Thanks for reading this post about WWF WrestleFest.
Please like & subscribe to my YouTube Channel if you haven’t already. I don’t think it ever felt quite as exciting and new as it did in 1991 when we first discovered this arcade classic that is WWF WrestleFest. Over the next few years, the WWF would bring SummerSlam to Wembley Stadium in 1992, some average licensed games would hit the new 16-bit systems and my brother, and I had access to regular pay-per-views and programs through Sky TV. This was a time when American wrestling was new and exciting to UK kids and it was great to see other wrestlers who were popular faces or evil heels at the time in the game as well such as the Big Bossman, Mr Perfect, the Million Dollar Man and Sgt Slaughter. Be careful though not to get on the end of the Legion of Doom’s Doomsday Device in the tag-team match though. My favourite finishing moves are Jake the Snake Roberts DDT and the Earthquake’s devastating Earthquake Splash. The finishing moves are great fun too with the Ultimate Warrior delivering his famous Gorilla Press and Splash Combo, Hulk Hogan has his Atomic Leg Drop and even Ted Dibiase’s Million Dollar Dream sleeper hold makes an appearance. WWF Superstars is a very good game in its own right but I found it difficult compared to the button bashing fun of WWF WrestleFest. To be fair though I only got to go into arcades on summer trips to the coast so that’s probably why. WWF WrestleFest Arcade by Technos was the follow-up to WWF Superstars which I cannot only ever remember seeing in an arcade after discovering WrestleFest.
Over-the-top personalities in massive sprite form beating each other up. WWF WrestFest Arcade captured exactly what the WWF (now WWE) was all about in that period in the early 1990s. WWF WrestleFest is the pinnacle of arcade wrestling games in my opinion. But then we went into the arcade on site and we discovered probably the best Arcade Wrestling game ever made – WWF WrestleFest. We were on holiday and could watch WWF Superstars and other WWF programs that Sky showed and it was fantastic.
We went on holiday in 1991 to a holiday camp that pumped Sky TV into each caravan, this was a year before my dad finally caved in and got us Sky TV.