I Ranked Every WRESTLING game on NES

[@JohnRiggs]

Now see the very BEST wrestling video games for all systems! kzbin.info/www/bejne/hl7Oh4CvYs52hKs

[@testudohorsfieldii7052]

And the not so good ones too!

[@rioncitylife1917]

Hi Rigg's, " had a really good wrestling game years ago on N64, forgot name but me and my friends had a lot of fun playing", :)

[@dschool86]

List is right on the mark JohnRiggs

[@HalseyHFW]

Happy to see you are enlightened enough to know PW is an easy S.

[@DannyC723]

@@rioncitylife1917 it may be wcw nwo world tour

[@TheRmm1976]

Glad you gave Tecmo World Wrestling an 'S' -- It was a masterpiece for its time.

[@JohnRiggs]

I like still like it today.

[@Davidjon1946]

Agreed but you needed that nintendo pro controller at the time to be good at the game

[@MetalJesusRocks]

Best. Thumbnail. Ever! 😂

[@JohnRiggs]

@Killer Rune total inspiration

[@JohnRiggs]

If I had your band's kit I would've done the facepaint to go with it. Next time for sure.

[@nurman666]

I would have loved an intro where John runs like the ultimate warrior into the ring.

[@samholdsworth3957]

Lol

[@aborted4196]

Jesus saves but Satan prevails

[@Bellthorian]

I have so many fond memories of playing Pro Wrestling in the military with my friends. We each had our wrestler and we tracked wins and losses. Had a fictional VWF championship. I remember when I won the title I held on to it for a long time by purposely getting counted out. We all know titles don't change hands on a count out. I was the perfect heal champion. When I finally lost everyone was going crazy.....fun times.

[@kjuergens1985]

Who was your wrestler??

[@MCastleberry1980]

I was hoping you'd do a wrestling one soon, glad to see Tecmo World Wrestling up in the S Tier, LOVE that game.

[@EsotericArcade]

Spot on with your rankings! Hard to believe a mere 4 years after that King of the Ring game we had WCW/NWO World Tour on the N64.

[@kissphantom05]

I have fond memories of my dad and I writing theme songs for the wrestlers in "Pro Wrestling." Such nostalgia.

[@KirksCORNER1983]

You wrote them?!

[@kissphantom05]

@@KirksCORNER1983 I'm sorry! That was misleading. We wrote our own themes for them. It was a good bonding moment.

[@Relapse_au]

I agree with your ratings, WWF Wrestlemania Challenge is often very underrated so it's good to hear you give it some credit.

[@jamesgruesome9780]

Challenge was not bad at all. It and Superstars on Gameboy were good. I’d go Tecmo number 1 and wCW number 2. But Challenge would be 3 or 4. Lots of options, the weird angle, the music. It’s good stuff

[@chaunseybillings5381]

WCW was the best wrestling game on NES

[@bretthansen8166]

Pro Wrestling was/is so much fun! Star Man was always my go to character 🙂

[@TheRmm1976]

King Slender with the backbreaker!!

[@TheRosswise]

Fighter Hayabusas grapple moves were deceptively powerful. Everybody slept on him because he was the first character you beat up in the rotation.

[@925PWEE]

wwf steel cage was one of my intros to games and wrestling when I was like 6 in Mexico , to me it was awesome good times

[@avishekdas7149]

Same here.. Love from India❤🙂

[@christopherlemp]

Let me tell you man, I was a pro wrestler for about 10 years and even though I was in decent health when I started it took a heavy toll on my body. Was it fun? In the words of Austin “oh hell yeah.” Would I do it again? Probably. But man I wish I was more careful. But I did get to wrestle Cowboy Bob Orton ;) But I appreciate this list, too many wrestling games didn’t get enough love on the NES.

[@mgarofalojr]

Started story with "let me tell you..."pro wrestler confirmed!

[@christopherlemp]

@@mgarofalojr you can look me up. Kris Synz. Sadly I only have a few matches up online, but I have a snippet of me Vs. Bob Orton and a cage match where I wrestled the promoter and was paid to make him look good.

[@PeterParker-vq2cz]

i remember going to toys r us, looking at the nes game box as a kid for king of the ring. i read somewhere on it the word "customize" and i turned and told my cousins and said, "guys, we can create our own costumes!" needless to say, it sold me on the game, and i was disappointed when i came home and learned that there were no costumes and i learned the meaning of the word customize :P

[@mxt87]

for some reason Steel Cage challenge was my favorite on the NES, I think it was the combo of me being like 4, Bret Hart, and The Cage

[@t.b.8837]

Didn't wrestlemania have the wrestlers music?

[@michaeladams9807]

This is a good ranking video 👍👍

[@skiprockjr.6881]

I grew up with a kid that had the last name Bigelow and he said he was related to Bam Bam Bigelow, but I never believed him. Then I found out about a year ago that Bam Bam is from the town I grew up in. I guess he was related to him. Egg on my face once again.

[@JohnRiggs]

oh damn! Yeah, he was one of my faves. I photos of me wearing his old WWF shirt.

[@skiprockjr.6881]

@@JohnRiggs Apparently Larry Sharpe's "Monster Factory" that trained wrestlers was located in my hometown.

[@KirksCORNER1983]

Go find him

[@jessragan6714]

Apparently the guy who made Pro Wrestling went on to create the Fire Pro Wrestling series, which was an enduring franchise in Japan and has more recently found fans in the United States. Also, I'm noticing that a lot of these old wrestling games have Vader in them, even when they claim they don't. Sure they change the name, but the likeness is unmistakable!

[@ShadowAngel606]

Masata Masuda was the designer of Pro Wrestling. His employer TRY later merged with Sonata to create Human and indeed he made Fire Pro Wrestling there. Vader was a huge star in Japan, by 1989 he already was a 2x IWGP World Champion, so it's understandable he was put into these games. Japan didn't care much about trademarks back then (if you want to have your mind blown, look up the original cover art for the Mega Drive game Wrestle War, it's copyright infriction madness)

[@belangerpm]

John, your professional wrestling career may not have panned out, but those villainous blue sunglasses of yours would give you the perfect look for a heel manager if you ever decided to become one! Also, awesome video as always!

[@MikeDest]

Wrestlemania Challenge was a birthday gift request for me. I was a huge Warrior fan at the time, but for some reason Rick Rude and the Rude Awakening was my go-to. I only had like 7 NES games at the time, but a B is too generous. Solid C.The number of wrestlers in that game who have passed. RIP

[@jessragan6714]

It's because Vince McMoron overworks his talent. I'm hoping that AEW treats their wrestlers better.

[@fivestringpat]

I had wreslemania, LOVED the graphics and sound quality. had NO idea how to play.

[@oldnerdreviews]

Being a pro wrestler was my goal too. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of listening to other people. Even had my name picked out: Rockin' Ricky Riot.

[@李재성]

You liked Kin Korn Karn. Me too!!! I always liked him because his move set was basic and simple; and because he was Korean like me.

[@rayrosini8907]

I love how Kin Korn Karn is Killer Khan with a different name his avatar really is Killer Khans face lol.

[@charliehustle2591]

I was an Amazon kid myself. 😄

[@kowalskivideos6476]

Man you missed your calling. Big John Riggs is a shoe in for a wrestling name

[@jeffbohmann5435]

Game -> Big Riggs: Over the Ropes Wrestling

[@JustAnotherScratcher]

Tecmo World Wrestling pwns every other wrestling game I had the opportunity to play on NES. The soundtrack and the cut scenes really made it great...giving the op a good old giant swing and having them land outside the ring was so fun! The WCW title looks fun wish I could have played it. Great video!

[@HistoryNiche]

I had the Amiga WWF game back in the day. Today 2022 I ordered Tecmo World wrestling on NES. I look forward to this journey back in time.

[@BrettHornby]

WWF Wrestlemania was a good game at the time.

[@ultimosis]

I like your new formatting with the ranking on the left side. Love the NES and I love these videos.

[@jeremybullock6018]

Pro wrestling and John Riggs. Doesn’t get any better. I had most of these games. Big pro wrestling fan back in the 80s. I tried so hard as a 6 year old kid to get good at Tag Team Wrestling.

[@mediaglitch]

Tecmo World Wrestling is my number one, great list.

[@Mr.Mayh3m]

Never played any of these growing up, but picked up the launch title pro wrestling for an NES race, and now I hold the one loop record for it. Love that game!!

[@axlpelsh]

I'm glad to see that you ranked WCW Wrestling so high. That game came out of nowhere for me as a kid. I bought it from a Mom and Pop's video rental store that was closing it's doors in 1991 for like $5.00 and was surprised how good it was. Tecmo and Pro Wrestling are still the best, but I still had a blast with WCW.

[@jacktheripper4517]

Tecmo world Wrestling is my best loved the music as well!

[@RobClooney]

For being an indie wrestler who loves retro games and John's ranking shows, I can't believe I missed this episode. Only 3 years late. 😮

[@thejabberwalker]

I got food poisoning. In that starting to get better phase where I can warily nibble a saltine and sip a gingers ale. And watch John Riggs. The three combined are an age old home remedy.

[@JohnRiggs]

ooh, sorry man. Food poisoning is the worst.

[@landeny65]

I literally said “fuck yes” out loud when I saw the thumbnail for this video

[@prestochango2812]

I've watched several of your Ranked videos. I really like this idea. I hope you keep doing this. I would suggest ranking different sports games on NES, SNES, Genesis like all baseball, basketball, football, hockey, etc.

[@kenbreeding1857]

I love your channel, especially the game reviews such as this one. You definitely deserve more subscribers!

[@320zombie]

Well let me tell you something John Riggs..! Always rented WWF Wrestlemania Challenge when we’d rent an NES from the grocery store back in 1991, always thought even though you had a life bar it would play the wrestler’s theme music to show who was getting the upper hand, loved that charm..plus we owned King of the Ring and WWF Superstars for the Gameboy loved both of them on road trip vacations

[@AshWilliams-v3e]

I wish Capcom and Snk would collab with WWE to make a wrestling game crossover

[@rayvinson1414]

Even better would be SNK handling the AEW side and Capcom handling the WWE. That or AEW V.S. WWE by SNK and WWE V.S. AEW by Capcom. Either way good call.

[@ronkropf1153]

I first played pro wrestling on a 10 game nes stand up arcade machine in a hotel near Disney. I begged my parents for quarters. One of the best of all time. Still play it so many yrs later

[@robertanderson2898]

Always love your reviews. I will love wrestling until the day i'm buried. Just haven't been watching much recently though. Heh, if you became a wrestler you could be called Truck Riggs :O

[@MeanMrMustard1]

If you're burned out on WWE, you can try AEW.

[@SPac316]

As you know, I collect wrestling games. So I pretty much have all those games, except Toukon club. I pretty much agree with this list for the most part. But good or bad, I still add them to the collection.

[@JohnRiggs]

There's still some great ones out there.

[@GenerationGapGaming]

Love this video! Really enjoyed your thoughts on all of these games. Kind of crazy how many wrestling titles on the NES

[@soulden77]

Watched this mainly to see that Pro Wrestling S. Spot on! Great content as always! Looking forward to the other Nintendo brand (non-black box) ranking video eventually hopefully!

[@bigandyt-man3010]

Wcw wrestling had the iconic picture on the box of the road warriors, man NES games had such great box art.

[@nabalab]

Fun video, thanks! My favorite was Pro Wrestling. All my friends loved being Star Man, but I was always Fighter Hayabusa. I won against them most of the time because I mastered Hayabusa's back-brain kick (which was essentially a form of the Ghetto-Blaster). My least favorite was King of the Ring. I bought it at Toys R Us. Played it for an hour or two. Realized that every wrestler has the same move-set and the game was pretty much crap. Still not sure how, but I was able to return it later that day... lol.

[@madhighgamer1386]

i owned tag team and wrestlemania. spot on for rating those. took me over a year to realize tag team had a moveset when u locked up lol then i found pro wrestling and techmo wrestling at a friends house, what great games,solid S on those 2 as well! those cut scenes in techmo world wrestling are so sexy...

[@robpyle-d7v]

I got the 1992 Wrestlemaina steel cage game for Christmas when I was 9,I wish I still had it. Merry Christmas John.

[@RetroRivals]

Had no idea there were even 9 wrestling games on the NES! Wrestling games can come up under appreciated/under appreciated for sure. I have pretty fond memories of playing wrestlemania challenge on NES with my brother and my dad. They would probably say the let me win at times cause I’m a girl but I held my own, button mashing and all!

[@IamLegend32]

If your wrestling career panned out.. Of all the factions- 4 Horsemen, nWo, DX, Ministry, Dungeon of Doom, etc. Which would you liked to have joined?

[@matthewlane518]

The Brood for me just so I could have the best intro ever!

[@IamLegend32]

@@matthewlane518 the Brood was so underrated!

[@matthewlane518]

@@IamLegend32 indeed! They had that awful promo and that hurt them, but they were always great in the ring and the style and the blood spitting! Lol they were great

[@MisterKidd555]

Another great ranking tier video, Riggs. Keep 'em coming, brother \m/

[@candoentertainment9118]

WCW game on NES was awesome. Really dug the round robin style tag team tournament and selecting your moveset.

[@slugie7934]

Hi John TEMCO TEMCO TEMCO !!!!!!! There are only 3 wrestling games i like and its WRESTLE FEST MAME, SATURDAY NIGHT SLAM MASTERS AND TEMCO!!!!!! I used to play this with my brother and i love the cut scenes!!!!! Thanks Danny

[@TJacks23]

Great video John, huge WWE fan. I can’t wait to meet you at Midwest Gaming Classic.

[@justinandrews520]

For obvious reasons, this is my favorite video of yours so far...I'd love to see your rankings of SNES wrestling games

[@boreopithecus]

There was one wrestling (or fighting) game on NES where you could win every match by just holding down the fire button if you had a controller with auto fire. I started the game, put a chair on the A or B button and then watched the game play itself until I won the tournament. Can’t remember the name of it, maybe it’s one of the games in the video but none of them look quite how I remember it.

[@BBfanfun]

i remember playing Taito's Mat Mania in 1986. (Technos) By the time the NES games came out, the Arcade game just couldn't be beat , in my mind ... (although Atari had a port years later, just not the same)

[@krantzbucks]

Would have loved to see a home port of mat mania on snes or ps1 or on taito greatest hits for crying out loud!

[@JohnnyVegas1111]

Wrestlemania is the only wrestling game I had on the NES and the music is simply amazing for 8bits!!! Brings back soooo many memories!

[@Maxx_XIII]

Tecmo World Wrestling was great. It played almost identically to Nintendo's Pro Wrestling, and it was almost like a follow-up. And both of them inspired Fire Pro Wrestling's grapple system.

[@jugghead82]

I knew you would get to the wrestling games eventually and I'm glad you did man bro some of these games I remember having fun memories of WrestleMania I remember getting from a pawn shop when I was like about 10 or 9 and it was cool to play it but it was terrible I do videos on my channel as well and I've done Stone Cold Steve Austin impressions and stuff like that but man glad to see you do this video bro I saw the video you did with metal Jesus rocks and it was pretty cool as well with the wrestling games and stuff keep up the good work man.

[@randomizzer2389]

Where in the heck is the thumbs down button? Naw! Just playing. You're actually one of my top gaming KZbinrs. I don't actually have a favorite. Every one of you guys and gals bring real enjoyment to gaming. I'm kinda disabled, but hopefully I will start making videos soon. Peace out bro.

[@zacharycarter9887]

John i have been involved with pro wrestling for 20 years on the independent level now i know you have health issues but if you always wanted to do it is never to late you dont have to wrestle you can promote ref announce or manage and have just as much if not more fun if you were to wrestle it is never to late i hope you go after it and great video as always thanks for the content

[@SplinterAce]

Yo Riggs, no list of NES games developed and published by Nintendo?

[@JohnRiggs]

Coming soon. At this point probably the next ranking video I do.

[@scottdehaan5864]

Pro Wrestling is my favourite by far. It just feels a lot smoother than the rest. It doesn't try to do too much and suffer from that by not doing anything really well. King Slender was my character because of his move set. I love how each character is very different in looks and moves from the rest of the roster.

[@andrewt6338]

Pro Wrestling was definitely awesome. With Muscle, I had the brick guy and one day found the claw guy. Made my week.

[@_NoDrinkTheBleach]

Tecmo World Wrestling was definitely a favorite among my friends and I back in the day. It really wasn't until WWF Royal Rumble on SNES and Genesis that the Tecmo game fell out of our game rotation.

[@WWRNC]

The Big Rig John Riggs would’ve worked. I agree with your S tier ranked games. Those are some that I revisit often with NES games.

[@AnotherTravelVlogger]

Mate I was concerned about having an epileptic fit at one point. Great video as always

[@yannikpetulla4300]

For me Muscle is an S I love it😂

[@joshvgame]

I got a everdrive and I have been watching these videos for good recommendations to play. Newest game I have loved from your recommendations is city connection

[@IcyBird420]

Early mornin Riggs! Alright!

[@fivestringpat]

epic thumbnail

[@TheRosswise]

To me, Pro Wrestling was the only decent game we got in the states until the Smackdown games started coming out.

[@ostiariusalpha]

Tecmo World Wrestling >> Pro Wrestling; that's just on the NES. Saturday Night Slam Masters was an awesome wrestling game too. There was plenty of good stuff before Smackdown! came along.

[@TheRosswise]

@@ostiariusalpha That game wasn't available to me back in the day. And Saturday Night Slam Masters was a fighting game with a wrestling skin, wasn't bad but wasn't what I was looking for in a wrestling game.

[@randomgamer-st1ie]

It may be Sumo Wrestling, but there is also Tsuppari Oozumou for the Famicom. The cartridge even has a gameplay image on the back label. It's only fitting if you own a Famicom to own a Sumo Wrestling game.

[@thelowesttreeshavetops3541]

Great video! My favorite wrestling game was Sega Master System's Pro Wrestling

[@medicinemansworld6462]

Bam Bam back when he had Sir Oliver Humperdink as his manager......Bigelow was always one of my favorites as well.

[@PeaceArt1]

Share your rank favorite VHS back wrestling moments from those secret tapes.

[@JohnRiggs]

Jumping off my garage roof would probably rank at number one. Not onto anyone, just onto a full-sized wrestling dummy I made.

[@J.Wick.]

Tecmo was ALWAYS tops in our house. Especially for SPorts games. Tecmo was on fire from 85-95. Always a safe buy, was Tecmo.

[@PabstOban]

Pro Wrestling was a game my friend had who was really into wrestling... me (at the time) not so much. We really loved playing it together and we always wondered what "The Amazon" was grabbing out of his pants... and nailing the ever so hard to nail Fighter Haybusa's "Back Brain" kick... which almost never landed, and if you missed, you left yourself wide open.

[@jamesgruesome9780]

I’m thinking a fork? Maybe a fish hook?

[@bradnimbus4836]

I want a Riggs top wrestling games of all time!

[@Mutex50]

Pro-wrestling was great. My mom got it for us on sale for just $5 at the time. Had a lot of fun with it. I also remember seeing some pro wrestling show on TV as a kid once and I could have sworn I saw Star Man. It was probably a luchador.

[@whitty9877]

glad i'm not the only one who mained with kin korn carn now I usually go with star man or slender, but I occasionally use kin korn carn.

[@MrWrightWay]

I AGREE WITH THIS LIST!!! I was so disappointed as a child when i got wwf wrestlemania for my birthday as a kid lol

[@adriandowney4394]

I played tag team wrestling a lot at my uncles in centralia

[@Merecir]

Oh man, here is a story. In 1991, on my 12'th birthday I go to the game store to buy a NES game. I ask the dude in the store for the best games and I am presented with two boxes. One is Tecmo World Wrestling (featuring cool muscle dudes). The other was golden and featured a shield with some symbols on it. -To this day I have never played a Zelda game.

[@loboneiner1034]

I count Superstar Pro Wrestling and WCW World Championship Wrestling as two separate games since they have different rosters. I'd also count UWC as a NES wrestling game even though it was unreleased. It's playable now so I consider it now a part of the family.

[@dgcmondouk8416]

Yeah I can't remember what wrestling game I had on the mega drive but I got hooked on the wwf games on the ps2 spent some crazy hours playing them

[@davidmreyes77]

NES Pro Wrestling was surprisingly advanced for the time.. makes sense since it was developed by the people who would go on to make the Fire Pro games.

[@patrickbarnes9462]

I enjoyed NES Pro Wrestling so much, that when I got a PS2, I made CAWs of the roster to pit against WWE Superstars. I used WWE SmackDown Here Comes The Pain. Great fun.

[@darkenergy410]

The Arcade game for WWF was unreal use to play it after school in the 90's at a corner store had Royal rumble

[@kaitain7595]

I remember renting pro wrestling several times. Yeah, flair definitely didnt finish with the british bulldog.

[@johnc.richardson2713]

Completely agree. Played most of these and Tecmo is one of the most underrated games on NES.

[@tdevaughan]

WCW was my favorite with WWF Challenge as #2. I didn't play Texmo until way later.

[@grandspringdale1564]

Let me tell you something brother Riggs, the wrestling games on NES was the worst there is the worst there was and the worst there ever will be🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@duffman18]

Nice Bret Hart reference lol. But the actual worst ever wrestling game isn't even on the NES at all. It's on the game boy color, which I suppose you could say is kind of a handheld NES. But either way, check out WWF Betrayal for GBC. I was so excited to get it as a Christmas present one year. I'd never heard of it, but I loved WWF and played all of the ps1 WWF games to death, even Attitude and War zone. So I assumed this would be a great game too. But oh my god, you start the game in a wrestling ring of course. But then someone kidnaps someone (I think it was Stephanie Mcmahon but its not important), and you leave the ring and just start walking around in streets in your underwear beating up thugs on the street. Yes, it's actually a beat em up game. What a bait and switch. And it's the worst beat em up game I have ever played. It is mind numbingly repetitive, and just difficult enough to make you keep dying to unfair bullshit because the hit boxes are so wonky. All you can do is punch, and occasionally do the finisher of your wrestler. That's it, 2 moves. Double Dragon managed to give multiple moves despite the NES pad only having 2 buttons, same as the game boy color, so why couldn't they do it for this wwf beat em up? Anyway yeah, I suggest you try it It's the worst wrestling game, because it's kuet a terrible game, but also it bait and switches you, tricking you into thinking it's more of an actual wrestling game and not a bad beat em up, ya know?

[@ostiariusalpha]

Can you smell what the Atari VCS was cooking?!

[@samholdsworth3957]

@@ostiariusalpha it smells like amico intellivision

[@wjlince]

@@samholdsworth3957 WRONG! How can something that doesn't exist have a smell?

[@retrogaminghippie3720]

Retro gaming hippie approves! Another great video! If not a wrestler why not a manager? Could totally see your tag line: “you just got rigged!”

[@JosiahIsWrite]

I was a big wrestling fan as a kid, but weirdly don't recall playing anything on the NES. It wasn't until much later with the N64 WCW and later WWF games that I played any. That said, based on the fact that I ONLY knew of WWF at the time it looks like a good thing I didn't play those games.

[@billyd530111]

Tag Team Wrestling had some weird charm that kept me playing it. Tecmo WW is a masterpiece though.

[@MrCalverino]

I like how u can swing them around on Pro Wrestling oh and I love that music

[@williamhamilton8438]

First and best

[@christopherlemp]

The music is very memorable.

[@MrCalverino]

I be groovin to that shit lowkey

[@Schush]

The Data East NES version of Tag Team Wrestling is actually a arcade port of Technos Big Pro Wrestling.

[@rioncitylife1917]

hi Rigg's, " this makes me want to watch wrestling again", :) Stone Cold, lol