The Buscher

More than anything else I just want to see new legends every year. I understand that Rock, Austin, and likely now HBK are "staples" but the other spots shouldn't be repeats.

Apparently, The Hurricane is in the game as a non-playable character in Rey Mysterio's Road to WM. That should be a fairly interesting story then.

If they bothered to make his model I don't see why they couldn't just keep him in as a playable guy, even if he WAS released in February. It's kinda like how Lawler was your tag team partner in HCTP yet you could never unlock him.

I really hope the ability to edit superstar attributes is unlockable in the game and not something you HAVE to pay for to get. I'd love being able to edit shit but not sure it'd be worth the money.

Then again, if you can only edit via buying the ability, that hamstrings what you can do in terms of downloaded CAW overalls. Ugh.

The "Vs. Undertaker" story sounds hella intriguing.

You pick either Kofi, Ziggler, R-Truth, Morrison, or a CAW to try and end Taker's streak

Can't imagine any of those guys having a serious buildup with Taker...if each one is different I'll play that one 5 times through, using Ziggler first.

Stephenson says the new match type will be revealed next week. However, he's urging people not to get too hyped up about it.

Which means it's probably gonna be the online Royal Rumble that everybody already knows about but was never officially announced.

There it is. Vince has been added to the page as the final Raw guy. They also added Hornswoggle (Manager), Paul Bearer (Manager), and Shelton Benjamin to the SmackDown side. That leaves 3 spots open for SmackDown, I'd say Mickie James and Mike Knox are safe bets.

The only other active wrestler candidates for the last spot are Jimmy Wang Yang, Slam Master J, and Kung Fu Naki. Frankly, I can't see how any of those guys got in over Khali (even if he WAS planning on taking time off) or even Chris Masters (who got relegated to DLC) so I'd guess it is going to be something totally out of left field, like a playable Matt Striker or something.

Tiffany will be the 3rd spot (as a manager or NPC)

Tank confirmed that she was in the game, but was strictly a NPC character in Road to WM. Supposedly out of the 14 question marks, only 2 were NPC and they've both been announced.

Come onnnnnnnn playable Matt Striker!

I'm hoping to do a sim fed this year, so ideally I'd download CAWs of everybody left out before I get rolling with that.

There it is. Vince has been added to the page as the final Raw guy. They also added Hornswoggle (Manager), Paul Bearer (Manager), and Shelton Benjamin to the SmackDown side. That leaves 3 spots open for SmackDown, I'd say Mickie James and Mike Knox are safe bets.

The only other active wrestler candidates for the last spot are Jimmy Wang Yang, Slam Master J, and Kung Fu Naki. Frankly, I can't see how any of those guys got in over Khali (even if he WAS planning on taking time off) or even Chris Masters (who got relegated to DLC) so I'd guess it is going to be something totally out of left field, like a playable Matt Striker or something.

Yeah the mode looks really fun. Every time I try to do a sim fed with a SmackDown game, I invariably get bored after about 2 in-game months. This should hold my interest for much longer.

The only real bummer will probably be the match limits. I don't know who confirmed it and where but it'd been widely said on other boards that you will be limited to 3 matches for Superstars (no big deal, that's standard), 5 for Raw/SD (probably could do with one more but not bad), and 6 for PPVs (that's the real kicker. most WWE PPVs nowadays are only 6 matches, but in games like EWR I usually always have 8 matches. having to limit WM to 6 matches would kinda suck)

But other than that, this looks really awesome and I can't wait to play it.

Also, Vince McMahon is definitely the last Raw guy. On the WWE Universe vid they scrolled through A-E on the roster and Carlito was nowhere to be seen. Safe to say he was either left out oddly like Khali or he got booted from the game due to his drug-related release.

I too did a fantasy draft, using the Mets. I went for youth at a lot of spots, a few veterans sprinkled in who are just really fill-ins for a year as I let young guys spend a year in AAA. Also with Citi Field, I'm trying to build a team built around pitching, speed, and defense. The power bats I do have are guys with no-doubt power.

Opening Day 2010 Roster

Rotation: Josh Johnson ®, Cliff Lee (L), Matt Garza ®, JA Happ (L), Mat Latos ®

Bullpen: Trevor Hoffman (R, Closer), Mike Adams ®, Darren Oliver (L), Joe Beimel (L), Luke Gregerson ®, Brendan Donnelly ®, Joe Martinez (R, SP who will serve as the long reliever)

Lineup: LF Jacoby Ellsbury (L), SS Elvis Andrus ®, 3B Evan Longoria ®, 1B Adam Dunn (L), RF Corey Hart ®, CF Scott Podsednik (L, I needed a lefty bat in the middle of the lineup, lack of lefty hitting is my main weakness), C Ivan Rodriguez ®, 2B Mike Fontenot (L, starts against righties)

Bench: 2B Ramon Santiago (S, starts against lefties), IF Andres Blanco (S), C Raul Chavez ®, OF Drew Stubbs ®, OF Gary Sheffield (R, pretty much strictly a pinch hitter)

Top Pitching Prospects: SP Jenrry Mejia, SP John Ely, CP Drew Storen

Top Position Player Prospects: C Carlos Santana, OF Domonic Brown

---

My team is shittily rated in the rankings, but I like it. Of course, on Opening Day I built up a 5-0 lead throughout the course of the game. Pulled Johnson after 6 due to high pitch count. Gregerson and Donnelly pitched scoreless 7th and 8th innings. Decided to use Hoffman in the 9th since I wanted to get used to him, plus there was an off-day the next day. Good 'ol rubberband AI kicked in, meaning I wasted my time.

But yeah, Canadian Rules match.

-5 count pinfalls

-No submissions

-After being pinned, you have until the count of 10 to get up

Come on THQ, let me make it happen!!!

Wasn't there a RTWM where you had to pin someone for 5 to win in one of the matches? If they just opened up for rules for people to modify it'd be easily possible.

I honestly can't remember offhand. But I DO remember Vince was the special ref for a match in your CAW's RTWM. You and Vince were feuding at the time, so Vince takes stupidly long to count the pin. Probably nearly 10 seconds.

But yeah, Canadian Rules match.

-5 count pinfalls

-No submissions

-After being pinned, you have until the count of 10 to get up

Come on THQ, let me make it happen!!!

Stuff like Ladder Hell in a Cells would probably never work, would likely kill the game with slowdown, but the other stuff is what I've been asking for from the Smackdown series since it began. It's what I miss most about No Mercy, you could do stuff like Falls Count Anywhere Royal Rumbles with submissions only or First Blood. It bugs the shit out of me that THQ's never brought that level of customization to Smackdown, and it's been over a decade... and you still can't even go outside the ring in a six-man elimination match.

God, being able to customize Rumble rules would be amazing. Back with WM2000/No Mercy I found myself constantly doing First Blood, Falls Count Anywhere Rumbles. Great time.

Marcus Stephenson did a Podcast with GamingRing. He was asked about any new matches or features yet to be announced. On several occasions he said "There are no new match types this year, but 100 "new" ones."

Seems to be hinting at sort of Create-a-Match option. Could be pretty awesome.

Maybe I can re-enact the Canadian Rules match from WCW New Blood Rising

They "unlocked" 6 profiles on the page yesterday - Vance Archer, Shad, JTG, Tyson Kidd, David Hart Smith, and Shawn Michaels. Some notes:

-Archer's finisher looks pretty sweet.

-Shad's new theme and tron are in. Still has his Cryme Tyme entrance so if you give enough of a fuck about Shad you can give him something heelish.

-They fucked up Smith's vid, it only shows 14 seconds of his celebration, not his entrance.

-They gave Tyson Kidd a generic big man entrance, including him stepping over the top rope. Seriously. I have a bad feeling that they got lazy and made that the only "Unified Tag Team Champion" entrance.

-Good thing HBK has an alternate attire (think I read that somewhere) because his default is DX gear.

Also, Vince McMahon was seen standing outside the ring during HBK's entrance, meaning he's one of the unknown playable characters. Not surprised by that, the only question is whether he's the last Raw guy (which would mean Carlito was ordered to be taken out of the game) or he's a legend.

According to Tank, they will be unlocking new profiles every Tuesday and Thursday for the next 4 weeks, including the unknown characters.

According to THQ-Tank (the creator of the official SVR roster page), 2 of the question marks are NPCs. I'm assuming that he means selectable managers, Hornswoggle's render has already been revealed so he's probably one of them. As for the other, I think it's gonna be Paul Bearer. I thought I had read that he was in, and Ministry Taker/Masked Kane only reinforces that belief. I hope he did VO for the Taker Streak RTWM

So my final guesses before they reveal the ? spots:

Raw: Carlito

SmackDown: Hornswoggle, Shelton Benjamin, Mickie James, Mike Knox, Jimmy Wang Yang, Slam Master J

Legends: Paul Bearer, Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, Mr. McMahon, Ricky Steamboat, Sgt. Slaughter, Ultimate Warrior

Stephenson just confirmed that The Great Khali will NOT be in the game. "he's not in. Plans change in the WWE all the time, and we have to make judgement calls"

an interesting judgement call losing Khali but keeping Finlay, Primo, and potentially having guys like Slam Master J, Jimmy Wang Yang, and Kung Fu Naki. I can only assume that they thought the whole "Khali is going back to India" angle was meant to result in him leaving WWE.

Hmm, on the roster page they show the allotment for the 14 remaining spots. 7 legends, 1 Raw, 6 SmackDown

The Raw guy is most likely Carlito. On SmackDown you have Shelton, Mickie, Knox...still 3 spots. Slam Master J, Jimmy Wang Yang, Kung Fu Naki? I can't think of what other released guys were on SmackDown, and Marcus Stephenson has already said Tiffany is non-playable and Serena isn't in.

Still no idea why The Great Khali is nowhere to be found, especially since Kung Fu Naki spent a good year off of television before WM. But who cares, Funaki finally making it into a SD game would be AWESOME

I've seen in a few places that it's been hinted at that there's one extra match type that hasn't been announced yet.

As ridiculous as it sounds, I could honestly see a Punjabi Prison match being added. There haven't been many but I've seen a TON of people on the THQ/IGN/etc. boards ask for it every year. Furthermore it'd be the only logical reason as to why The Great Khali hasn't been announced yet, and I don't know what the fuck else that extra match type could be.

If it was in I'd hope it's as big of a train wreck in video game form as it was in real life.

I'd have to guess Tyler Reks. Maybe they had one spot left and wanted another ECW guy. The Dudebusters are two people so they weren't an option.

The more I think about it, the more I think they left Khali off on purpose with the idea of making him DLC later on. Like it or not there are probably plenty of kiddies that would pay to play as him. I'd still say that Layla not being in the roster out-of-box is a bigger snub than Khali, though it's close.

Anyways, my guesses for the last 14 spots:

1. Carlito

2. Shelton Benjamin

3. Mickie James

4. Mike Knox

5. Mr. McMahon

6. Steve Austin

7. The Rock

8. Ricky Steamboat

9. Sgt. Slaughter

10. Ted DiBiase

11. Dusty Rhodes

12. Ultimate Warrior (I had Bob Orton in there again but fuck it, let's go out on a limb)

13 and 14. Pointless characters you encounter in RTWM

Odd that they added Batista to the list but none of the other released guys yet. And still no Khali. I don't like Khali or anything but how do you look at the roster from last year's game and say "Alright, who should we back? Primo? Sure, we need jobbers. Finlay? He hasn't been around but sure. Khali? Nah not this year."

I think he isn't in. It wouldn't make any sense for him to be the ONLY active guy not revealed today unless they've swerved us and have the Dudebusters in or something.

They didn't get close to 70, Maybe between 53 and 60 by my count.

Like last year, I think they left off legends. They also left off people who are no longer in WWE (mentioning Shawn only cause he's Shawn). Batista, Carlito, Shelton, and Mickie are definitely in. Plus fringe guys like Mike Knox who could have slipped in.

Anyway, that's otherwise a very awesome roster. Since Layla is DLC, the biggest snub is probably The Great Khali. I gotta think he was an oversight cause I don't see how he got left off.

I kinda feel like they made the decision to do this Nexus pack right after Bryan got released