Ask anyone what the best 8-bit wrestling game is and most will say Pro Wrestling by Nintendo on the NES. From Star Man to Fighter Hayabusa, Pro Wrestling was where it was at in the 8-bit days. Sega had some decent wrestling titles but well, the Master System sold like crap and no one remembers those. Fans have hacked Pro Wrestling and created WWE Wrestling.

What we have here is a pretty interesting hack, one that I would have thought was done years ago. Apparently the wrestler graphics are stored weirdly in the ROM so it was not as easy as simply swapping graphics out for new ones. The ring, title screen and wrestler names have been changed making this a total conversion of Pro Wrestling.

I would love to see more edits of Pro Wrestling to feature updated rosters, maybe based around the time of Wrestlemania? That way it is easy to gauge who should be in or not. Unfortunately, hacks like this are not that easy to pull off and the makers are unable to secure funding to keep doing them as these are labors of love. Still though, I cannot help but wish for updated rosters, maybe more companies being represented with a version of Pro Wrestling for them (Ring of Honor, All Elite Wrestling, New Japan Pro Wrestling, etc). Pacnsacdave, the developer behind WWE Wrestling, has also done a similar reworking for Impact Wrestling.

If you could make a wrestling game, what superstars would you include in the roster? Would it be company specific, era specific, or a mix of it all? Tell me in the comments.

Pro Wrestling is not freeware so we cannot link to a download for that but we can link to the patch file over on ROMHacking.net

For more on Pro Wrestling, check out issue #2 of Retro Gaming Magazine.

Get your wrestling fix on eBay or from Amazon.

Carl Williams

It is time gaming journalism takes its rightful place as proper sources and not fanboys giving free advertising. If you wish to support writers like Carl please use the links below. https://www.paypal.me/WCW https://www.patreon.com/CarlWilliams