After visiting THQ headquarters last week for their presentation of WWE Legends of WrestleMania, our imagination ran wild of potentially reliving matches of WWE Hall of Famers and legends. With a solid cast of more than 40 wrestlers, the roster is looking tremendous for hardcore WWE fans, but there’s always a possibility of more. With that said, here are 10 wrestlers (in no particular order) with their infamous matches, that we believe need to be included in the hopeful future downloadable content (DLC).
1. “Macho Man” Randy Savage
Match to Relive: WrestleMania III - “Macho Man” Randy Savage vs. Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat
The fighter that is going to be missed the most is the obvious exclusion of Randy Savage. Due to the relations he currently has with the WWE, he may never be included in future download releases. So what we’ll do instead is continue to dream of reliving our favorite WrestleMania classics that included the Macho Man. From Savage’s match against Ted DiBiase to his classic against Hulk Hogan, there’s a plethora of matches to relive.
2. Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat
Match to Relive: WrestleMania III - “Macho Man” Randy Savage vs. Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat
If it wasn’t for Savage’s exclusion, Steamboat would be the easiest choice out of all the fighters missing from WWE: Legends of WrestleMania. His classic match with Savage set the bar high for future matches, so his absence from the title is a real head-scratcher. If not for his match against Savage, Steamboat faced off against Greg Valentine who’s already on the character roster.
3. Owen Hart
Match to Relive: WrestleMania X - Owen Hart vs. Bret Hart
One of my personal favorites – due to my admiration for both Hart brothers – Owen Hart deserves a spot in WWE: Legends of WrestleMania if Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart is able to be considered. We’d even consider his tag-team match with his brother-in-law British Bulldog against Mankind and Vader to be a perfect match to relive. The problem is that both Mankind and Vader aren’t in the game, so it would require introductions of three fighters for one tag-team match.
4. Razor Ramon
Match to Relive: WrestleMania X - Razor Ramon vs. Shawn Michaels (w/ Diesel)
One of the classic matches of all time, Razor Ramon deserves his slot in WWE: Legends of WrestleMania for his excellent work in the first ever Ladder Match at WrestleMania against Shawn Michaels. It’s often considered one of the five best matches in WrestleMania history, so it’s odd that Ramon isn’t in the game. Outside of his match with Michaels, only his short match with Jeff Jarrett needs mentioning, but Jarrett will never be included in a WWE game with his involvement with the TNA.
5. Kevin Nash - Diesel
Match to Relive: WrestleMania XII - Diesel vs. The Undertaker
A match between two giants, Diesel (a.k.a. Kevin Nash), didn’t have too many memorable WrestleMania battles. There could be room to showcase Diesel’s involvement in his match against Shawn Michaels, but that would also have to include Pamela Anderson, Jenny McCarthy, and Sycho Sid. So here we stand, we’d love to see more giants from WWE past to be included in Legends of WrestleMania and it would begin with including Diesel in a future download.
6. Mankind – Cactus Jack
Match to Relive: WrestleMania 13 - Mankind & Vader vs. Owen Hart & British Bulldog
Mick Foley has had a storied career in the WWE, but his involvement in WrestleMania’s before WrestleMania XV wasn’t a huge success. His biggest match, without introducing a plethora of new characters, would be his match with Vader against Owen Hart and British Bulldog. Even if he didn’t have a lot of WrestleMania epic battles before XV, players still yearn to relive the historic battle between Mankind and The Undertaker.
7. IRS
Match to Relive: WrestleMania IX - Money Inc. (Ted DiBiase & IRS) vs. The Mega-Maniacs (Hulk Hogan & Brutus Beefcake) w/ Jimmy Hart
IRS wasn’t a massively successful single’s competitor, but he was apart one of the most famous tag-teams from his time. Teaming with “The Million Dollar Man”, IRS was often one-half of the tag-team Money Inc. Against the Mega-Maniacs, IRS had a gigantic victory over Hulk Hogan and Brutus Beefcake at WrestleMania, thus, we’d love to be able to relive the match.
8. Lex Luger
Match to Relive: WrestleMania IX - Lex Luger vs. Mr. Perfect
Lex Luger never won a title when he was with the WWF, but he did win over a few fans with his bodyslam of Yokozuna. Along with his “All-American” persona, Luger’s success went as far as being disqualified in a title match against Yokozuna at WrestleMania X. So it goes without saying that we’d love to see Luger’s match against Mr. Perfect, with Bobby Hennan on Luger’s side of course, as a match we’d love to relive.
9. Sycho Sid / Sid Justice
Match to Relive: WrestleMania VIII - Hulk Hogan vs. Sid Justice
One of Hogan’s better rivalries towards the latter part of his WWF tenure, Sid Justice paved way to several highly entertaining main-event matches. The showdown between Hogan and Justice had a lot of excitement, especially when Hogan entered the ring. Sure it was Sid’s last match in the WWF at that time, but helped build him into a star that he would become in the mid ‘90’s. There’s also the match from WrestleMania 13 with his alter ego, Sycho Sid, against The Undertaker that would be perfect to relive or rewrite in the game.
10. Tatanka
Match to Relive: WrestleMania VIII - Tatanka vs. Rick “The Model” Martel
Our last entry that we’d have a blast playing with in WWE: Legends of WrestleMania is Tatanka – a wrestler that has always been a fan favorite. If Koko B. Ware can show his silly mug in the game, then Tatanka would make an excellent choice for download content in the future due to his lavish persona.
There are dozens of wrestlers that deserve to be in the game including Vader, The Dynamite Kid, Rick “The Model” Martel, Marty Jannety, Don Muraco, and even Doink the Clown, but THQ is holding back any word of roster downloads as of right now. The only thing we can do is throw our pennies into the fountain and wish for more of our favorite wrestlers to be included as future downloadable content or unlockable wrestlers. Well there you have it, our fantasy additions to the already large-sized roster for WWE: Legends for WrestleMania. Check back later this week for our full review on the title when it releases on March 24th, 2009.
Lastly, since we didn’t include any tag-teams into the list, we thought we’d make a short list of five legendary tag-teams that ought to be considered in the future for download content.
1. Demolition (Ax, Smash, Crush) – for their match against The Colossal Connection (Andre the Giant and King Haku) at WrestleMania VI.
2. The Natural Disasters (Earthquake and Typhoon) – for their match against Money Inc. (Ted DiBiase and IRS) at WrestleMania VIII.
3. The Nasty Boys – for their match against The Hart Foundation (Bret Hart and Jim Neidhart) at WrestleMania VII.
4. Powers of Pain (The Barbarian and The Warlord) – for their match against Demolition (Axe and Smash) at WrestleMania V.
5. Steiner Brothers (Rick and Scott) – for their match against The Headshrinkers (Fatu and Samu) at WrestleMania IX.
