Fans are on pins and needles, ready for more information on WWE 2K's competition.
Coming in the form of Virtual Basement's 3D, next-gen wrestling game, there's no release date attached just yet. However, Fightful spoke to ROH's LSG about his involvement in the game and how it came about.
"So, the creator, we’ve been in touch for a very long time, actually. Since last year," LSG told us. Shaheem [Ali]’s a big gamer, and he’d been in touch with the creator, Virtual Basement. We got into a group chat, he was basically pitching the idea to us, we were pitching ideas to him, too. Just feedback from experience playing games and being in the business itself. People don’t realize this, Shaheem and I were actually the first people to sign onto this thing. It was never really promoted that way, but we were the first ones to sign on. Like, at the time I didn’t think it was going to be such a huge thing. It’s almost like every week there’s another talent announcement for it. Or like a new advancement in the game. Some of the stuff I’ve seen from it is just crazy. I think people who are tied of the WWE games are so excited for it. So. fingers crossed, I hope it works out."
The game has recruited an outstanding roster, which seems like it will rely on fan interest to determine who gets downloaded, bought, and implemented into each gamer's respective roster.
"Including independent talent, it forces you to test your drawing power. I think the model is pretty cool, it’s way different than anything I’ve ever seen before. It should be very interesting. I’m looking at the roster and how many guys are signed onto this thing. I feel like there’s two hundred wrestlers already. Plus a women’s roster they’re working on right now. I’m not really sure whose going to be on the core roster of it and whose going to be the DLC. They want to put it on next-gen consoles. That’s huge, too. ‘Cause you hear this and you think, “kay it’s some independent game, it might on PC or mobile. It might be some little mobile game.” They say that, “No this is gonna be next-gen consoles.” Like, alright, they’re serious," LSG said.
We've seen IMPACT Wrestling pull their roster out of the game, and there's no sign of WWE, AEW, and NJPW talent involved. However, a plethora of ROH stars are included as well. LSG said he never heard a peep out of the company about joining the game. He even helped recruit some of the roster to follow his lead.
"Not that I know of. See, that’s the thing, when I signed onto this I was no longer with ROH. I felt like this was a good opportunity for myself. I was like, “Well, I don’t know what’s going to happen with Ring of Honor. But, let me sign on before I re-sign with ROH.” So, I knew immediately that I wanted to be part of it. I think a lot of the guys in the locker room were pretty excited for it too. I remember, it was actually that weekend in Nashville where you hear a lot of people in the locker room talking about it. There was a lot of excitement for it. I’m going around with PJ Black, basically pitching this thing to people ‘cause I’m pretty close with the creator. We’re going around talking to different guys in the locker room about it, trying to butter them up. So, I’ve been working pretty closely with [Ashen?] the guy who’s the man behind the whole thing. Just to try to send out feelers for the whole thing. I’m not Enzo, I don’t have those connections yet. But, the guys I do know I’ve been trying to talk to them and get them involved," LSG told us.
Some of the first graphics have been sent out, and LSG was one of them. Virtual Basement is taking their time on the game, and are creating characters from scratch as opposed to face scanning. This has led to some eerily accurate renders thus far.
"Yeah, it’s crazy. When I first got the renders for me and Shaheem, I couldn’t believe it," LSG said. "I was like, “How did you do this?” First of all, this might sound a little ridiculous, he sent me a nude one. I was like, “How did you figure that out? That looks just like my butt.” He did such a good job of gathering pictures from everything I’ve posted on social media to put it together. It’s crazy the amount of work they’re doing for each individual model."
LSG competed this past weekend at Synergy Pro, which you can check out on Fite at this link.
