Has TEW helped make you a fan of any real world workers?

[Jaysin]

Through mods obviously, but I've discovered countless wrestlers I've never had access to because of 80s and 90s mods. I generally go through entire databases of mods when they're released just to discover talent. Thanks to Genadi's Golden Age mod a few game versions ago I discovered people like Nick Bockwinkel, Steve Keirn, and Matt Borne in particular. I've always loved the original Doink gimmick, but knew very little about Borne before discovering him in TEW.

 

Off the top of my head I was introduced to Phil LeFon and Doug Furnas because of early to mid 90s mods as well.

[Zeel1]

Before Genadi's 87 mod, I don't think I ever knew Dean Malenko had family in the business and I certainly didn't know he had a brother who was also a solid technician. Now Dean and Joe Malenko with their dad Boris as their manager has become a staple act of mine, I've taken a real liking to it.

[scorpion]

i haven't played a modern day real world mod in years. But back in the early days of the game I learned about guys like Samoa Joe and Bryan Danielson, etc through the game, long before I ever saw them in person/on tv

[Atticus]

I grew up on the Ruthless Aggression era, so the Golden Mod also helped me jump into older stuff. Always knew about a lot of the workers, but never really saw many of them in the primes. Guys like Arn, Tully, Rude, the Steiner Brothers, Midnight Express, and the Rock 'n' Roll Express have shot up my all-time favorite boards. It also helped me get into AJW and now Akira Hokuto is my favorite women's wrestler of all time.

[StayRudeStayRebel]

Off topic because it wasn't TEW, but I played some other similar game somewhere circa 2008, and in the game Amazing Red had ridiculous stats and was a must hire. Now I had never heard of Red at that time and the game didn't have graphics, so due to the stats and the name I imagined some kind of a ultimatewarrioresque superman. When I found out what Red actually looked like it wasn't quite what I imagined, but after watching some matches I became a big fan!

[LegionLars]

EWR back in the day was my first introduction to Colt Cabana/CM Punk. Still think of EWR whenever I see Colt.

[ShaunGBD]

EWR back in the day was my first introduction to Colt Cabana/CM Punk. Still think of EWR whenever I see Colt.

 

Remember Erin Bray?

 

Trent acid Johnny kashmear

[Zeel1]

They got nothing on Spiffy Sean Stylez...

[neslo024]

Before Genadi's 87 mod, I don't think I ever knew Dean Malenko had family in the business and I certainly didn't know he had a brother who was also a solid technician. Now Dean and Joe Malenko with their dad Boris as their manager has become a staple act of mine, I've taken a real liking to it.

 

I don't know why but this statement made me realize(to me now anyways)the Gauge(Keith) family are basically the Malenkos..with more charisma.

[Moe Hunter]

Back in TEW2007, I hired a promising young talent... Rebecca Knox.

 

I looked up her stuff online and became a big fan. She retired soon after, then seven years later got a developmental contract with WWE, and ended up main eventing Wrestlemania. Absolutely surreal looking back on it. All through her hiatus I would always have her on my roster in-game!

[nerodragomir1]

I can't say the game has made me a fan of anyone in RW. Although OSW review has made me a fan of like 25 different people. That number might be higher though.

[BigINMoldova]

No. What happens is I fall in love with a guy in the game then I go watch some of his matches and remember why I despised him in the first place.

[Kijar]

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="BigINMoldova" data-cite="BigINMoldova" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="47399" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>No. What happens is I fall in love with a guy in the game then I go watch some of his matches and remember why I despised him in the first place.</div></blockquote><p> </p><p> I couldn't be more opposite of this haha. I just love way too many people and love watching them all wrestle</p>

[Dalton]

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="ShaunGBD" data-cite="ShaunGBD" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="47399" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>Remember Erin Bray? <p> </p><p> Trent acid Johnny kashmear</p></div></blockquote><p> </p><p> The Backseat Boyz! The first tag team hire in any backyard 2 global game. Nostalgia hit hard for a second there lol</p><p> </p><p> </p><blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="nerodragomir1" data-cite="nerodragomir1" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="47399" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>I can't say the game has made me a fan of anyone in RW. Although OSW review has made me a fan of like 25 different people. That number might be higher though.</div></blockquote><p> </p><p> I agree about OSW!</p><p> </p><p> I think the Death of the Territories mod is what opened my eyes to the "history" of wrestling. I learned a ton about the territory system and the NWA, and with having so many different companies I learned about more and more workers in detail and who the stars were before the WrestleMania era (Bockwinkel, Buzz Sawyer and Tommy Rich, Dory Funk, etc.). </p><p> </p><p> One game I decided to go with an AJPW save for whatever reason, and doing so really opened my eyes even more. Learning The King's Road philosophy evolved into me watching Strong Style, in turn making me a NJPW mark. </p><p> </p><p> TEW through all of its iterations turned me from a guy who liked wrestling to an absolute superfan</p>

[franticloser]

To echo some I would say Backseat Boyz came to my attention through EWR back in the day. Even further back EWD made me aware or more aware of the ECW guys I'd only seen briefly on the ECW TNN show. RVD, Sabu, Tommy Dreamer, and Sandman. I also first heard about Dirtbike Kid on there. As EWR came out I was pretty much into the IWC and so knew about a lot of indie from the early 2000s by name and match description (Crazy enough I was a fan of Daniel Bryan, Nigel McGuinness, and Samoa Joe without ever seeing a match just reading reviews) So being able to book them and see pics of them just helped grow the fandom. I started watching wrestling as a little kid in the early 90s so knew about the guys form the mid to late 80s pretty well. As someone who loves history and wrestling I've always worked to study the past of our business and so knew a lot about guys in the 80s mods prior to them coming out. (Also getting AWA episodes on ESPN classic as a young teen helped a lot.) So outside of a few guys here and there, mods have more so just helped me put faces to names.

[Slash-LN]

Back in the days of like 2006-2010 I was working third shift and would take my laptop to work and run EWR and eventually TEW05. I didn't have cable or internet at home for a good amount of that time so I was finding out about a lot of indie workers from mods. It also made me appreciate Japanese wrestling more. I started wanting to follow people like KENTA in real life. Once I was able to see WWE and TNA again I'd see workers that I remembered from the game and it made me more interested in them.

 

I've also had the opposite thing happen. There are people that I never paid attention to in game that that I saw in real life and was impressed with and went back to old mods and signed. Guys like Jon Moxley and Brodie Lee for example.

[RatedRKO16]

EWR introduced me to Bryan Danielson, Samoa Joe and Nigel Mcguiness. I'd always end up signing the 3 and Danielson and Mcguiness would put on 5 star matches.

[BasicThuganomics]

This is a great question.

 

Quite a few workers, actually, but most recently a WWF 1985 save introduces me to Paul Orndorff. Of course I had known the name but I never watched any of his matches. I love him now, hope he gets added to a 2K game some day.

[Bagins]

Years back booked a AAA invasion angle in TNA because they kept trying to sign my guys. This was TEW 2007 I think, but can't remember. Signed Laredo Kid as the "fall guy" of the stable, but he put on great matches in the X Division I became a fan of his. All this without even following Lucha Libre.

 

Fell off as a wrestling fan, becoming one again with the rise of AEW. Was shocked when Laredo Kid was chosen to replace PAC at Fyter Fest. Hoping AEW will give him a full run someday. So I can see my boy rise to the challenge.

[James Casey]

AJ Styles (moreso from Promotion Wars, but he was great in EWR/TEW if you could get him away from TNA), the Second City Saints and the Backseat Boyz were all favourites of mine.

 

I was also a big fan of Special K just based on the game. I wanted to sign them up (and Altar Boys Luke and Matthew) and push them as a skeezy pack of obviously-but-never-stated drug addicts kept working for their next fix by James Mitchell who'd exploit them in the name of salvation and pocket the lion's share of their winnings. There would eventually have been a redemption arc where they uncovered his exploitation and turn on him,

 

But even 15 years ago I knew that signing a dozen or so cruiserweights and indy guys to WWE, pushing them as drug addicts and having them in an abusive, dependent relationship with a preacher figure would be... dodgy. But I never stopped wanting to do it, and have toyed with the idea in some fashion in most diaries I've written without ever quite getting there.

[TheJG]

Trent Acid was a favourite of mine. He was pushed to the World Title in a WCW 2001 game. Scoot Andrews was another.

 

On a little more of an obscure note, did anyone else hire the Altar Boys tag team? I've never seen a single match of theirs in real life yet I often seemed to hire them in 2001 and beyond scenarios because they always had a good Speed stat.