Why you should be watching Video Game Championship Wrestling

First off, I'd like to preface this by saying that I'm not really a fan of wrestling.

Real life wrestling, that is. I used to love watching it as a kid, especially considering that I grew up when it was at it's peak during the "Attitude Era". My interest in it tapered off as I entered junior high, and was pretty much non existent by the time I was in high school. So imagine my confused reaction during one fateful IM conversation when a friend says: "Dude, you have got to check this wrestling stream out." and links me to the channel of one Bazza87 on TwitchTV.

And the rest, as they say... is history.

Clockwise from left: Vegeta, Waluigi, Zangief, Dr. Eggman, Little Mac, Solid Snake and Nappa

VGCW is actually a pretty simple concept. Using the "Create a Wrestler" feature of WWE '13, VGCW creator Bazza87 downloads custom wrestlers based on videogame characters (Or characters that are related to video games, such as Gabe Newell, the Game Grumps and a few others) and have them duke it out in the ring to the sound of a bunch of video game music. It sounds like it's not too big a deal at first, but it's really one of those things that you have to experience to understand what makes it so entertaining. I'll share an anecdote of the very first VGCW match I watched. After I was linked the stream, I clicked it, not knowing what to expect. To my surprise, I ended up smack dab in the middle of a "King of the Ring" tournament match in which Donkey Kong of Nintendo fame duked it out with JonTron of all people, while some Donkey Kong Country boss music played in the background. I had to chuckle, especially considering Donkey Kong's custom model looks like this:

So, it started out mildly amusing, until things took a strange turn, and JonTron knocked DK through a set of barricades, dealing what looked to be some fairly major damage to Donkey Kong. JonTron runs back to the ring to avoid being disqualified for being out of the ring too long. DK attempts to get up, makes a motion as if his back gave out, and collapses to the floor, where he remained for the rest of the match, all the while ominious sounding Donkey Kong Country music played:

And the Twitch.TV chat went berserk. That's another part of the VGCW experience: The stream chat. The stream chat on a lot of streams, particularly gaming related ones are... sketchy to say the least. They usually devolve into mindless posting of porn, shock images, and blatant racism. While it's not entirely safe from that (No stream is, really) the VGCW stream chat is actually a positive experience overall, and almost feels like the actual audience at a wrestling match. When the events of the aforementioned video happened on stream, the chat flooded with comments like "JON YOU MURDERER" and "DK IS DEEEEEEEEEEEAD", which are just about the kind of comments you'd expect from witnessing something like that. It was from then on that I decided to start watching this on a regular basis, and later on, it began to engross me like I never would have imagined.

So you'd think that's pretty much all there is to VGCW, right?

Oh no. The rabbit hole goes deeper. Much, much deeper.

WWE '13 is a very glitchy game, for starters. The game itself actually runs on an engine used for wrestling games since the PS1 era, so there's no shortage of crazy antics, hilarious glitches and occurrences that quite frankly, shouldn't happen as much as they do. However, this adds something of an element of unpredictability to VGCW. Bazza87 (Or Baz, for short) doesn't control the characters at all; he instead sets every character to being controlled by the AI, so what happens in a match is left to the mercy of the game's AI. So much so, that Baz himself doesn't even know what's going to happen 90% of the time. These glitches (Or THQuality as it's affectionately referred to; Named for THQ, the former publishers of the game) while entertaining, ended up actually ended up giving way to arguably the most exciting aspect of VGCW today: The Plot.

Yes, VGCW has a plot.

It all started during a "Money in the Bank" match on the November 27th broadcast. You see, in a Money in Bank match, a briefcase hoisted above the ring. Six competitors have to climb a ladder and dislodge and acquire the briefcase before anyone else. However, competitors are encouraged to stop this by any means necessary, including dirty tactics like removing the ladder from under them. The competitors for this particular match consisted of Zangief from Street Fighter, Little Mac from Punch Out, Captain Falcon from F-Zero, Wesker from Resident Evil, JonTron, and Nappa from Dragon Ball Z. MiTB matches usually take a while to finish, as everyone is usually busy sabotaging each other. However, in a fantastic display of THQuality, the match ended in about a minute flat, thanks to Zangief immediately going for the briefcase, and no one doing a thing to stop him. You can see it here. (Fast forward to about 6:15)

Soon after Bazza decided that the results of that didn't make for an entertaining match and decided to set up a rematch. After that followed a bit of outcry, with fans claiming that Zangief had won fair and square. However, Bazza thought differently, and placed the blame on Zangief himself, saying that "Gief had screwed Gief." This would go on to create a rivalry of sorts between Little Mac and Zangief, forming what's now known as "The Little McMahon Saga" in which Bazza did a little self insertion and portrayed himself in game as Bazza McMahon, the General Manager of VGCW. While I won't get down to the nitty gritty, as it's best watched for yourself than told secondhand, the end of the season ended with Little Mac and Zangief making amends. On his way out from the arena however, Little Mac was struck by a car driven by an unknown assailant, which set the stage for the plot of season 2 "Turnabout Turnbuckle" in which an unlikely alliance is formed between Phoenix Wright and Nappa, as they investigate who hit Little Mac (Who has been in the hospital out of action ever since), and the appearance of the mysterious Mr. L, a green hat wearing fellow dressed in black who seemingly attacks people at random.

I won't spoil Mr. L's identity (heh), but the events of that season led to a final showdown that to this day, I still champion as the best thing I've ever seen on an internet stream.

It starts out pretty intense, but gets downright amazing at about 3:40

Youtube commenter Fimbulvetr090 makes a poignant point in the top comments of the video:

"It's really sad how that entire night beats a majority of actual television today."

And I'm kind of inclined to agree. The best thing about VGCW is that it knows how to finely tread the line between ridiculous and hilarious, but still knows how to put on an entertaining (and in the above case, sometimes even heartwarming) show. There's a weird mix of factors that contribute to VGCW being so great, and almost everyone I've showed it to that's watched more than 10 minutes of it, ended up being sucked into it. In fact, it's even popular among the staff and administrators of Twitch.tv. A few staff members post in the stream chat on a regular basis, and even awarded Bazza a partnership where Bazza will actually make a little bit of ad money. (And this is in spite of the fact that Bazza was initially adamant about not receiving money from anyone, and not even accepting donations. What a guy!)

Why yes, this is Nappa suplexing Gabe Newell into the mat so hard the ring breaks.

The following season of VGCW started with a big tournament to find a new General Manager after Baz's in-game persona was incarcerated thanks to the efforts of Phoenix Wright. This season saw the debut of Dracula (from Castlevania) and started a side plot in which Woody (From Toy Story. Not even kidding) urged the wrestlers backstage to play with their toys. Sadly, it didn't end so well for Woody. At the end of what was supposed to be the grand finals match between Gabe Newell and Adam Jensen, Dracula hijacked everything and announced his takeover of VGCW, along with his stable of wrestlers: Dan from Street Fighter (who had recently betrayed his tag team partner Mr. Satan), Vegeta (who, frustrated at his constant losses surrendered himself to Dracula's control, becoming Majin Vegeta), and Kefka, who's seemingly just along for the ride. This newly formed "Drac Pack" has become the basis for Season 4, aptly titled "WrestleVania"

The stream's usual theme "Tonight" (The main theme of WWE '13) gets a Castlevania themed remix titled "Symphony of Tonight" (A play on Symphony of The Night, one of the more popular games in the Castlevania series.)



The little intro portion in the video is custom made, too. It's a really nice touch.

It's almost kind of hard to believe it's made it this far, really Almost surreal, even. And I think that's what draws me to VGCW. This is a show where Ganondorf goes from a feared video game villain to one of the most beloved and respected characters in the league. Ash goes from a Pokemon trainer that constantly loses championships to one of the hardest working and most respected wrestlers in the league, with a weeks long winning streak that continues to this day. The fan community behind VGCW is excellent as well. There's a comprehensive Wiki detailing the wrestlers, the story arcs, and even the music that plays during matches. 

You can read the wiki here, by the way

All in all, VGCW's a very fun watch. Even if you don't watch it seriously, it's something nice and silly to have on the background. I find myself eagerly anticpating the next week's episode with an enthusiasm I haven't had since the days of Dragon Ball Z. So if you haven't watched it yet, give it a chance. You might just like it. You can follow Bazza's twitter account as he'll usually tweet "Tonight's the Night" whenever he'll be streaming soon.

So take care, and remember... Tonight's the Night.

List of past broadcasts for those interested in watching:



http://vgcw.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Broadcast