5 Cancelled Pro Wrestling Video Games We'll Never Play

There's nothing worse for a video game fan than a cancelled video game, especially one that has a lot of potential. As someone who loves both video games and pro wrestling, I thought we could take a look at 5 wrestling games with big potential which were tragically cancelled.

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#5 WCW Mayhem 2

A magazine preview of WCW Mayhem 2

WCW Mayhem 2 had a ton of potential as it was to be published by EA and developed by AKI. It was in development at the start of the millennium and was said to include branching storylines as well as over 1000 moves. However, after WWE bought WCW in 2001, the game got cancelled and the work that was done on the game was later used by EA in their 2003 title - Def Jam Vendetta (which is awesome).

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#4 TNA Impact! 2

The original TNA Impact! cover

TNA Impact 2 was the follow up to Midway's original TNA Impact game that came out in 2008. However, TNA Impact! would never see the light of day thanks to the financial crisis of 2007-08. Midway filed for bankruptcy in 2009 and forced to sell off its assets. Despite a follow up to TNA Impact! on PSP and DS, we've never seen a mainline TNA game ever again.

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#3 WWE Brawl

Concept art of The Undertaker in WWE Brawl

Out of all the games on this list, WWE Brawl was the most unique idea. The joint project between WWE and THQ got underway in 2009 and would be developed by Australian studio Blue Tongue Entertainment. The game was the result of WWE's push to try and broaden the horizon of WWE games.

Stepping away from traditional WWE games, WWE Brawl would feature highly cartoonized/caricatured versions of WWE Superstars with unique stages set in Brawl City - the game's WWE theme metropolis.

The gameplay was a hybrid between traditional 'beat em ups' like Streets of Rage and something like Super Smash Bros. The aim of the developers at the time was to make the game look like a WWE cartoon which fans could play through. From what footage still exists of the game, it certainly looks very interesting. You can read more about WWE Brawl here.

Despite 3 years in development, WWE Brawl was cancelled after THQ's financial issues in 2012.

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#2 WWE Titans: Parts Unknown

Concept art for Rey Mysterio in WWE Titans

WWE Titans: Parts Unknown was a similar idea to the aforementioned WWE Brawl but came years before that project. It was also a cartoonish take on the WWE Universe and was supposed to feature an in-depth single-player story. Once again, the Superstars were highly caricatured versions of themselves.

Sadly, WWE Titans was cancelled very shortly in development and only concept art of the game survives to this day.

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#1 Backlash 64

WWF Backlash 64 was supposed to be the follow-up to one of the best pro wrestling games of all time - No Mercy 64. The reason this game never saw the light of day was a little different from the rest of the games on this list.

Backlash 64 was about 30% into development when the plug was pulled on the project because the N64 was close to the end of its life cycle. Sadly, there's almost no other information on this cancelled game.

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