Professional wrestling and video games have a long and storied relationship. One that dates back to Nintendo and Sega's very first consoles, and even has roots in the arcade world. Even gamers who haven't watched wrestling for years will have their nostalgia stirred when someone within earshot mentions WWF No Mercy, or SmackDown: Here Comes The Pain. Great, nay, iconic games that stand the test of time, and hopefully, if the licenses for those games and others are currently with the right people, we'll see them crop up on subscription services at some point in the future.
Despite the hiccup that was WWE 2K20, the bond between wrestling and games is arguably stronger than ever in 2022. WWE 2K22 has done a lot of good to erase that aforementioned hiccup, AEW's first game could be here before the end of the year, and WrestleQuest, a pro-wrestling RPG with a lot of promise, launches over the summer. We've also been getting professions of love for games from some pretty unexpected avenues. Randy Orton plays so much Elden Ring that he has already hit level 527, and Stone Cold is a Breath of the Wild guy.
There are plenty of wrestlers who love gaming and talk about it a lot. Xavier Woods, Adam Cole, Ember Moon, and Cody Rhodes, the man who was in the room for Steve Austin's shocking Zelda confession, are all avid gamers. However, Stone Cold and Randy Orton's revelations got me thinking that maybe there are other gamers out there in the WWE Universe, and we just don't know it. That led me to speculate wildly on what some of those wrestlers might play.
It only seems right to kick things off with The Rock. He's arguably the most well-known wrestler of all time thanks to his Hollywood movie career. Now, considering The Rock makes roughly 5000 movies every year, and uses all of his free time to pump iron and eat pancakes, it seems unlikely he ever gets the chance to kick back and play some games. The man can clearly make time out of thin air though, so maybe he does game from time to time. Since almost all of Rock's movies take place in a jungle setting, I can only assume he's a Donkey Kong fan. Thank goodness Donkey Konga was a thing before he got too ripped as in 2022, he would unintentionally smash those bongos to bits.
Speaking of wrestlers who love smashing stuff to bits, it's probably safe to assume Brock Lesnar doesn't play games. But hang on a second. The man has kids. He also spends almost all of his time on a remote farm in the middle of nowhere. Unlike The Rock, the man has a lot of time to kill, and odds are one of those kids has handed him a DualShock or a Joy-Con at some point. Maybe his kids have even shown him that you can simulate hunting and fishing through video games. It also seems likely that after The Beast realized none of the virtual animals he was shooting and catching on the screen could be turned into food, he threw the controller through a wall and stormed out of the house to do some real hunting.
Lesnar's long-time rival Goldberg wouldn't have let that anger get the better of him. In fact, my guess is the man uses video games to channel that anger. Mainly anger related to him not getting to live out his dream of solely making his fortune through playing football. Goldberg had to look elsewhere after his football career didn't work out, and for the longest time, it felt painfully obvious he would rather be on the gridiron than in the ring. Just like the rest of us, the closest Goldberg gets to that becoming a reality now is by playing Madden.
Some of the best games allow you to experience different paths and might even include alternate endings. No matter how much Seth Rollins might try, Arkham Asylum is not one of those games. Spoiler alert if you haven't played the first Arkham game, it ends with Batman defeating the Joker. Rollins has clearly borrowed so much from the Joker persona that he likely goes full Clown Prince Of Crime while playing Asylum. Playing it over and over again, hoping for a different ending. Praying that just once, Joker will win. Keep trying Seth, maybe it'll happen eventually (it won't).
Wrestling is a direct avenue into acting for some of the more talented stars to have stepped between the ropes. Sasha Banks is one of the latest stars to have that happen, landing a role in The Mandalorian. Banks' time on-screen has been limited so far, though. If I were The Boss, I would be hooked on learning as much as I can about the wider Star Wars universe, and spending as much time in it as possible. I bet she's been playing every Star Wars game she can get her hands on, including The Skywalker Saga and its Mando DLC.
The list goes on. New Day are all gamers. I wonder if they exclusively play Apex Legends when together so they can drop as a Trio. Chris Jericho probably plays nothing but Guitar Hero and Rock Band, especially if any of the games have Fozzy songs on. Charlotte Flair is that FIFA player you find online who is always PSG because she has to win all the time. The list goes on, and I'd like to think at least a few of these are accurate. Even if it's just the Lesnar one. The mental image of him sat in his living room wearing waders and casting his Joy-Con like a fishing rod is not one I will be able to shake anytime soon.