Wrestler appearances in other video games

On the subject of hacks, I remember one from the late 90s that was a WWF themed hack of NES Tennis. I remember the player character was Austin and I want to say his opponent was Vince McMahon but it's been forever since I played it.

3 Count Bout / Fire Suplex (Arcade & NEO GEO)

Released a few months before Capcom's Saturday Night Slam Masters, 3 Count Bout is an Arcade & Neo Geo Wrestling
game released in 1993.





Terry Rogers: a patriotic American Wrestler that was likely inspired by Terry Funk.

Blues Hablam: instead of a fork, this super heavyweight carries a knife to the ring and has taped fingers. Inspired by Abdullah The Butcher.

The Red Dragon: clearly inspired by The Great Muta's late 80's - late 1990's appearance.

Big Bombarder: the SNK wiki states Bombarder was inspired by the Bushwackers. I'm leaning closer towards Big Van Vader.

The Gandhara: can breathe fire and is from India. Could be loosely based on Dhalsim from the Street Fighter series.



Blubber Man: the unmasked version of Blues Hablam. Also inspired by Abdullah The Butcher.

Gochack Bigbomb: the masked version of Big Bombarder. I think this is supposed to be another Vader reference. Though, Gochack's mask
                         reminds me of The Destroyer.

Master Barnes: Barnes' warpaint tricked me at first into thinking Barnes was simply based off of Road Warrior Hawk. On closer inspection, Barnes'
shoot fighting attire, mohawk and "Passionless Cyborg" nickname are all a reference to Dick Vrij as well; who was known as "the fighting cyborg".

Leo Bradley: a hardcore Wrestler that brings to mind Mike "The Gladiator" Awesome or Big Titan.

Roy Wilson: Bruiser Brody with subtle hints of Willie "Bear Killer" Williams.
Blazing Tornado (Arcade & SEGA Saturn)


In 1994, HUMAN Entertainment decided to create a new Wrestling franchise entitled Blazing Tornado.
Blazing Tornado would also include a new batch of original Wrestlers.

Feel free to share any game reference official or not. There's plenty of hacks I haven't mentioned yet!
Such as ... a beat 'em up that allows you to play as Hulk Hogan AND Bruce Lee!

I'd also like to thank everyone who has added to this thread so far. You've all made being stuck in lockdown
more enjoyable.

WCW vs The World (Playstation)

The first 3D WCW Wrestling game is also a localized port of Virtual Pro-Wrestling. The Vs The World roster is comprised
of 12 WCW wrestlers bundled together with 40 renamed Japanese Pro-Wrestlers. Here's the renames:



??? The Unknown (Super Delfin)





Sherlock (Ken Shamrock)



No relation to Sesame Street: The Count (Stan Hansen).



Legend has it that if you were close enough to smell Bear's breath, you'd already be suplexed.

Bear Breath (Gary Albright).



Giving us a real cold shoulder: Siberia ("Dr. Death" Steve Williams)



Back when the internet was still a new commodity in early 90's, it was easier to get away with
simple re-spellings. Such is the case with Konaka (Shiro Koshinaka).



This Wrestler was so proud of his Vs The World rename that he had it's initials tattooed on his arm!

Billy Gaijin (Scott Norton).



You'd be thinking about barbed wire deathmatches too if you were named Puchteca.




He amount of heart is only matched by his number of gig marks.

Blackheart (Tarzan Goto).



Named after his signature Abise-geri (rolling koppu kick): Abispa (Jushin Thunder Liger)





Sounding like a super hero more than a Wrestler: Bolt Jamison (Power Warrior)



A rename I'm not comfortable with: Overdose (Road Warrior Hawk)



Watch out for Dirt Bikes with this next competitor: Black Ninja (The Great Sasuke)



Mukluk's name is a reference to Mukluk (which are soft boots worn by the Inuit and surrounding artic cultures)
and Mukluk's Northern Lights finisher.

Mukluk (Kensuke Sasaki)



Black Belt (TAKA Michinoku)



You'll be living on a prayer if you plan to go up against Shaolin (Jinsei Shinzaki/Hakushi)

Shaolin's 2P outfit is Hakushi; complete with Kanji body tattoos.



Before we had Bellator, we had El Bolador (Hiroyoshi Tenzan).

For a game that came out in 1996 (and Spanish nods aside), it's weird how Bolador's attire resembles Tetsuya Naito's.



Moma mia: Moma (Nobuhiko Takada)



Embracing his male pattern baldness: Thunder Dome (Bas Rutten)



Saladin (Genichiro Tenryu)

In 1997's WCW vs NWO: World Tour - Saladin becomes Abdullah The Butcher.



Doing his best Steven Segal impression: Kim Chee (Koji Kitao)



Giving Champion Wrestler a run for weirdest Wrestler renames: The Turk (Dynamite Kid)

Virtual Pro Wrestling (PS1)

Released in 1996, Virtual Pro Wrestling is the original, Japanese version of WCW Vs The World.

Unlike Vs The World, there are no licensed Wrestlers in Virtual Pro Wrestling. There's also different
Wrestlers, attires, renames and other small tweaks that make Virtual Pro Wrestling stand out on it's
own.

Since finding a translated guide was impossible, I decided to translate all of the Virtual Pro Wrestling
re-names myself:



超新星 スタ-ガイア
Supernova Star Gaia (Jushin Thunder Liger)

In Virtual Pro Wrestling, selecting Supernova's second attire displays an exclusive portrait meant to resemble


藤神 リュウ
Ryu Fujigami (Tatsumi Fujinami)

Same as Fujinami's Vs The World rename with "Ryu" added on (which translates to "dragon" in Japanese).




三河 雅治
Masaharu Mikawa (Mitsuharu Misawa)

Available in both versions, Misawa's second costume is an unmasked Tiger Mask II.



蒲田 俊之
Toshiyuki Kamata (Toshiaki Kawada)

I believe Kawada's 2nd attire is based on Kawada's early Footloose days teaming with Samson Fuyuki.



土橋 圭太
Keita Dobashi (Kenta Kobashi)

You'd be mad if you weren't getting your samsung royalties either.



离田 あきら
Akira Ryota (Akira Maeda)

Another example of the Virtual Pro Wrestling taking the effort into having a first and last name.



浦木 敏克
Toshikatsu Uraki (Masakatsu Funaki)



東野 正善
Masayoshi Higashino (Masahiro Chono)

While Masahiro Chono was licensed in the WCW version, Chono was not in Virtual Pro Wrestling.
Higashino also contains two exclusive attires in Virtual Pro Wrestling: an NWO Japan attire (that
looks closer to Keiji Mutoh) and Chono's early 90's, pre-NWO look.

What appears like the letters "Touno" are written on the side of Higashino's second attire.



天王新 浩志
Hiroshi Tenoshin (Hiroyoshi Tenzan)



ガリバ ー 番場
Gulliver Banba (Giant Baba)



ポンプ 古田
Pump Furuta (Jumbo Tsuruta)

With Japanese pronunciation, Jumbo's Virtual name is pronounced "Punpo" which sounds closer to Jumbo.

Pump's second attire is also a homage to Jumbo's 1970's look.



田口 明雄
Akira Taguchi (Akira Taue)
The last of the four pillars is only available as a playable character in Virtual Pro Wrestling.



二百 勝男
Katsuo 200 (Yoji Anjo)


須崎 ひかる
Hikaru Susaki (Minoru Suzuki)

Exclusive to Virtual Pro Wrestling is the leader of Suzuki gun Minoru Suzuki.
Hikaru's appearance is based on Minoru's mid 90's PANCRASE look.



小中 三四郎
Sanshiro Konaka (Shiro Koshinaka)



ブラッド ゴードン
Brad Gordon (Scott Norton)

Scott's Virtual Pro Wrestling rename is a reference to both the movie Flash Gordon and Scott's "Flash" nickname.
Brad's second attire pays homage to Scott's early "Flash" gimmick.



スパン ハリソン
Span Harrison (Stan Hansen)



ジミー ブライアント
Jimmy Bryant (Gary Albright)



スミス リーアムズ
Smith Williams ("Dr. Death" Steve Williams)



ニコライ マン
Nicolai Man (Volk Han)

Fans of Sambo's human pretzel maker will be overjoyed to find Volk Han as a Virtual Pro Wrestling
exclusive.

Though, Han's character portrait looks like he's struggling to pass a vision test.



ケビン シャーロック
Kevin Sherlock (Ken Shamrock)

The logic behind this next one puzzles me. Shamrock was unlicensed in both versions, yet in WCW Vs The World,
Shamrock got a redone character portrait.

Shamrock wouldn't join the WWF until a year later. Odd.



大 位多 悦 司
Etsuji Odai (Atsushi Onita)



パルチザン

The final batch of Virtual Pro Wrestling and WCW Vs The World character renames (under construction):



アステラ ドラグーン
Astera Dragon (Ultimo Dragon)

Not only does Ultimo have two different character portraits in Virtual Pro Wrestling, Ultimo also has a modified
1P attire (with a covered up mid section and less-detailed mask). All due to Ultimo only being licensed in Vs
The World.



高間 憲彦
Norihiko Takama (Nobuhiko Takada)

This one took forever to translate. Blurred, pixelated Kanji can be a challenge to make out at times.



ボウ ラツセン
Bo Rusen (Bas Rutten)



炎龍 一郎
Ryuchiro Flame (Genichiro Tenryu)




北斗 光輝
Koki Hokuto (Koji Kitao)

You'll always be a legend to us, Mr. K. .



キラー プーマ
Killer Puma (Big Van Vader)

Not only was Vader removed from Vs The World (Vader was signed to the WWF by 1996 and was already featured
in WWF's In Your House video game).

Vader's second attire is a reference to Vader's NJPW debut where he famously squashed Antonio Inoki (who was
undefeated for quite some time) in under four minutes; causing a massive riot that resulted in the temporary banning
of New Japan events from that particular Sumo Hall arena.



ミック シユナイダー
Mick Schneider (Rick Steiner)

The Dog-Faced Gremlin contains two exclusive colours in Virtual Pro Wrestling as well as a different
character portrait.



スタッド シユナイダー
Stud Schneider (Scott Steiner)

Before he was Big Papa Pump, he was a stud in Virtual Pro Wrestling. Two different colours and a character portrait.



"ストロンゲスト 闘鬼 " (Strongest Touoni). Both versions being based on Antonio Inoki.

The literal translation of Inoki's Virtual Pro Wrestling name is "Fight" (闘) and "Demon" (鬼) - which in itself is a
reference and close writing in Kanji to Inoki's famous "fighting spirit" (闘魂) slogan.




The second hidden character is Grizz Lee (WCW Vs The World) who is known as モンスター ブルドッグ (Monster
Bulldog) in Virtual Pro Wrestling. Both versions being based on Bruiser Brody.



The third secret character is Shanghai (Vs The World) who is also known as ミスター ゴッド (Mister God) in Virtual
Pro Wrestling. In Japan, Karl Gotch was known as "The God of Wrestling".



The fourth secret character is Major Tom in Vs The World who is also known as テデイ ラング (Teddy Lang)
in Virtual Pro Wrestling. Obviously Terry Funk.

I still can't help but feel Major Tom's character portrait looks just like Damien Demento...



The fifth secret character is a masked man that needs no introduction. In WCW Vs The World, he's known as Le Masquerade
and in Virtual Pro Wrestling: ザ マスカレード (The Masquerade). Based on Mil Mascaras.

Out of all of the hidden characters, Mascaras is the only one to have a bonus character portrait in Virtual Pro Wrestling.



While "Turk" is a standard character in Vs The World; in Virtual Pro Wrestling, he's the sixth unlockable character named
ショットガン ボーイ (Shotgun Boy). Based on Dynamite Kid.



Should you complete all six of the regular leagues with a Junior Heavyweight, you'll unlock a special sixth league called
"Super Jr.". Completing Super Jr. unlocks the seventh hidden character Jaguar (in Vs The World) who is also known as
スーパー ジヤガー (Super Jaguar). Both of which are based on Tiger Mask.

Jaguar's second attire is a UWF alter ego of Tiger Mask that was known as "The Tiger".



Likewise, if you complete all six leagues with a Heavyweight, you'll unlock the seventh league entitled "Super Heavy".
Completing Super Heavy unlocks the 9th (not counting Jeff Jarrett) character The Giant who is also known as
アンデイ ザ・ギガント (Andy The Gigant) in the Virtual Pro Wrestling version.

Personally, I think it's quite lazy on Vs The World's part to try and pass Andre The Giant off as WCW's The Giant.
Regardless if Andre was the final opponent in League's Heavyweight division.

Well, that's all of the name translations for both versions. All in all, I enjoyed playing through Virtual Pro Wrestling
and Vs The World again. The 60 playable Wrestlers and cleaner graphics puts Fire Pro Wrestling Iron Slam '96 to
shame.




While still in development, an early look at the roster can be found here:

www.thesmackdownhotel.com/roster/the-wrestling-code/?fbclid=IwAR2zTQdoWgGFIwG-w9fytCza_NyWLH3WHDfVHU18QBEWgcGmDja_5N_47ko