As the entire wrestling world converged on Atlanta for Wrestlemania XXVII, several WWE superstars tested their skills on THQ’s WWE All Stars in the annual Superstar Challenge. The tourney pitted old-school stars vs. current superstars—and for some of the grapplers, this was as close as they were gonna get to the Wrestlemania spotlight, so they took full advantage.
The biggest surprise of the night came when defending champion JTG (a.k.a. the black wrestler not named Kofi, Mark, or Duane) got eliminated in the first round by Chris Masters. “I tried to give the people a show," said JTG, an avid gamer. "This is World Wrestling Entertainment. I didn’t just want to go out there and beat him. That’s what happens when you try to show off.”
With the exception of Sgt. Slaughter and the American Dream Dusty Rhodes, all of the non-gamers got bounced in the first round, which led to some tight second-round matchups. Sheamus, Jey Uso, Slaughter, and Beth Phoenix advanced from there, with Phoenix representing the Divas well (even though there are none represented in the game—hey, THQ, what’s up with that?). Unfortunately for Phoenix, she got knocked out in the semi-finals by Uso. Slaughter—aiming to be the first Legend to win the tournament—beat the “pasty warrior” Sheamus to advance to the finals as well.
The crowd was already amped from the wrestlers’ antics during the tournament and they were at a 10 for the Slaughter vs. Jey Uso final match. Unfortunately for old-school fans, Slaughter (who says he learned which buttons to push immediately before playing) got housed by Jey for an easy win. Though it was his first time competing in the Superstar Challenge, Jey came out on top—which didn’t surprise him at all. “All I do is play games so I already knew I was gonna win,” said Jey. “I just had to get past my brother.”
In addition to taking home the trophy, Jey also won a prop bet for a free dinner by beating his older brother. Hopefully Jimmy paid up and took his man to Gladys Knight Chicken and Waffles before they left the A.
