Horswoggle Confirmed!

[Sunny]

Credit to CJ for Image

Follow Up to E3 Preview of WWE SmackDown! vs. Raw 2009 for the XBOX 360

July 15, 2008

E3 Day 1 at the Los Angeles Convention Center- Los Angles, California

First, to clarify some things from the previous articles. The game will also be appearing on the PS2, I accidentally left that out. It is officially shipping in Fall 2008, with THQ strongly hinting that a more accurate ship date would be November 2008. Also, WWE Legends of WrestleMania will probably ship in March 2009.

Now as to the doubts that some of the moves from the independent wrestling scene will appear in the Create-A-Superstar portion of this game, let me remove them. Moves from the top stars from ROH, PWG and other top independent promotions will be in this game. I saw the package piledriver in action. One of the developers frequents PWG shows and has been watching Kevin Steen for years. These guys watch a ton of ROH DVD's. They were excited to see a true wrestling guy walk into their booth and talk wrestling.

The developers and I discussed WWE, ROH and PWG. We spent a few minutes talking about the previous night's Raw conclusion with John Cena apparently being murdered by JBL, before we ever started talking about the game. These guys are smart wrestling fans. Not many people know what cattle mutilation or the Tower of London is, let alone are excited to put in their game. We discussed that they are had to go through some wrangling to change many of the moves names to get them into the game, however they will all be there. These guys really want to make an authentic quality wrestling product. From what I could tell the little things that have bothered fans about the series have frustrated them more.

The developers at THQ were nothing like what I expected, and after this experience I gained a huge amount of respect for them. I assumed they were video game developers working on a pro wrestling game. This is exactly the opposite. These are pro wrestling fans, who got into the business to work on a pro wrestling game. That way they could work on two things they are passionate about. I have rarely spoken with people so educated about pro wrestling.

Now, for a few details I forgot in my first preview. Hornswoggle has not officially been announced for the game, however it was stated in another interview THQ has done that he did his own motion capture for the game. Therefore, it is safe to assume he is in the game. People can also probably guess at a large part of the rest of the roster. Like, since there is an inferno match, Kane is probably in the game. I can write another article trying to fill out the rest of this roster and a lot of the WWE Legends of WrestleMania roster if people want.

The other feature THQ has added to this year's edition of the game that I forgot to mention is that non-submission wrestlers can no longer submit anyone. That means unless a wrestler has a submission equipped as one of their special moves or as 1 of their 2 primary attributes, even if an opponent's limb is fully red, the player is never going to submit their opponent. This takes care of the exploit where wrestlers like Rey Mysterio could submit Undertaker to a surfboard, which would never happen in WWE. Now, Mysterio has to hit the 619 and followed by the West Coast Pop, or he is waisting his time. The move will weaken the Undertaker, making him unlikely to kick out of any pin. However, the Undertaker will never submit to a Mysterio submission hold.

I hope this follow up clarified any questions people had. If people have any more questions or would like another follow up article let me know.

Sincerely,

Jereme Warneck

number1contender.net

Boxing and Video Game Correspondent for f4wonline.com

Hidden Valley Lake, CA

[ALL STAR]

[phil]

Oh, my Christ. I have officially lost all hope in mankind after this unholy turn of events.

[takersfan]

Some one on IGN photoshopped that picture

[Sunny]

No, no, no. CJ posted it in a SVR Picture Thread archive not too long ago and I just edited it. But, read the bold print for proof though.

[Niles Jansen The Third]

lmao - was about to say, I made this.

At least you credited me.

[takersfan]

Oh IGN my balls sorry i forgot it was smacktalks' own CJ.