Christmas came early for wrestling fans over the weekend, as gamers were treated to a new trailer of All Elite Wrestling’s highly-anticipated video game, AEW Fight Forever. In this new trailer, we get our first look at several new wrestlers, weapons, new match types, and a lot of blood. There is also mention of career modes — yes, plural — and a create-a-wrestler mode that should feel eerily similar to those of old. But enough of my yapping, let’s dissect the latest AEW: Fight Forever trailer.
AEW Fight Forever Trailer Breakdown
Championship Belts And Signature Entrances
The newest trailer starts with a look at several wrestlers, and although we’ve seen some of them before — like Orange Cassidy and Jon Moxley — this was the first time we got to see Moxley’s signature entrance through the crowd. I love the realism and how his character looks, but not as much as I love that AEW Championship belt that he’s carrying around on his shoulder. That has always been something I’ve enjoyed about wrestling video games, especially in career mode. Nothing feels more rewarding than watching your wrestler’s first entrance after capturing gold.
Moxley wasn’t the only champion we saw with a belt in this trailer. In addition to the AEW Championship, this new Fight Forever trailer gives us our first look at the AEW Women’s Championship and the TBS Championship. We have seen both Thunder Rose and Jade Cargill previously, but this was our first glimpse of their entrances. And although we don’t see much of Jade’s entrance, it looks like she does emerge from Cody’s elevator. The AEW Women’s Champion, Thunder Rosa, was also seen in the trailer, sporting her iconic flag and signature face paint.
Speaking of face paint, this was the first time we saw a clip of “The Icon” Sting’s entrance, and as you probably hoped, it comes fully equipped with SNOW.
“I’m Better Than You, And You Know It!”
In addition to championship belts, we also got our first look at “The Devil” himself, Maxwell Jacob Friedman. The new AEW Champion looks great in the trailer, wearing his iconic Burberry scarf. But I especially like when he flexes his Dynamite Diamond ring at the top of the entrance ramp — “while saying he’s better than you, and you know it!” Could more wrestlers have voice overs during their entrances and post-match? That would be nice. After all, it’s the little things that can take a good game and make it a great game.
Former AEW champ “Hangman” Adam Page also makes his first appearance in a Fight Forever trailer. From the little we saw, his entrance looked spot on, and the character model looked fantastic. One thing we can’t confirm, however, is whether or not he’ll be riding a horse to the ring for title matches. And let’s not act like we didn’t see one of the best wrestlers on the planet (Bryan Danielson) throughout the trailer.
The graphics and character models may let some down. After all, they don’t live up to the standard of today’s games. But I don’t think that’s what AEW was going for. Instead, they want to pay homage to the most excellent wrestling video game of all time, No Mercy, and that’s precisely what they did.
New Gameplay And Signature Moves
One of the most exciting things that came out of AEW’s Full Gear trailer is that the game will be designed for anyone to pick up and play. What this means isn’t entirely clear. But the way I heard it is that Fight Forever will be based on a more simplistic control scheme. And since we already know Yuke’s is involved, it’s safe to say that this game will be closer to No Mercy than maybe even I expect.
We also saw a plethora of new moves throughout the trailer. Previously we’ve seen Jericho pull off some of his signature moves, like the Lionsault, Liontamer, or Judas Effect, but some of the other wrestler’s moves stood out in this one. For example, Orange Cassidy’s Superman Punch looked great, as did Hangman’s Buckshot Lariat. In addition, Danielson’s signature kicks looked devastating. But the signature move that I can’t stop thinking about is MJF using the Dynamite Diamond Ring.
Another cool thing we saw in the trailer was how you could utilize the barricade and ring apron. During the trailer, we see a few times where the barricade was used in destructive ways. Early on, it looks like Moxley has “Jungle Boy” Jack Perry propped up against it, inflicting damage to his back. Later we see Hangman Page taking a vicious chop from Jericho as the barricade moves with contact. Another cool thing we saw was the ring apron being used. One clip shows Adam Cole launching Sting into the ring apron with a vicious German suplex.
Weapons, Weapons, And More Weapons!
Being able to grab weapons from the crowd has always been a favorite of mine, dating back to the early days of WWF No Mercy, WrestleMania 2000, and WCW/nWo Revenge. Fight Forever, however, seems to be on an entirely different level.
During the trailer, we got our first look at some of the weapons that we’ll see in Fight Forever. First, there were tables, ladders, and chairs — baseball bats have also been an intricate part of the sport. We even saw lights, but now that I think about it, that may be a staple of all Lights Out matches. We also saw what appeared to be wrestler-specific weapons like Jericho’s bubbly, Hikaru Shida’s kendo stick, Britt Baker’s thumbtacks, and even Darby Allin’s skateboard, which you can apparently use to skate around the ring.
The list of weapons is endless, and the different ways you can inflict damage on your opponent are never-ending. Best of all, there is blood and lots of it. We even saw some of Thunder Rosa’s blood stained on the canvas. This will be a feature that can be toggled on and off, I’m sure, but it looked great and reminded me of the good ol’ days of the Attitude Era.
A NEW AEW cover!?
On Friday, I published my article about the five wrestlers I believed deserved to supplant CM Punk on the cover of Fight Forever. Not long after I wrote this, an image that many are saying is the new cover started floating around the internet. And let me say, I think I nailed it! Bryan Danielson, “Hangman” Adam Page, and MJF were all wrestlers I suggested could replace Punk. But even a few more were added, including Orange Cassidy, Sting, Dr. Britt Baker (D-M-D), and TBS Champion Jade Cargill.
Admittedly, I liked the green on the original cover. But if this is the new look, it goes much better with the color scheme and look they use every week on AEW Dynamite and Rampage.
Bottom Line
I still have some questions and concerns about how the game will — you know — actually, play. But based on the countless videos, this is starting to give off legit WWF No Mercy vibes. From how the characters are modeled to the endless match types down to the laundry list of weapons, THQ Nordic and Yuke’s have done a fantastic job of bringing All Elite Wrestling to life.
AEW Fight Forever will release in 2023, and as of now, there’s not a game I’m more excited to play now.
