The WWE 2K video games make wrestlers immortal, as they will forever be preserved in virtual reality. WWE Superstars love being able to play themselves in a video game — and we know how many on the WWE roster are fans of gaming.
However, eventually, that shine wears off and the video games just become another part of the WWE branding monolith. On a recent appearance on the Sam Roberts podcast, Cody Rhodes offered up some insight into how the creation of those games goes down, specifically with regards to the motion capture work that puts their actual moves and entrances into the games.
Rhodes explained that most of the in-ring work gets done by non-WWE wrestlers that are very talented and simply learn everyone’s moves and entrances so they can do them in the motion capture suits — and keep the WWE guys from having to take lots of time out to film MoCap work. However, not everyone wants to let someone else bring their moves to the virtual world.
“Most of the MoCap guys are pretty well known because it’s the same crew of guys that always goes and does MoCap because it’s great money for them. Whoever did my MoCap watched Stardust’s very first entrance and nothing else because I never did half the stuff ever again. It was funny to watch, like, hey, well, that’s what they used.
“Shane McMahon did his own MoCap! Did you guys know that? Went in and did his own MoCap. Didn’t want someone else doing his moves.
“Yeah, so they get some really talented folks — and really, those guys, they make sure they get their MoCap. They get some very talented folks that know how to do almost everybody’s stuff, and properly, and they execute it and they’ve got all the dots on them and they film it. But Shane put the dots on himself, on his sneaks and everything and did all his own stuff, apparently. He’s Shane McMahon. Just the man.”
I really enjoy the idea of Shane McMahon refusing to let someone else get in a spandex suit covered in dots and do his moves when he can just do it himself to make sure it’s done right. Considering what Rhodes said about the MoCap guys doing Stardust’s entrance based off of only one viewing, maybe McMahon was right to go do it on his own and make sure the game got the true, authentic Shane McMahon experience.
