Bears In Games: “Legends Of Wrestlemania”

Koobert from Bears In Games has a threesome of great videos about bearish men in sports-themed video games (check out Bears In Games’ YouTube Page).  The one I’d like to highlight today is Legends Of Wrestlemania.

It’s pretty cool that even when Koobert designed a very obvious gay-looking character, his online opponents would not harass him nor negatively criticize the flamboyant look of his wrestler.  I found that interesting as pro-wrestling fans tend to get an image of being extremely homophobic.  Unfortunately, we find our homophobic brethren in video games like Halo.  I actually watched my co-worker’s 14-year-old son spew insults like “Fucking fag that is so fucking gay you’re gonna get it fucked up in your fucking fag gay ass” in Halo 3.  Ah, to be 14…

Pro-wrestling, especially WWF in the ’80s and ’90s, was my source of a “different type” of entertainment.  It was a world where half-naked burly men role-played a character, as they sweated and wrestled away.  I had a personal attraction towards wrestlers who were cocky, arrogant, and just plain villainous (check out my Sonny Roselli post).  If you looked at the wrestling roster on the above image, I only have about three “good guys” (or “faces”).  But then again, they were also at one point villains prior to WWF.  I guess I just love “bad bears” (I was so angry when I rented The Bad News Bears in Betamax).  Anyway, I feel that today’s pro-wrestling does not have the same mystique that these bearish wrestlers provided back in the day.  There was a rawness and realness to the theatrics that they used to entertain us.  It’s probably still out there since I viewed pro-wrestling a bit differently as a child, teenager, and heck, as an adult in my early 20’s.

Anyway, if you like these bearish pro-wrestlers, SDW Media is the source for all classic pro-wrestling videos (you can read more on my write-up about that company here).

Finally, let me end with an Arn Anderson entrance video from Legends Of Wrestlemania as well as a high-res image of Big John Studd.  Yes, if you look at the collage again, they are my top two professional wrestlers of all-time.