Let’s rewind to the 1990s. It was during this period that professional wrestling was at its peak. The “Attitude Era,” as it was known, drove wrestling through the roof as the war between WWE and WCW had everyone talking. It was also during that time when WWE went for the label of “sports entertainment” to avoid certain restrictions that the law had placed in the country. But there was another brand that was changing the game during the 90s, and its name was ECW. It was so big that they almost had a video game made by none other than Rockstar Games.
ECW stood for “Extreme Championship Wrestling” and was headed by wrestling legend and visionary Paul Heyman. Heyman was famous for pushing the limit on what wrestling could and should be. He had some of the best wrestlers around, and he wasn’t afraid to put them in matches that were brutal, bloody, and at times over the edge.
A YouTube channel got a copy of an early build of the game that Rockstar and ECW had worked on together.
They also called up one of the stars of ECW back in the day, Tommy Dreamer, and talked about the game with him, and talked about how Rockstar Games were actually big fans of ECW and they wanted to make the game with them no matter what:
“They met [us], they all came to an ECW Arena show and this one guy was such a big fan, and all this stuff was supposed to happen. They [went], ‘we just need our one game to hit, and if that game hits you will be our next game.’
That game would be none other than the original Grand Theft Auto. According to Dreamer, while they wanted to work with Rockstar, they couldn’t wait for that game to be a hit so that they could make theirs next. As a result, they went with the group known as Acclaim, who had worked with ECW’s competitor in WWE in making their titles.
The irony is that Rockstar had a different version of events. They said that they didn’t work with ECW because the company was going through financial woes and that it wasn’t a wise business decision to work with them.
No matter who you believe, the fact remains that the game could’ve been good, given the quality that Rockstar is known for. In contrast, the Acclaim games for ECW were known as knockoffs of the WWE titles they made.
Source: VGC
