There has been some experimentation in professional wrestling video games, from WWE Crush Hour's vehicular combat to WWE's collaboration with Fortnite, and the upcoming AEW Fight Forever's refreshed take on the form. But, some recent findings have uncovered that a potential collaboration could have made for one of the best wrestling games ever as Extreme Championship Wrestling came close to working with Grand Theft Auto creators, Rockstar Games.
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Rockstar Games Wanted To Make An ECW Video Game
Despite its relatively short time in the zeitgeist, ECW came out with a pair of video games, ECW Hardcore Revolution and ECW Anarchy Rulz. Both released in 2000, developed by the developers that previously held the WWF license, Acclaim. But, it appears that ECW's virtual offerings could have been very different, and perhaps much more prosperous.
YouTube channel Hard4Games recently got their hands on a pre-alpha ECW Hardcore Revolution, and interviewed Tommy Dreamer, a man who worked various roles behind the scenes under Paul Heyman. 'Video games were key for your success as a wrestling company, and we had a lot of companies bidding for that game,' Dreamer shared. 'There was a fan, who worked for this company, and they were like ‘man, we want this ECW game to be our number two behind this other game, and it’s revolutionary, it’s a perfect fit for ECW''. According to Dreamer, 'that other game, that if it hit we were going to take off – that game and that franchise was Grand Theft Auto'.
Dreamer detailed that the ECW fan within Rockstar Games was Kevin Gill, a man who has held many jobs across the video games, music and pro wrestling industries. Gill had actually spoken on the potential collaboration earlier this year on the Tru Heel Heat Wrestling podcast. 'I had put together a deal with Paul Heyman, we had a series of meetings, and one weekend I rented a van and brought the whole Rockstar Games team,' Gill recalled.
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Why Didn't The ECW Game Come Together?
Across the two interviews, Dreamer and Gill both give slightly different answers that come together to paint a picture as to why the potential ECW game went through; finances. With Dreamer stating that Rockstar were waiting for Grand Theft Auto to take off, he said 'we couldn’t wait due to financial reasons...[Acclaim] offered us money on the back end as opposed to the front end.'
Similarly speaking to ECW's rocky money situation, Gill shared that Rockstar weren't totally confident in ECW lasting long enough for the game to be made. Gill shared that Take-Two (Rockstar's owners) founder Ryan Brandt posed the question 'if this was your million dollars right now, would you sign this check and send it to Paul Heyman?', with Gill answering 'it breaks my heart to say it, but I can’t' (h/t to Video Games Chronicle for all the quotes).
It's unclear whether the collaboration would have been Rockstar's take on a wrestling sim, or an ECW themed open-world in the same vein as GTA. So, it appears that the thought of Grand Theft Auto: Swanson & Ritner will go down as yet another wrestling 'what if' that fans can only dream about.
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