. It's not the most fun mode in the world, but if you want to play as a created wrestler online, you'll spend at least a few hours on it just to get your wrestler into competitve shape.

In the exhibition mode you have the following match types-

Single Steel Cage

Ladder Hell In A Cell

Ironman Submission

Tag Team Triple Threat

Battle Royal Handicap

Royal Rumble

The Royal Rumble match is probably the best version of it I have ever played. All of your moves are either punches, kicks or throws which really makes it feel like a real Rumble match. I never understood why they would have you put someone in a submission during a match where the object is to throw your opponent over the top rope. There is just something oddly satisfying by taking someone like Arn Anderson at number one and winning the match.

In a game like this, the main focus is going to be who's in it. While not the huge roster everyone wanted, the wrestlers selected do provide a nice contrast to one another. The roster is as follows-

Andre the Giant, Animal, Arn Anderson, Bam Bam Bigelow, Big Bossman, Big John Studd, Bret Hart, British Bulldog, Brutus Beefcake (just in there for Tim lol), Dusty Rhodes, Greg Valentine, Hawk, Honky Tonk Man, Hulk Hogan*, Hunter Hearst-Helmsley, Iron Shiek*, Jake Roberts, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, Jim Neidhardt, Jimmy Snuka, Junkyard Dog, Kamala, King Kong Bundy, WWE Hall of Famer Koko B. Ware, Michael P.S. Hayes, Mr. Perfect, Nikolai Volkoff*, Ric Flair, Ravishing Rick Rude*, The Rock, Rowdy Roddy Piper, Sgt. Slaughter, Shawn Michaels, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Ted DiBiase, The Ultimate Warrior, Undertaker and Yokozuna.

(* represents the original title holders in exhibtion mode)

In addition, the following managers are available- Bobby 'The Brain' Heenan, Jimmy Hart, Mr. Fuji and Paul Bearer. Unlike other games where the manager doesn't do anything, in LOW the manager can be used to distract the ref, your opponent or restore some of your health. It's also possible to bring your opponents manager into the ring and get them disqualified, although I've only had that happen twice.

The roster does omit quite a few people that were important to the WWF during it's heyday. Thanks to the create a wrestler that can be fixed. WIth all of the different articles of clothing and hairstyles it's easy to make your own Randy Savage or even Mankind. Also, if you have a Smackdown Vs. Raw 2009 save on your system you can unlock the entire roster from that game into LOW so you can have a match between John Cena and Hulk Hogan and see which one the fans grow tired of first, or an Andre vs. Big Show ladder match-your choice.

Gameplay is easy to pick up but takes time to master. The entire game is played with the four face buttons and either the D-pad or the left analog stick. It's quite a departure from the Smackdown games but more reminiscent of the old Wrestlefest arcade game and the old No Mercy type games on the N64. To complete some moves (including finishers) there are quick time events where you must hit the correct button as it flashes on the screen. It's not a perfect system, but it works much better than having to press up, left, right, up while holding B and X (who remembers that from Attitude?). The ease of the controls makes it so anyone can pick it up and enjoy it and tricky enough to make you have to work to master them to be able to preform all the moves. Speaking of moves, each character has their own signature moves, so unlike the TNA game, it's not just a generic moveset for everyone.

The graphics are great. Instead of being completely realistic they have a certain cartoonish/action figure like look to them which makes sense in that while we can see them anytime we want in real life, this is what they looked like to us in our minds when we were ten years old, larger than life superheroes. The arenas are based off the actual venues from I-XV with the appropriate fonts for the names and banners.

This isn't a complaint, but I really wish they would've used actual clips from the broadcasts for the commentary. Ross and Lawler do a good job but it's not the same hearing "Hulk Hogan has taken one giant step towards immortality" from someone other than Gorilla Monsoon. Other than that, the sound is great. I love hearing the old themes again, but why they didn't use "Badstreet USA'' for Michael Hayes instead of some generic sound alike or "Piledriver" instead of the better known "Bird, Bird, Bird" for Koko I'll never understand. If or nothing else it's worth it to hear the Fink again. Howard Finkel IS the voice of WrestleMania, and to hear him say "Here is your winner, and, NEW WWE champion..." is something that can never be duplicated.

So all in all, what do I think of this game? Simple. I love it! Then again I'm an old school mark and an arcade game fan also. Will it stand the test of time like No Mercy? Probably not. But if you are a wrestling fan who wants something different than the yearly rehashes of the Smackdown series or can't stand the generic roster that the WWE has now, I think you'll love it to. For everyone else, I still say give it a rental and see what you think chances are you'll find out why these guys are legends.

Grade: B+