Joe Hendry has some surprising picks for his favorite wrestling video games of all time, and they likely won’t match up with yours.
IMPACT Wrestling‘s Joe Hendry was the latest guest on Tommy Dreamer’s House of Hardcore Podcast to discuss a wide variety of subjects. When asked what his favorite wrestling video game of all time was, Hendry picked Fire Pro Wrestling on Gameboy Advance with an honorable mention to SmackDown 2: Know Your Role on the Sony Playstation.
“That is such a tough question,” Joe Hendry said. “The one that I’ve spent the most time on is Fire Pro Wrestling for the Gameboy Advance. I just think it’s the most is the closest game to actually being a worker. Like if anyone wants to know what it’s like, not the new Fire Pro Wrestling, but Fire Pro Wrestling for the Gameboy Advance.
“The one that’s probably the most fun is SmackDown 2 for the PlayStation; it’s hilarious. That’s the one with like the crazy loading screens where one minute the loading screen will come up, and it’ll be The Rock, and then the moment your parents walk in, it’s Trish Stratus in a bikini or something like that. I’m just playing a video game! You know that during that time, it took like the full 30 seconds to load.”
When asked what his favorite entrance in pro wrestling is, Hendry took it in another direction and spoke about his entrance and how this IMPACT theme music came about instead.
“As for entrances, obviously I kind of recognized early on that when I started that I’m way behind everybody else when it comes to experience level,” Joe Hendry said. “But I have these music skills, and I can write songs and record music. So I was like, I always kind of felt like entrance was such a huge part that people maybe didn’t realize how big a part it was.
“And so what I did is my entrance is actually structured in a similar way to The Hollywood Rock theme, the slow section. If you listen, it’s basically — the two themes that I really liked were Christian’s theme, the one where it’s like GO, and it’s just like right in there. and I was like, right, well, I want a section like that. But then comes across as if I’m going to try and really just portray myself with that sort of main event sound.
“I love that Hollywood Rock the 2003 entrance, and so they’re very similar. And the two songs, that was the concept. And so when I’m thinking about when you walk out where you’re going to stand, that’s kind of what I based it on. And the two songs from popular culture that I brought in for influence… was actually very similar to “International Love” by Pitbull. And the end is very like “We Will Rock You by Queen.”
“In terms of I was like, what if this goes slow? How can I keep people moving? Who’s good at that? And Queen were good at that. So that’s why I did that. I actually have a funny story about how the song came about is when I was playing music with my friends, and it was going nowhere. We had all this buzz; then we had none.
“And we were like, oh do you know what? We should just do what Pitbull does, and name places and we’re standing at a bus stop, and we’re going London and Paris and Tokyo, and then I just thought of that song I used to have, and I just kind of brought it all together and I showed one of my old bandmates. I was like yeah, you know that song that used to just sing for a laugh on the roads? That’s now my entrance.
“And it’s funny. The song that we were just sitting there and came up with within 30 seconds to make fun of music is the one that I’m now using. So it’s kind of bringing all those influences together.”
READ MORE: Joe Hendry Reveals How He Called His Shot And Got His Dream Match Against Kurt Angle
What do you make of Joe Hendry’s comments? What is your favorite wrestling game of all time? Let us know your thoughts by sounding off in the comments section below.
If you use any of the quotes above, please credit the House of Hardcore Podcast with a link back to this article for the transcription.
