![]() WWF Raw - The Undertaker, Triple H, Kane, and Jeff Hardyĭespite both TV shows being of relatively equal quality in 2002, the WWF Raw games didn’t do nearly as well as the Smackdown! series. The Rock is even more prominent than ever before, with Triple H and Kurt Angle reduced to background images you might not even notice at first. Smackdown! Just Bring It - The Rock, Triple H, and Kurt AngleĪ pattern is emerging on the Smackdown! covers, as The Rock and Triple H grace the box art once more. Then it’s an easy selection of the biggest stars of the era like The Undertaker, Triple H and Chris Jericho. As the subtitle uses one of The Rock’s catchphrases, it’s no surprise that he’s front and centre on the cover. Released the same year as the first, this game knew exactly what to take advantage of. Smackdown! 2 Know Your Role - The Rock, Triple H, The Undertaker, and Chris Jericho Chyna gets a nod too as the first woman on the cover of a wrestling game, which is fitting for her place in wrestling history. ![]() Once again, Mankind is used despite Mick Foley having removed the mask by this point, but that goes to show how strong of a marketing image his mask was. The Smackdown! games are a beloved set amongst fans, especially the later ones, and the first one started the series strong. Smackdown! - The Rock, Mankind, and Chyna Edge wasn’t as big of a star as he would eventually be, but he was someone on the rise, and although Jeff Hardy is on this cover, you can’t see his face as he’s being beaten up by Edge. The Rock and Triple H were easy picks for this cover as they were still at the top of their game. It’s the perfect encapsulation of the retro arcade-style of wrestling game that many fans are sorely missing in the modern era. If you ask long-time fans what the best wrestling video game of all time is, they’ll probably say WWF No Mercy. WWF No Mercy - The Rock, Triple H, Edge, and Jeff Hardy Even more strange is the inclusion of The Undertaker, who didn’t even appear at WrestleMania 2000 due to injury. Mick Foley is in his Mankind gimmick on the cover, but he famously returned to his Cactus Jack gimmick at the start of 2000 during his feud with Triple H. Unsurprisingly, the cover features all four of the participants of the show’s main event, although with a few strange choices. However, you wouldn’t know that based on the video game. What should’ve been an incredible Rock vs Triple H main event was sullied and turned into a Fatal 4 Way with the awful ‘McMahon in every corner’ gimmick that turned the whole thing into a confusing mess. The show WrestleMania 2000 wasn’t the best WrestleMania ever. WrestleMania 2000 - The Rock, Triple H, The Undertaker, Mankind, and Big Show We’ve rolled back the clock to 2000 to see every WWE cover star over the past twenty years. ![]() It’s an indication of the person/people that WWE trusts to sell such a huge product with their faces alone. Then series developers, THQ, closed its doors and the licence was handed to 2K Games, who have been slowly growing the scope of the games year on year, with varying degrees of success.īeing a star in wrestling is often less about how good you are in the ring, and more about how marketable you are as a personality, so the covers of WWE video games are a great way to see who was enjoying the biggest success in the company for that year. ![]() At first, they were producing standalone games like the WrestleMania and Smackdown! games, but eventually those all got consolidated into a single annual release known as the Smackdown vs Raw series which ran until 2011. The WWE video games have gone through a few distinct eras since the turn of the millennium.
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