If you’re a wrestling fan, this year has arguably been going pretty well for you. Whether you’re a fan of WWE or AEW, both promotions have been putting on big shows, getting record numbers with some of their programming or major events, and both have games coming out this year that fans are excited for. But with AEW, they’re having numerous problems with their upcoming title AEW Fight Forever, making fans wonder if the title will ever come out. If you recall, they first faced issues over the ESRB rating for the title, and now, they’re facing trademark issues.
What trademark issue would that be? Well, it’s about the term “Fight Forever.” That phrase is the highest honor a wrestling crowd can give a match in wrestling. It means it’s so good that they don’t want it to end. AEW has had numerous matches have that phrase changed since its inception in 2019, so it made sense for them to name their game after it. Due to them knowing they wanted to make a game called that, they filed a trademark for it in March 2021. However, another company, Game Changer Wrestling, which is very popular on the indie circuit, also filed for that trademark in July of that year.
As a result of the dispute, the game has been held up while things are worked out on both sides. That’s where things have gotten a little convoluted. Many feel that GCW was trying to extort AEW for money or “stick it to them” by trying to ensure the game can’t use that phrase. However, as reputed insider Sean Ross Sapp noted, it’s nothing so evil:
That doesn’t sound like so bad of an ask, right? While we don’t know how things are shaping up on that front, we can say that AEW head Tony Khan is known for being a flexible guy. If all GCW wants is to ensure they can use that name for a charity event, he’ll likely allow it. We’ll hopefully get more info soon.
In fans’ minds, though, this is another setback for AEW Fight Forever, which should’ve been out by now. As noted, the first issue that was made public was about the ESRB rating. Due to the amount of blood in the game initially, they would give it an “M” rating. That would’ve hindered sales, so the dev team had to scale things back, and now it has a “T” rating.
Hopefully, we’ll get a release date for the game soon.
