It was August 2000 when Mat Dickie launched his first video game. An avid wrestling fan, he released Hardy Boyz Stunt Challenge, based on iconic WWE wrestlers Matt and Jeff Hardy. It was a rather simple title, reflecting his fledgling coding skills at the time. And yet, it was enough of a hit that he made another. And another. And another. Now, 25 years later, he’s released dozens of titles and is responsible for the best wrestling game this side of whatever WWE’s all-timer is in your heart: Wrestling Empire.
Wrestling Empire has a name among myself and the friends who enjoy watching me play over Discord. It’s lovingly called the janky wrestling game, and for good reason. It looks like an N64 or early PlayStation title, many of the hundreds of wrestlers in the game look like generic versions of notable WWE names, and, well, you can accidentally do things like lop off your opponent’s hand because why not?
My wrestler – a fourth-generation talent who carries a bag of thumbtacks to the ring – has caused the loss of many limbs in the squared circle.
Revolutionizing The Wrestling Game On An Indie Level
But this janky wrestling game is also the most fun one. It plays great, the aged graphics bring me nostalgic joy, and Dickie and the few people he works with now under the studio name MDickie are able to do lots of things WWE can’t in its games. It’s not uncommon to find yourself wrestling drunk, suing your boss in court, appearing on a podcast that’s a lot like Joe Rogan’s, and also accidentally killing your opponent in the ring.
While those sorts of moments might sound a bit extreme for some mainstream wrestling fans, Dickie and his wrestling games certainly have their audience. As Dickie attests himself, he’s made the “most downloaded wrestling game of all time, the most positively reviewed, and the longest reigning.”
And yet, he’s still on the outside of the mainstream wrestling games industry. While he knows people who work on WWE 2K play his games, existing outside of that system is a massive boon for him – and sometimes leads to nice moments of acknowledgement from WWE 2K’s team.
“I’ve been doing this long enough that plenty of people who grew up playing my games are now in positions of influence,” Dickie told TheGamer. “Even at the highest levels of WWE, their lead game designer (Bryan Williams) was open-minded enough to retweet Wrestling Empire’s Switch debut.”
Still, he knows he’s making a fundamentally different video game – and one that can avoid pitfalls that larger studios might run into.
Surviving A Treacherous Video Game Landscape
Given he’s been releasing games for 25 years, Dickie has been through many generations of the industry. His first title came out when the N64 was still Nintendo’s primary console. In fact, the industry has changed so much that some of his older titles can’t even be played unless you do some of the legwork to make them comply with whatever current version of Windows you have.
“One of the most frustrating things about game development is that your work is lost to time in ways that a book, song, or movie needn’t worry about,” he explained.
Since switching to developing using the Unity platform in 2020, though, that has thankfully changed – “There has never been a better time to grab something like Unity and bring games into existence. On top of the online tutorials, there is a “hive mind” of people who have solved every problem you could ever have – not to mention AI!”
The use of AI in game development is a complicated issue that can be used for any number of reasons and touches all corners of the industry, independent or otherwise. Even Fortnite used AI in its recent Star Wars season to generate Darth Vader voice lines, to the disappointment of many.
Of course, there is a more modern issue to deal with, and that’s distribution. When you’re a tiny team, at most, getting your game out into the world is no easy task. Thankfully for MDickie, the studio’s games have a fervent audience of wrestling nerds and notable YouTubers who keep the game in the discussion.
Over on Steam, Wrestling Empire’s reviews are “overwhelmingly positive” with over 2,600 people registering their joy. Meanwhile, wrestling game YouTubers like New Legacy Inc. have incorporated MDickie’s various titles into the channel’s semi-regular gaming schedule.
“We have an unspoken symbiotic relationship – as streamers get content while putting a lot of eyeballs on a game that was othSteamerwise blackballed by the mainstream media,” Dickie said. That doesn’t mean he’s doing anything in exchange for coverage, though. He added, “I have to be careful about doing favours, however, as a party can turn into a debate about who wasn’t invited.”
Zigging Where WWE And The Rest Of The Industry Zags
For most of the world, “wrestling video games” is basically whatever WWE puts out every year. There are alternatives, of course. AEW had Fight Forever, which was definitely a video game I played twice before uninstalling forever. Meanwhile, Japanese wrestling fans have been eating well with the Fire Pro series for decades.
Ultimately, though, most of the wrestling games we know come from major studios with plenty of resources for development.That’s a lot different than one guy setting his mind to something and working to bring it to life – and there are also fewer hurdles to jump along the way. That allows Dickie to not only be ahead of the curve but also know when a new feature might not be worth the work it takes to bring it to life.
“As I’m early to most things, it’s usually me watching them catch up and wincing at the mistakes they’re about to make,” he explained. “I knew from bitter experience that [the two-ring] War Games match was a LOT of hassle for something that people hardly ever use, and sure enough we never hear about it anymore.” He feels the same way about Hell in a Cell matches, a popular request from fans of the game.
The War Games match in the WWE 2K series is truly something I’ve wanted forever in a game and I’m glad I have it. I don’t, however, play it very often. I almost never play Hell in a Cell.
Dickie is also not a fan of the way studios treat updates and DLC in modern video gaming. “The biggest mistake I see being made now is the move towards ‘action figures sold separately’ DLC,” he admitted. “It’s especially worrying that indies have felt the need to inherit it from the pros.”
When it comes to independent titles, Dickie was quick to note how crucial it is that games are able to properly compensate the legendary wrestlers who are signing up to be featured. The first example that comes to my mind is Ultra Pro Wrestling, the independent title taking heavy inspiration from the N64’s wrestling games. His worry, though, is how feasible it will be for everyone to profit.
“I’ve been to the top of the mountain and I know there’s nothing there,” he said. “I took a year to single-handedly make the most successful wrestling game south of WWE, and even I debate whether it was worthwhile or not. How are teams of people in year five going to feel when they see the same numbers? No one wrestler is so important to a project that we can afford to pay them thousands of dollars as if they coded the thing! The fans will be less enthusiastic when that fee gets passed down to them.”
Instead of expensive add-ons, MDickie instead keeps iterating on the game as it exists, pushing it forward. And what they don’t do, the fans can. Thanks to the Steam Workshop, fans cause create and upload their own mods for the game, which somehow make it even better.
Now you can have your favorite wrestlers, titles, and companies – created by fans. You can also mod in new game types, more graphic blood use, and practically anything else you can think of.
“I must thank legitimate modders like Ingo H and “Gaming Master” for turning Steam Workshop into a viable part of the game’s ecosystem for the first time in my history,” Dickie shared. “It’s no coincidence that Wrestling Empire’s more secure release was more commercially successful than Wrestling Revolution 3D spilling out.”
He admitted that prior to Steam Workshop, mods of the game”only ever undermined each project and the human being that worked hard on them.” Using a wrestling metaphor, he explained that “when a fan gets too close to the ring, then it doesn’t end well.”
Thankfully, Steam Workshop had made proper modding possible.
The Greatest Career Mode In Gaming
Something he’s done that WWE has yet to perfect, is backstage action. There have been WWE games many years ago in which you’d walk around a largely barren backstage area looking for career mode quests. They always disappointed, though, and were dropped from the series ages ago.
On the other hand, backstage interactions are the basis of Wrestling Empire’s never-ending career mode. There are a bunch of different locations that are all interconnected – the gym, the podcast studio, the hospital, the graveyard, the subway, and more – and filled with wrestlers to interact with. Some will be friends, some will be foes. However, you can start fighting any of them at any time. And your actions backstage can influence the action that unspools in the ring. If you have some beers with your friends before a match, you’ll stumble around and have no stamina when the bell rings because you’re drunk. If you make a challenge to someone – or they challenge you – backstage, that feud will likely spill out into the arena.
I love WWE 2K25’s MyRise mode and the storytelling it does. But Wrestling Empire is the first time it’s felt like career mode is happening in a reasonably open world environment. You are given challenges by your boss, you can negotiate with rival promotions to jump ship, and you can pick a fight with just about anyone. The options are endless – as is the mode itself.
As mentioned earlier, I’m currently playing as a fourth-generation wrestler named Thunder Cobain IV. I also played through the careers of the previous three generations. Wrestling Empire lets you pick up as the next of kin to continue the family wrestling tradition when someone dies. Sure, my grandfather probably shouldn’t have died when he was bodyslammed out of the ring through a flaming table, but that’s wrestling!
It’s Not All Wrestling, Though
While the MDickie games I play most are its wrestling titles, there’s far more to dig into. There are entire franchises based on the same visual style as Wrestling Empire.
There’s a trilogy of games about life in prison called Hard Time – the third installment is his newest game. MDickie also has its own version of the Avengers with Super City, a game that lets you create your own superhero and take to the streets with tons of other heroes and villains waiting for you. In fact, Dickie admitted that the PC port of that game is available on his website, though most people seemingly don’t know it.
He’s dabbled in zombies, being stuck on a deserted island, life in school, being a pop star, a time-traveling army, and even has his own “biblical epic”, The You Testament. In it, you play the main character in a number of biblical stories – all in the same art style as Wrestling Empire.
While MDickie might not be a one-man show in 2025, as Dickie brings in people here and there to help carry the load, it’s incredibly impressive how far he’s come on his own. He’s not the first single-person development team. Roller Coaster Tycoon, Stardew Valley, and even Minecraft all began that way.
Instead of leaving independence for the stability of a major studio like those other titles have done, though, the games MDickie continues to release remain pure in their creation. While others are pitching in, they remain the creation of a guy sitting at his computer. That someone can do that and still remain as relevant as ever in the wrestling games community is impressive.
I’ll never stop playing WWE’s video games. I’ve played every single one since 1999, and I have no reason to slow down now. I’m so happy MDickie’s games exist, though. And I continue to play them more than I expected. I have well over 150 hours on Steam and am reaching that in a separate playthrough on Switch.
Sure, 2K may be the king of the mountain when it comes to wrestling games, but it’s reassuring that a studio like MDickie has earned its seat at the table in the minds of gamers.
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