Growing up, there were two big wrestling brands — WCW and WWF. Before becoming a wrestling fan myself, my initial exposure to the world of professional wrestling was through video games. I can recall so many great wrestling games from my childhood — WCW vs. nWo: World Tour, WCW Nitro and Mayhem, WCW/nWo Revenge, WWF Royal Rumble, WWF Attitude, WWF WarZone, WWF No Mercy, WWF WrestleMania 2000.

I went from playing wrestling video games with friends to watching WWF Raw and Smackdown each and every week. I even recruited my dad to take my friends and I to live WWF events — whenever they would come to town. At some point I fell off of wrestling, right before Vince McMahon and the WWF devoured the WCW to become the WWE.

It wasn’t until 2021 that I jumped back into the world of professional wrestling. I started by re-watching old matches featuring my favorite Superstars of the past on Peacock. Next, I moved on to catching up on the newest storylines before attending my first live WWE event in about twenty years — WWE Smackdown.

I’m currently up to date on everything WWE, but at some point I wanted more. That’s when I started watching the new challenger brand in pro wrestling — AEW (All Elite Wrestling). I now consume about ten hours of wrestling per week (sometimes more thanks to New Japan Pro Wrestling, and monthly premium events). I even hope to attend a local South Florida CCW event soon.

Wrestling has once again taken over. When I was a kid, I felt like I had to choose a brand, WCW or WWF. Today, I feel free to enjoy both current brands, WWE and AEW, for different reasons. Both feature all-star talent, a collection of belts, exciting storylines, and the basic wrestling tropes. Still, they both feel very different to me, but you can find out more about that on my other site (Ferdi’s Learnings – My First Live AEW Event).

A New Challenger

For so many years, the pro wrestling video game scene has also been heavily dominated by the WWE — especially over the last decade since the WWE 2K series began. We did receive some fictional wrestling titles, like Action Arcade Wrestling, but mostly WWE titles.

Almost two weeks ago, AEW (All Elite Wrestling) dropped their first console/PC wrestling game, AEW: Fight Forever. Game developer YUKE’s, has over twenty years of experience in wrestling games. They started with WWF Smackdown (2000) and worked with the WWE up until WWE 2K19. The series was later taken over by in-house development team, Visual Concepts (developer on the NBA 2K series).

The last two entries in the WWE 2K series (WWE 2K22 and WWE 2K23), have taken more of a realistic sports sim approach. Playing WWE 2K23 feels like watching a WWE event on television, except you get to control the action. The game features full WWE Superstar entrances (with the proper camera angles and all), live match commentary, and authentic audience reactions and chants. The roster is full of the Superstars of the present, past, future stars (NXT), and continues to grow.

What’s great about AEW: Fight Forever is that this game is not trying to recreate what the WWE 2K series is doing today. AEW: Fight Forever is closer to a reboot of those classic arcade-style wrestling games I grew up on. While WWE 2K relies on proper timing and specific button combinations, AEW: Fight Forever invites both skilled wrestling gamers and button mashers. If you want to kick out of a pin, you are required to mash all of the buttons.

A Soft Launch

AEW: Fight Forever is not the perfect wrestling game, but it is  a welcomed addition to the wrestling game landscape. Since YUKE’s is back working with THQ Nordic (publisher of the WCW and WWF games I grew up playin), I totally feel the DNA of those wrestling games from the past — from the controls to the gameplay style.

The release sort of feels like a soft launch to me. AEW: Fight Forever does feature your basic game modes (one-on-one, tag team, four-way, battle royale, and more). The reason it feels like a soft launch (or unofficial Early Access) in some ways is due to the announcement of the upcoming “Stadium Stampede” mode (or Battle Royale mode). I believe there will be more announcements and content coming to this game in the future.

I’m happy to report that this game has zero microtransactions. Any cosmetics, items, or wrestlers in the shop are all available for purchase using AEW bucks, which players can earn by completing in-game challenges. There will be paid DLC (downloadable content) packs, which have already been announced — also, a season pass. Each DLC pack seems to feature two new wrestlers along with some mini-games. 

The in-game roster is quite disappointing considering the gigantic, diverse real-life AEW roster. I counted 36 male wrestlers and only 13 women. I’m hoping that the roster continues to expand beyond these 7-10 incoming wrestlers in the upcoming DLC packs.

The beautiful thing about AEW is that they have their roster, but they also bring in new and upcoming wrestlers from all over. I would love to see some Ring of Honor, New Japan Pro Wrestling, and even some more South American wrestlers (like Hijo del Vikingo).

While certain roster updates have not been announced yet, I did notice hints at specific wrestlers to come at a later date. The shop features shirts for missing wrestlers. I’ve even heard entrance music within the menu for the Acclaimed and others — and we all know that EVERYONE LOVES THE ACCLAIMED!

*Side Quest: What’s funny about wrestling games and their rosters is how wrestlers change their personas
so often that a few of the in-game wrestlers are always older versions of themselves. I’ve seen it in
both WWE 2K and now AEW: Fight Forever. I understand why it happens. These games take years to
make, and certain wrestler models can be created early on in development. When the game finally
releases you may see some big differences in a few specific characters.

What’s Good?

I haven’t quite figured out if the wrestlers in AEW: Fight Forever have limited move sets, or if I just haven’t figured out how to utilize their full potential. I find myself executing the same moves over and over. What I love about watching real-life AEW is how most of the roster has very unique and insane moves.

YUKE’s has brought some of these unique moves to life. I love hitting the “Code Red” with Darby Allin. Even though there are many high-flying, dangerous, and insane moves in AEW, the wrestler that had me the most impressed was Orange Cassidy.

First of all, Orange Cassidy is one of my favorites to watch in the ring. His character is so entertaining because he acts like he doesn’t really care, but he also happens to be a superstar athlete. What had me impressed was how the developer was able to combine his taunting with his moves to recreate his “Slow Motion Kicks” (which are just light toe taps on his opponents shins before hitting them with a super kick).

Interactions with weapons and foreign objects are not perfectly executed, but I applaud what they are going for. First, any time an object is on the floor and someone lands on it, they react to it, although it doesn’t always look so smooth. The second treat is the weapon physics. Certain weapons may become stuck on an opponent in interesting ways. For instance, a trashcan or cone may end up on someone’s head. I even once had a chair end up stuck around an opponent’s neck.

I like the idea of the Road to Elite (career mode), but the execution is not great. It started off nice, with the history of how AEW was started, which got me fired up. Once that quick lesson was over, the whole thing shifted to a repetitive weekly storyline. Each week you must choose your activities (eat, workout, sightsee, trivia) before completing the upcoming match. You do however get some lessons on food across the United States.

There are a few ways this mode can be improved. They can add some voice over, instead of only subtitles for what is going on. I know voice over may be costly, but even giving players a choice on what kind of reaction their wrestler will have to certain interactions would make this mode more engaging. Playing through Road to Elite mode I feel like it doesn’t matter which wrestler I choose to be, the story will always be the same. Right now I’m only really in it for the matches.

What’s Next?

Overall, this is a great start to an AEW game. I’m hoping that it sticks around for some years before another entry. In this time I would love to see the addition of more and more wrestlers to the roster (both male and female). They can add new arenas and events — they must be working on adding their newest show, AEW Collision.

With the Stadium Stampede (Battle Royale) mode in the works, I’m also excited to see what other kinds of game modes will show up in future updates. With all that being said I think people who purchased this game should be able to enjoy some free DLC content. I understand wrestler packs costing players, but some things should also be gifted to them for their commitment.

For their next game, hopefully some years down the line, I can totally see an AEW vs Ring of Honor game or AEW: Forbidden Door game. Both would be great opportunities to introduce two rosters of wrestlers and have them go head-to-head. This could also lead to more ideas in the “story mode.”

For now, I will continue to play WWE 2K23, but I’m excited to see where this game goes and how it continues to expand. For gamers like me, who are fans of both WWE and AEW brands, I can see them wanting to play both games under different circumstances. 

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*AEW: Fight Forever is out now on PC and consoles.
**myVGBC was provided a review code for AEW: Fight Forever by the publisher.