AJ Styles Suggests Modern Wrestling Games Are Too Complex for Casual Players
WWE Hall of Famer AJ Styles recently expressed his opinion that contemporary wrestling video games have develop into overly complicated, potentially alienating players who aren’t deeply invested in the genre. Speaking on his YouTube podcast, The Phenomenally Retro Podcast, alongside co-host Tony Giles, Styles discussed the evolution of gaming and how modern titles differ from the more arcade-style games of the past.
From Arcade Simplicity to Complex Controls
The conversation began with Giles noting his own lack of engagement with newer wrestling games, attributing it to their increased complexity compared to older titles. “I haven’t really played a modern wrestling game for a long time now, but this goes the same for when EA were doing Fight Night, UFC, NHL, and NBA. I feel like it got too complicated with the control scheme. There was so much you could do. I preferred it when it was more arcade-style rapid button tapping and trying to pull off certain moves, rather than having to be a wizard using the controller,” Giles explained as reported by Gerweck.net.
Styles agreed, recalling instances backstage with fellow wrestlers where they simplified gameplay, avoiding intricate mechanics due to their difficulty. “Yeah, it’s always too much. I remember playing UFC with the boys in the locker room. We had no grappling just knockouts. That’s all we could do. If I played, that’s what I wanted to do, because the grappling is definitely much harder to grasp than throwing punches and kicks and stuff like that. It just got to the point where it was like, you hold the button and do a strong grapple, or you tap it and do a light grapple,” Styles shared.
Difficulty Understanding Input Timing and Combinations
Giles further elaborated on the challenges of understanding the timing-based inputs and various button combinations, stating, “And it’s like, how do I understand if I’m doing a hard or a soft grapple? How long do I hold the button for? It got to the point where I was like, this isn’t as fun as arcade-style wrestling or arcade-style fighting games. That’s my sweet spot.”
A Barrier to Entry for New Players
Styles highlighted that the sheer number of controls can deter players who aren’t already dedicated fans. He believes the time investment required to master modern wrestling games can discourage newcomers from even trying. “The more buttons you introduce, the harder a game is going to be to learn. If you’re not a fan, you’re not going to be willing to spend that time in the lab getting better and taking hours to learn it. The new 2K games are too much for me. I don’t want to spend all that time. I did a tournament where a guy was going to wrestle me in a 2K game for a million dollars. I was like, ‘Guys, I don’t know how to play the game. I don’t know how to play the game.’ So he just murdered me because I didn’t know what I was doing,” Styles recounted.
The Phenomenally Retro Podcast
The Phenomenally Retro Podcast, hosted by Tony Giles and AJ Styles, launched in March 2026 and is available on YouTube. The podcast covers a range of topics including retro video games and professional wrestling. Styles was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in February 2026, following his retirement from in-ring competition after a Royal Rumble loss to Gunther as Cynical Times reported.