Some Thoughts on AEW Fight Forever, Fleishman is in Trouble, Al Getz and Other Things I Loved in June

Books, TV, Games

I’ve loved professional wrestling for as long as I can remember. Some of my oldest, fondest memories revolve around listening to Dusty Rhodes talk his talk, watching Ricky Morton fight for his life, and wondering what species the Road Warriors truly belonged to (surely they were not human).

As a child of the 1980s, of course, that also meant a lifelong obsession with pro wrestling video games. Whether that entailed dropping quarters in a WWF Superstars cabinet at the arcade down at Bush River Mall or mastering the moves of the mysterious Starman, if a game featured pro wrestling, there is a good chance I played it.

A lot.

That hasn’t, frankly, been true for the last decade or so. The decline started with WCW Mayhem, a truly wretched game from the clowns at Electronic Arts and, as my interest in WWE’s brand of corporate wrestling declined, so did my time recreating the action in my living room. The last few years saw a brief resurgence, as the new FirePro Wrestling game exploded into my life like a nostalgia bomb. It recalled one glorious summer playing an earlier version of that timeless classic with Kristina (my now wife) and her brother Justin, each of us creating intricate characters and carefully reading a 100 page guide of translated Japanese to get the details just right. In between endless gaming sessions, we’d jump in the apartment complex pool, flying at each other with cries of “MANAMI TOYOTA” and generally scaring away all the normal people.

So, to say I was excited for the new AEW Fight Forever game, available now across gaming’s many platforms, is a bit of an understatement. The promotion is the first modern wrestling group to connect with me at all on a personal level, so expectations were high that the video game version would at least hold our attention as temperatures soared and life demanded more an more time indoors just to survive the heat.

If you’re a hardcore gaming expert, my thoughts likely are not useful to you.

At all.

I’m not a regular gamer at this point in my life (unless you count Bejeweled Blitz), to the point that, for the first time since the dawn of the Sega Genesis, I don’t even own the latest console. But I do have a Nintendo Switch for couples therapy—you may know it as Mario Kart—so away we went. We bought a special edition of the game, specifically so I wouldn’t be cheated out of the pleasure of beating the crap out of FTR Bald, and we proceeded to acclimate our old fingers to the increasingly complicated requirements of modern gaming.

After many hours and several days, we’ve come up for a breath—and have some thoughts.

First and foremost, AEW Fight Forever is really fun to play, especially as a fighting game against another human being. When it’s me against Kristina, our mutual level of ineptitude making us a fine matched pair, it’s perfection. The gameplay requires skill beyond just button-mashing without being so complex that it’s frustrating for someone who grew up in the 8-bit era.

The wrestlers are easily recognizable, their moves look television-crisp and you can find yourself lost in the matches like you’re watching your own version of AEW Dark. Last night we watched Kenny Omega wrestle Wheeler Yuta on Dynamite and Kenny hit a V-Trigger that looked eerily like the one in the game. If you’re an AEW fan, you’ll be constantly amazed at how well they’ve captured the very specific moves and mannerisms of your favorites.

Things aren’t so great against a computer opponent. I had a hard time finding a level that fit my abilities like a glove. It was either incredibly easy or impossibly, controler-tossing hard. There was no middle ground that made things challenging while not making me want to tear my remaining hair out. The game also falls apart a bit anytime you’re forced into a tag team or multi-man match. The computer consistently targets the wrong wrestler, to the point the game becomes a complete crapshoot. It often feels like your destiny is in the capricious hands of a truly-idiotic computer AI, which is not a good feeling at all.

We also played through the “Road to Elite” storyline mode (with Kenny Omega of course) and it’s pretty amusing. I wish the actual AEW promotion used some of the clever but simple matchmaking found here in the video game—the real AEW almost exclusively relies on backstage attacks to move the narrative forward, making some of these exchanges a breathe of fresh air. Unfortunately, when we tried it a second-time with a new wrestler, I was surprised and disappointed to learn the story was EXACTLY THE SAME each time through. Hopefully a nerd with an abacus is hard at work putting together some new cut scenes to freshen this up a little bit and add some depth that would be much appreciated.

Overall, I think it was a good purchase. If you’re a fan of AEW, you’ll get a kick out of playing as some of your favorites, especially if you have an IRL friend to join you. If wrestling is not your thing, however, I’m not sure this is a strong enough gaming experience to hold your attention. I’ve played lots of games about things I wasn’t particularly interested in after the console powered down, from farming simulaters to football managers. But this game is for diehards only—much like wrestling generally in the year of our Lord 2023.

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BOOKS

Romantic Comedy: Curtis Sittenfeld, one of my favorites going back to American Wife, is all over the place in her latest. When it’s a look behind the scenes of a Saturday Night Live style program, this book borders on interesting.

But the heart of the story, an unbelievable romance, fails to establish a steady beat. The love interest is so perfect that he seems impossibly fake, requiring the protagonist to manufacture problems that make her feel incredibly unlikable. I was rooting against the couple, if only to save the poor gentleman suitor years of unhappiness.

Charting the Territories: The 1974-1976 LeRoy McGuirk Oklahoma/Louisiana Wrestling Almanac

Last year I wrote about Al Getz, the incredible historian with an attention-to-detail and thoughtfulness never before seen in the pro wrestling space. His second book about the Mid-South territory in the 1970s takes the formula he developed for his inaugural effort and tweaks it just a little. The result is, remarkably, an even better snapshot of a moment in time.

Most wrestling books are either lies and lore or mere results. This is something else entirely. Wrestlers are placed in the correct context and cutting edge statistics make it easy to see how talent was utilized and which feuds the promotion had in focus at any given time. Highly recommended to anyone with an interest in wrestling’s territory days.

Television

Never Have I Ever (Season 4)

This charming show comes to an end in grand style, launching the character into new adventures before the entire conceit wore out its welcome. It’s rare to see a sitcom in today’s world with such a likable but highly flawed main character. It made younger fans uncomfortable at times to see an occasionally '“problematic” lead—but life is about learning from mistakes and confronting our own imperfections. This is one of the rare shows my family consumes with absolutely no discipline. We binge it like the sweet snack it is, gorging ourselves until it’s gone. As always, it was worth the splurge.

Fleishman is in Trouble

Back in olden times, when I was still a regular MMA reporter, I met a very interesting writer who dropped into Las Vegas like an atom bomb to cover the phenomenon that was Ronda Rousey.

Taffy Brodesser-Akner was unlike anyone else I’d met at a UFC event—smart, urbane and incredibly funny. She also had a healthy expense account and, therefore, we spent the weekend attached at the hip, eating Chinese food and talking about why people would endure so much for so little in return.

The UFC, which rolled out the red carpet for her, even sitting her next to Dana White cageside for the fight, was mortified. I was on the growing list of people who didn’t always play nice, and I did my best to fill in the carefully placed gaps in UFC’s standard narrative.

Already a powerhouse feature writer, Taffy has since become a cultural force, both in New York journalism circles and the strange world of film and television. Her debut novel was a phenom, reviewed in all the right places by all the right people. The television version is just as poignant and powerful, attracting A-list stars who bring the story to life in a way that makes it almost uncomfortable to watch.

Having your novel adapted for the screen is a huge win for any author—retaining creative control, as Akner did here as the show runner, is almost unheard of. But the work is so specific that it’s hard to imagine anyone else taking it on with these results. I was struck by a bout of melancholy after finishing the last episode. This isn’t a show you immediately forget as you start scrolling to see if there’s a new season of the Great British Bakeoff available. It will stick with you for a bit.