If fans are eagerly awaiting a chance to play as the booker of AEW, fans will have to wait as it seems AEW's newest mobile game isn't what was promised.
AEW Announce AEW Elite General Manager
When AEW announced it was creating a General Manager game a lot of wrestling fans were excited. The popular GM Mode on the old Smackdown vs Raw games had long since been dropped and fans were ready for a new take on the system. It is known that AEW Owner Tony Khan is a big fan of booking simulators, Dave Meltzer even reported that Khan used to play wrestling booking simulators in the ’90s, and even got the name “Dynamite” from those games.
"Regarding the name of AEW Dynamite, like the original Tuesday Night Dynamite, in a trivia note, Khan as a kid used to book pro wrestling television and the name Dynamite was the name of his fantasy television show he put together so that's the actual origination of the name."
Back then the game he would have been playing was EWR, Extreme Warfare, this has since evolved into TEW, Total Extreme Wrestling, which is an intensive wrestling booking simulator, which allows players to micromanage every aspect of a fantasy wrestling show. The game allows players to create wrestling shows from the ground up, book matches, create gimmicks, monitor contracts, negotiate TV deals, check on wrestlers fitness, book promos and storylines, hire and fire wrestlers as well as much more.
So when AEW announced it was creating such a game, it was logical the fans would get excited and expectations were high. A booking strategy game which had the same in-depth roster and options of TEW as well as the easy interface of Smackdown vs. Raw’s GM Mode would be an incredible addition to AEW’s growing roster of mobile and console games.
Reviews Of AEW Elite GM Are Bad
Though, things didn’t really play out that way. Excitement started to wane when it was announce to be a mobile game, as a mobile game wouldn’t be able to handle such an intensive game. Since its release, the game has received good reviews for its art style and relatively easy user interface, and the ability to book the AEW roster any way one pleases is a nice touch. Finally Orange Cassidy can be the AEW World Champion, and the road to that goal can be entertaining.
On the other hand, the game offers very little booking strategy, it doesn’t let you book feuds or keeps stats. One review on Reddit said, “It isn't as much a GM mode as it is just a typical mobile game with an AEW skin.”
Another user review on Metacritic said, “When they announced that game I was really happy full of nostalgia remembering the smackdown vs raw! There was an ok tutorial to teach you the mechanics of the game, how to book matches about making money and growing your fan base. And then the Tutorial ends there, there was a challenge mode, the endless mode which was so boring with no purpose reason just matches, money, fan base and that’s it. No story, just win and lose matches.”
Needless to say, this is not the game wrestling simulator fans, who have been waiting since Smackdown vs. Raw 2008, were hoping for. Fans hoping that AEW’s upcoming console game may feature a GM mode will also be disappointed, as Kenny Omega revealed in an interview with IGN that GM Mode will remain unique to the mobile game while the console game will have a variety of other features, like campaign, multiplayer, create-a-wrestler, as well as others. Omega said, “There will be a campaign and various other unusual modes, and you will be able to edit your own wrestler, too.”
AEW Elite General Manager may be a decent time-wasting mobile game, but for fans hoping for an intensive fantasy booking simulator like Tony Khan used to play or fans dreaming of an updated AEW GM Mode, Smackdown vs. Raw style, the wait will have to continue.