After AEW Dynamite and Rampage went off the air, President Tony Khan came out to the live crowd and announced the official name of its upcoming video game. Its name: AEW: Fight Forever.
For habitual readers of wrestling “dirt sheets,” the title of AEW’s upcoming video game will come as no surprise following the promotion’s trademarking of the name in late March.
“Fight Forever” is one of many infectious chants wrestling fans erupt into letting wrestlers know how impressed they are with their in-ring schmoving, hoping the slobber knocker slugfest on display never ends.
In addition to the live Pittsburgh audience’s inside scoop for the game title, AEW ring announcer Justin Roberts invited fans to perform a series of chants, which would be recorded for the game. What ensued was a rumble of chants for AEW world heavyweight champion “Hangman” Adam Page, dual Adam Cole “Bay Bay” and “Boom” chants, and “FTR,” “Dax,” and “Cash” chants, and chants for the icon Sting. The recordings are indicative that these wrestlers will be playable, or at least present, in the game, alongside Kenny Omega, Chris Jericho, Darby Allin, Jungle Boy, and Hikaru Shida, who were already announced.
In September, AEW announced that the late, great Owen Hart would join the roster as a playable character as well. The announcement came as a result of AEW’s partnership with the non-profit charity, the Owen Hart Foundation. It will mark Hart’s first appearance in a wrestling video game since Showdown: Legends of Wrestling in 2004.
Early footage of AEW: Fight Forever was first revealed in November of last year. The company also created a series of spoof press conference videos about the game, parodying video game presentations like E3. Last June and September, AEW gave fans a sneak peak of wrestlers Darby and Jungle Boy’s movesets during a developer update.
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The game is reportedly being developed by Yuke’s, the Japanese studio behind WWE Smackdown! and the WWE 2K games, with the help of Hideyuki Iwashita, who directed WWF No Mercy and Def Jam Vendetta. Safe to say the game is in good hands.
“I’m very excited to have been involved in the new AEW wrestling game,” Iwashita said during the AEW Games’ 1.0 special event in November 2020, adding that it would be “a dream wrestling game for fans around the world.”
It should also be noted that AEW already has two mobile games, so this won’t be the first game for the wrestling company ever. But it will be the first console game, according to a November 2020 presser.
According to Fightful Select (which is paywalled, but the report was shared by Wrestling Inc), AEW: Fight Forever is expected to release sometime in September of this year.
