WWF Wrestlemania (NES 1988) Review

Written by Stu Cooper

Today the WWE will be presenting WWE Wrestlemania 31 on PPV and the WWE Network. 31 years of the biggest wrestling show on the planet, but it didn't start that big. Most historians of pro wrestling know that the original Wrestlemania was quite the gamble and the WWE (WWF at the time) didn't really know if it would work or not. It all started with closed circuit TV being aired in local arenas in the New York area. 30 years later, 70,000+ people attend on a yearly basis and the show rivals the Super Bowl in terms of performance and showmanship from entertainers and competitors alike. To celebrate this glorious day I decided to take a look at my NES (Nintendo) collection and pick out the first ever WWF game that was released for a major console. That game was "WWF Wrestlemania" and it was released in 1988.

WWF Wrestlemania marked the first officially licensed game in the WWF universe. The game was developed by RARE, who would go on to make such classics as Donkey Kong Country and Banjo & Kazooie. The game was published by Acclaim, which was actually the start of a near 20 year relationship with the company. The company would go on to publish all of the WWF's games on home consoles for several years, including the NES follow-up "Wrestlemania Challenge". The game was released right before Wrestlemania 4 and was released to hype the event. The game itself carries a Wrestlemania 3 theme tho. It features the tagline from that event "Bigger. Better. Badder." despite the fact that this makes no sense in context of gaming, since this is their first attempt. The game itself bares little resemblance to Wrestlemania 3 other than the cover, which is a photo from that time period, and the fact that in the game Hulk Hogan is the only wrestler that actually possesses the ability to bodyslam Andre The Giant. Kind of a neat design note there.

The game features six unique wrestlers, all of which were quite popular at the time of the game's release. The six wrestlers are Hulk Hogan, Andre The Giant, The Honky Tonk Man, Bam Bam Bigelow, "The Million Dollar Man" Ted Dibiase, and this year's Hall of Fame inductee "Macho Man" Randy Savage! To quote Macho, they certainly picked the "cream of the crop" for this game. The roster while small is certainly memorable. If you are a wrestling fan and you aren't a fan of at least one of these guys, something is wrong. Each wrestler features a little image and profile on the character select screen. You get to see the basic stats of the wrestler and it even lists the wrestlers manager if they had one. For Bam Bam it lists "Oliver Humperdink" as his Manager, for Million Dollar Man it lists "Virgil", for Honky it lists "Colonel Jimmy Hart". Pretty neat but would have been even better if they had a little 8 bit version of the manager cheering you on in between matches, similar to the coach in Tyson's Punchout.

Each wrestler has a set of pretty basic moves consisting of punches, kicks, bodyslams, elbow drops, leg drops, etc. In terms of unique moves some wrestlers like Macho Man have alternate moves. Macho will use his elbows more and also does his top rope elbow drop. Bam Bam does lots of kicks and even does a little cartwheel. Hogan actually possesses the power to bodyslam Andre and that is a feat that no other player in the game can do. The game lets each wrestler do a top rope move, but Andre and Bam Bam (despite him doing moonsaults) cannot climb the rope. There is no outside ring action or finishers unfortunately. Despite the lack of depth in the game, there are a few little bonus things that make the game interesting. Each wrestler will start to glow red if they are losing, and that can cause the wrestler to be angry which increases the damage of each move. Also some wrestlers have little bonus icons that appear inside the ring throughout the match. Each item that appears is representative of that wrestler. For example Hogan has a crucifix that appears and Honky Tonk man has a guitar that appears!

There isn't many options in terms of gameplay. You can basically either play one on one, fight a friend, or run through the 5 other wrestlers for the title. The atmosphere and venue of the match unfortunately never changes. You can beat the game in a matter of minutes, so longevity and replay value is limited. Given the time the game came out tho, I would have been happy with it if I was under the age of 10. The highlight of the game really comes from the sound. Each wrestler has a nice rendering of their theme song in the game, so you get a chance to jam out to "Pomp and Circumstance" or the "Real American" theme without a problem. The theme song to the game is also quite catchy. Where the game really fails is the level design and lack of depth. You basically wrestle inside of a giant black box the entire game, and if you beat the game with every wrestler, you are left with nothing to do. If you are like me and don't have many friends who actually like wrestling, you would be stuck playing 1 player most of the time.

WWF Wrestlemania for the NES is memorable mostly because of it's licensing and not because of the game itself. It's a fun collectible for wrestling fans, but there are far better NES wrestling games out there. In fact, "Pro Wrestling" for NES predated this game and it's much better. That game actually features tons of moves, but no licensed wrestlers. I wouldn't recommend this one unless you are looking for a quick 80's WWF nostalgia trip. Regardless, it's a decent way to celebrate Wrestlemania and kill some time before the event begins!

July 4th Countdown: The Top 5 Patriotic Wrestlers

Written by Stu Cooper

If there is one thing in american pro wrestling that stands out, it's the rabid patriotism. You could not watch an 80's or Early 90's WWF pay per view without hearing the words "America" about a thousand times. Since then the patriotic american gimmick has been fairly prominent in professional wrestling. Not to mention the countless tributes to the american soldiers, the desert storm/gulf war storyline, and most recently the resurrection of the Russia vs. America cold war feud. These kinds of gimmicks can be traced back almost to the birth of professional wrestling. Showing pride in your homeland seems to be the go-to gimmick for a lot of pro wrestlers throughout history. Since today is July 4th, I have decided to honor some of these patriotic wrestlers with a Top 5 Countdown. There is literally hundreds of patriotic wrestlers, so I really tried to focus on the wrestler's overall impact and their usage of patriotism. Let's get into it!

5. The Patriot

"The Patriot" was a wrestling superstar from the 90's who dressed in Red,White, and Blue from head to toe. "The Patriot" was a walking US flag. He had the USA mask, the USA tights, and even named all of his moves after American things. My favorite move of his would have to be the "Patriot Missle"! The man under the mask is Del Wilkes, a man who started out in the AWA under his real name, then later became wrestling police officer "The Trooper". Soon after his run as "The Trooper" Wilkes started wrestling as "The Patriot". He began working for Global Championship wrestling where he won the TV title. His popularity began to soar after this and he was soon wrestling in All Japan and WCW. While in WCW he tagged with Marcus Bagwell to form a very cheesy tag team called "Stars and Stripes". Bagwell must have had a fetish for patriotic tag teams because he also went on to be in a tag team called "The American Males".

In 1997 Wilkes entered the WWF and began feuding with Bret Hart. Hart was in the midst of his Pro-Canadian heel turn, so it became a USA vs. Canada feud. The two had several matches including the obligatory Flag match. The most notable match-up between the two was at WWF Ground Zero: In Your House where "The Patriot" and Bret met one-on-one. Unfortunately soon after this Wilkes would get injured and with the Attitude era on the rise, he really didn't fit in. He was released from the WWF in early 1998. Since then Wilkes has retired due to a broken collar bone but just like the Doink gimmick, many wrestlers around the country wrestle as "The Patriot". Wrestler Tom Brandi claimed for years that he bought the gimmick from Wilkes and that's why he uses it, but Wilkes denied the claim. Funny thing is I can actually remember going to a local bingo hall indie in Georgetown,Kentucky when I was a teenager and I got very excited because I saw "The Patriot" was on the card. I couldn't believe Del Wilkes was coming to such a small town to perform in front of 15 people. I was quite shocked when he came out and he was about 4 inches shorter than Wilkes, 50 pounds lighter, and much hairier. Needless to say, I was disappointed.

4. "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan

"Hacksaw" Jim Duggan is perhaps one of the most memorable patriots in pro wrestling due to his longevity. Duggan started out in Mid South wrestling where he picked up the idea of using a 2x4 as a weapon/ringside companion. After wrestling in Mid-South and UWF, Duggan was hired by the WWF. Duggan's debut feud was...you guessed it, a Russia vs. America feud with Nikolai Volkoff! In the weeks leading up to Wrestlemania 3 Duggan would save several wrestlers from Volkoff and would interfere a few times. Later in the year he competed at The Survivor Series. Not too long after this Duggan actually won the first ever Royal Rumble. This didn't seem like a big deal at the time, but in retrospect it was the beginning of a long tradition that became one of the most beloved wrestling ideas ever.

Duggan would continue to be a regular in the mid-card where he would feud with legends like The Honky Tonk Man and Andre the Giant. Duggan never really ascended to main event status, but that seemed to be by design. Duggan often served as "The Hype Man" for the faces in the company. This is what led to the chants of "U-S-A" and "HOOOOOOO". Duggan never held any titles in WWF and really began to sink down the card as the 90's approached. In 1993 he would have a mini-feud with the Japanese Monster "Yokozuna" but soon after this he left the company. After WWF, Duggan moved onto WCW where he did the exact same gimmick for the next several years. He would hold the US Title and TV title in WCW. I can actually remember towards the end of WCW he had a long feud with this Cuban guy on Saturday Night, and they had flag matches against each other on a weekly basis. There was also a short time period where Duggan betrayed his country and joined Team Canada...but let's pretend he just did it to bang Major Gunns and that's it. After WCW closed "Hacksaw" began showing up on Old School events and various legends matches on WWE television. He is now a regular cast member of the WWE's reality show "Legend's House" and is still a proud American.

3. "American Made" Hulk Hogan/Mr.America

If you live on the planet Earth, you've probably heard of Hulk Hogan. He is one of the biggest icons in entertainment, and certainly in professional wrestling. Hogan is part of a select few in wrestling that have actually transcended it. So it's no shocker that he is on this list. If you grew up in the 80's or early 90's you probably got to witness the shirt ripping, the leg drop, or you caught Suburban Commander on TV.

Hogan did not start out as The Hulkster. He began his career working for various territories in Florida and Alabama. He had a short run in the WWF, and then found fame in New Japan Pro Wrestling. Afterwards he played a pro wrestler named "Thunderlips" in Rocky 3. I personally love that character and I often whip out the term "ultimate meatball". Soon after this he re-signed with WWF and began his run as "The Hulkster". It started out with just the red shirt and eventually evolved into full blown mania after he defeated Iron Sheik for the WWF Title. Now the patriotism came in shortly after this when Hogan began cutting intense hype filled promos, encouraging people to support the troops, take vitamins, and workout. These promos came to their peak around the time of the Gulf War when Hogan feuded with turncoat Sgt.Slaughter.

After his WWF run he switched over to WCW and for a short time tried to carry the "American Made" gimmick over. Fans were tired of it and began booing him and this led to his eventual heel turn. You could say his involvement in the N.W.O could disqualify him but he really wasn't against the country, he just wanted to rule it BROTHER! Hogan would return to WWE some years later and in possibly his most patriotic moment ever, dawned a mask and called himself MR.AMERICA! It was absolutely absurd, but very patriotic.

2. "The Olympian" Kurt Angle

Kurt Angle is another obvious choice on this countdown that couldn't be ignored. This man oozes Americana. Angle started out as a very successful NCAA Amateur Wrestler. After college he went on to win a gold medal in the 1996 Olympics despite having a severe neck injury. It was truly an incredible feat. Soon after this, Angle started showing interest in pro wrestling. He appeared on commentary for an ECW show but left the show after he witnessed the Sandman/Raven crucifixion angle. It wasn't until 1999 that Kurt Angle began competing for the WWE. He instantly made an impact with his smartass prideful olympian persona. Angle would come to the ring dressed in red,white, and blue and would often wear his Olympic medal to the ring. His patriotism was certainly part of his gimmick, and it was glorious. He used his look and smug attitude to move through the ranks and became a hated villain.

Angle was a instant success and within a year he won almost every WWE title available. Later in his career he would compete in TNA and Japan. One thing remained the same no matter what his character was doing or what company he was working for, and that was his love of America. In his promos and interviews Angle would constantly remind the audience and viewers at home that he was a Olympic Gold Medalist for Team USA. He would often wear sweatsuits covered in the colors of the flag. The medal he wore became a source of inspiration for him and would often serve as bait in a storyline. A wrestler stealing it was often the start of a grudge. In one case "Stone Cold" Steve Austin actually threw the medals off a bridge. Angle somehow recovered them shortly after.

1. Sgt. Slaughter

It's time for the number one entry in the Film Enigma Patriotic Wrestler Countdown. Number one is none other than Sgt.Slaughter! This one might actually be considered controversial because Slaughter actually turned on the country during the Gulf War but since it was such a short period of time, I let it slide. Slaughter began as a bad guy managed by "The Grand Wizard" but in 1984 he showed up to defend America's honor against the Iron Sheik and that's when his path to patriotism began. Slaughter feuded with Sheik all over the world for the next year. The feud peaked when the two sold out Madison Square Garden when they competed in a "Boot Camp Match". The "Boot Camp Match" would later become a signature match for Slaughter. Slaughter left the WWF after a dispute involving his role in G.I. Joe but he would keep the Sgt.Slaughter persona for the rest of his career.

Let's talk about the reasons why I chose Slaughter to be the top patriot in the countdown. Slaughter really used the patriotism gimmick to it's fullest potential. Before Hulk Hogan, he had the crowd in the palm of his hand. The point where I believe he transcended the others in the countdown was when he began appearing on the "G.I. Joe" cartoon and toy-line which was wildly popular at the time. Slaughter even voiced his own character on the cartoon. It doesn't get much cooler than that. Slaughter became a recognizable figure among most children as a result. After this the Iraqi controversy comes into play.

After a run in the AWA, Slaughter returned to the WWF. When he returned "The Hulkster" was the king of the mountain and he was also the one waving around the American flag like Slaughter did before. Slaughter returned as a villain in 1990 during The Gulf War and revealed himself to be an Iraqi sympathizer. This started one of the craziest angles of the early 90's, possibly in history. Slaughter got a lot of heat for this, and supposedly received death threats from patriotic Americans. I would say this is grounds for disqualification but Slaughter says in interviews that he had a very hard time delivering the anti-american promos. The program would end in 1992 and Slaughter would go back to his old Pro American Drill Sgt. routine. Slaughter has actually been a good guy ever since. Slaughter used the patriotism to push him to the top of the wrestling world AND the cartoon world. That's something special.

I hope you enjoyed the countdown. I ran a little bit longer than I originally planned but I feel like the information is important to include. I had a lot of honorable mentions like Jack Swagger, Bob Backlund, Craig Pittman, and others but I had to keep it simple with just a top 5. Please LIKE, SHARE, COMMENT, and SUBSCRIBE if you like what you see. Have a safe and happy 4TH OF JULY!

Monster Mania Day 19: Wrestling with Horror Top 10

Written by Stu Cooper

I started watching wrestling when I was 4-5 years old and I've been hooked ever since. I've seen it all...the good, the bad, the ugly, all of it! I was fortunate enough to witness the attitude era live and I was able to attend events when wrestling was at it's absolute hottest. But that's not what I want to talk about today. Today I want to focus on the crossover between Horror and Pro Wrestling! I decided to make a "Top 10 Horror Moments in Wrestling" countdown. Let's get right into it.

10. Zombie debuts in ECW

9. The WCW Phantom!

8. Kane speaks for the first time

7. The Debut of Chainsaw Charlie

6. The Undertaker has a stalker

5. The Yeti

4. Ultimate Warrior is cursed!

3. Spin The Wheel Make the Deal!

2. Chamber of Horrors Match!

1. Chucky cuts a promo on Rick Steiner

Road To Wrestlemania: FilmEnigma's Top 10 Wrestlemania Matches of All-time

Written by Stuart Cooper

We're moving onto the number 9 position and boy is it tough to narrow it down. So many good matches and classic moments have taken place at Wrestlemania, I could make a top 20 if I wanted to. After careful thinking, the list has formed in my mind and it's time to get to one of my favorite feuds of all-time...The Undertaker vs. Kane! I have fond memories of watching the RAW and Superstars episodes leading up to Wrestlemania 14, it was surreal to imagine The Undertaker meeting his ultimate match. So let's dive right into it!

9. The First Time Ever: The Undertaker battles his brother Kane!

Wrestlemania 14 (1998)

Fleet Center in Boston, Massachusetts

19,028 people in attendance

Thoughts: The months leading up to Wrestlemania were quite thrilling. This time period for wrestling was absolute madness. You had the NWO in it's peak in WCW, Stone Cold's rise to becoming WWF Champion, Mike Tyson and D-X are hanging around...it's truly classic. Towards the end of 1997 The Undertaker entered a feud with Shawn Michaels. This feud led to the first ever HELL IN A CELL match. The match was a brutal classic that many still consider to be the best HELL IN A CELL match of all-time. At the end of the match The Undertaker's brother KANE made his debut. Kane proceeded to walk down the ramp and rip the cell door off it's hinges. The crowd went absolutely nuts when Kane destroyed The Undertaker using his own moves. For weeks following the Undertaker refused to battle his brother in any type of match. It wasn't until Kane cost the Undertaker the WWF Title at the Royal Rumble that the Undertaker began pursuing a match with his brother. The match was set, the heat was on. Wrestling fans had begun to grow accustomed to The Undertaker being a unbeatable phenom, especially in the case of Wrestlemania, so it was going to take a strong opponent to get fans into another Mania match. Kane was the perfect opponent for The Undertaker. It's like watching Superman vs. Bizarro, Green Lantern vs. Sinestro, Goku vs. Vegeta, The Double Dragons vs. The Shadow, it's that legendary Good vs. Evil, Light vs. Darkness battle. Kane had the same size, the same power, the same moves, and even The Undertaker's former manager. It looked like the Undertaker may actually be in trouble.

The match started off with the entrances and boy was Undertaker's memorable. This was one of the first real elaborate Undertaker mania entrances. Druids came out with torches and ushered the Undertaker to the ring. It was absolutely brilliant and really created that classic Undertaker deadman aura the fans love. The match itself was pretty fast paced and hard hitting. Both men exchanged finishers multiple times, there was a sloppy table spot by Undertaker, and ultimately after 3 Tombstone Piledrivers, the Undertaker got the win. Kane was really the first man to go the distance with the Undertaker (without cheating) and this would be the beginning of a long and storied love/hate relationship between the two brothers (kayfabe). The following month was the classic Inferno Match that I would say is almost as good as the Mania 14 match. This match is definitely better than their 2nd mania match that took place 6 years later at Wrestlemania XX. But that's another mania for another day...

Film Enigma is Back!

Written by Stu Cooper

That's right folks, Film Enigma is back in full effect! After a long absence I have decided to revive the blog and make it better than ever. In the coming weeks you will see lots of new reviews and posts. I plan on reviewing several blu-rays, new releases, video games, and will have a new "Nerd Girl of the Month" feature. I'm currently looking for experienced writers who would like to cover any of those subjects. If you think you'd like to contribute please feel free to shoot me an email at FilmEnigmaBlog@gmail , thank you all for checking out the site. I'm also interested in receiving screeners for any type of film. I'm very open to participating with other blogs/sites/companies. Please take a look around and enjoy!

Youtube Spotlight: Joe Gagne's Funtime Pro Wrestling Arcade

Written by: Stu Cooper



It's time for a new edition of the Youtube Spotlight! This week I wanted to focus on a video game related youtube account. Video Games are something I am going to begin covering on the blog, so you may see several posts about retro gaming in the near future. Today I wanted to talk about a youtube account that has stolen countless hours from my life and is responsible for giving thousands around the world flashbacks to their childhood. This account is MikeandTomPresent and the particular video series I am referring to is Joe Gagne's Funtime Pro Wrestling Arcade. This video series focuses on pro wrestling video games and their history. Joe is slowly working his way through the entire library of pro wrestling games. The coverage is often accompanied by a review and several wrestling jokes. It makes for a great quick watch. If you grew up a fan of pro wrestling or just video games in general, you will enjoy these videos. Here are some of my personal favorites, tho I suggest checking out the entire channel:













So after checking some of these videos out and thinking about it, what is your favorite wrestling game? Post in the comments below and let us know!