AEW was established in 2019 with backing from Jacksonville Jaguars co-owner Tony Khan. The company has since become a direct competitor to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) thanks to a roster o fan-favorite wrestlers like Omega, world champion Jon Moxley (who performed as Dean Ambrose during his time with WWE), women’s champion Hikaru Shida, tag team champions The Young Bucks, Matt Hardy, and Cody Rhodes, son of the late, great Dusty Rhodes.

Advertisement
Advertisement

While the involvement of Yuke’s comes as a bit of a surprise—the studio’s work on the WWE 2K series grew increasingly poor before it was dismissed in 2018—its decades-long pedigree as a wrestling game developer should give AEW a solid foothold as the company begins to expand. In a perfect world, outside competition leads to improvements, so I’m looking forward to seeing if AEW can challenge WWE in the world of video games as well.