Brainbustaaahhh!!!
People don't really consider professional wrestling a sport here in the US; and rightfully so. It's not a sport. It's athletic, sure, but it's theater. It's show. It's bad acting set to painful gymnastics. That's fine by me. I enjoy it for what it is. But, elsewhere in the world, wrestling is...
People don't really consider professional wrestling a sport here in the US; and rightfully so. It's not a sport. It's athletic, sure, but it's theater. It's show. It's bad acting set to painful gymnastics. That's fine by me. I enjoy it for what it is. But, elsewhere in the world, wrestling is treated more like a real life competition. Japan, for instance, takes its wrestling very seriously. Considering the stylistic differences between American wrestling and Japanese wrestling, or "puroresu," as they call it, it's not hard to see why. There's very little melodrama in puroresu. Wrestlers feud, sure, but it's more like boxing feuds (sans Mike Tyson) than anything you'd see on WWE Raw each week. No wrestlers knocking up their female managers. No mysterious twin brothers appearing out of nowhere to seek revenge. No wrestlers getting buried alive during a PPV event. It's all very straight-laced and purely competition-based. And it really shows in the ring work. Japanese matches, even the bad ones, are usually a hundred times more entertaining than a typical WWE bout. Not to put down some of the legitimate talents the WWE has, like Rey Mysterio or Chris Benoit--hell, those guys put on great bouts. But the Japanese have nailed the in-ring aspect of wrestling incredibly well. So much so, that it's really all I watch these days, albeit mostly via imported tapes and DVDs.
Occasionally, I'll delve into Japanese wrestling video games too. As anyone who reads our forums will tell you, I love both AKI's Virtual Pro Wrestling and Spike's Fire ProWrestling franchises like some people love their children. AKI's been all but dormant this console generation in terms of traditional wrestling games, and Spike finally called it quits on the Fire Pro series back in 2003. However, they didn't give up on wrestling. They started a new franchise, titled King of Colosseum. Sort of a 3D reenvisioning of their 2D Fire Pro series. The first game wasn't all that great, but the sequel, released late last year, absolutely is. I went out and imported King of Colosseum II, and after spending a fair amount of time with it, I came away very impressed.
Now, I realize that most people don't import Japanese games, because, hey, it's expensive. You'd need a Japanese PS2, and the games usually cost an arm and a leg with shipping. But, if you ask me, if you're a wrestling fan and you have the means or the funds to make this happen, I seriously suggest you do. King of Colosseum II is one of the best wrestlers the PS2 has to offer, period. It's not often that a game really hooks me, but this one has. In fact, to hell with this, I'm going to go play some more of it right now. In the meantime, if anybody has some good create-a-wrestler templates for KOC II, lay 'em on me via e-mail. I'd be eternally grateful.
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