Chris Candido Announced as First DLC Character for Ultra Pro Wrestling - Hardcore Gamer

hardcoregamer.com:

Ultra Pro Wrestling aims to bring back a simulation-based wrestling game ala the N64’s classics from Aki, and using Hal Haney‘s original characters, it already has a loaded roster. However, it was announced today that the game will at least have one real-world DLC character in the form of “No Gimmicks Needed” Chris Candido. Fresh off his own Dark Side of the Ring episode on Vice, Candido remains one of pro wrestling’s most fascinating cautionary tales 18 years after he passed away and is one of the few acts who was big in the Attitude era in several companies that wasn’t in the Aki engine games.

It’s a shame too because his in-ring style blended a lot of technical prowess, some impressive high-flying moves and a lot of body language when he was a heel or just a really cocky babyface. Creating him in both WrestleMania 2000 and No Mercy resulted in a fun time and even without his face being present and him having a very unique face, you could come fairly close to his face and easily find a body type that suited him for his larger frame in ECW and WCW. The Aki engine gameplay style is perfect for someone like him and it’s exciting to see Ultra Pro Wrestling branch out into including real-life wrestlers.

Candido had such a fascinating career too – starting in his teens and being a fan his whole life because his grandfather was a wrestler. He was an early wrestler who read up openly on the industry with publications like the Wrestling Observer and Pro Wrestling Torch newsletters and was able to get international matches because he was so good at such a young age. He gained a decent name in Jim Cornette’s Smoky Mountain Wrestling as a pushed undercard chicken heel and went on to win the NWA World Title in 1994 after Shane