NEWS - Sunday, August 11, 2002
WWE Raw Gets Some Competition
In what could be perceived as a) the astute exploitation of a growing trend, or b) another sign of the rapidly continuing downfall of civilization, Eidos Interactive today announced a licensing agreement with Backyard Wrestling, Inc., "the world’s premier provider of backyard wrestling genre sports entertainment." As you might guess, this agreement gives Eidos the right to develop and publish games based on the Backyard Wrestling video series, which in turn means the company likely has backyard wrestling titles in development as you read this. No platforms, release dates, or other details were specified in Eidos’ announcement. The term "backyard wrestling" refers to a phenomenon that is as old as youthful stupidity, the mimicking of professional wrestling by its fans in their backyards. More recently, backyard has gained a degree of notoriety -- with the aging of its practitioners, and the growing popularity of more violent garbage wrestling (whether it be featured in American promotions or imported from Japan), trampolines and tin-foil belts have given way to or been joined by barbed wire, fire, and similarly life-and-limb-threatening gimmicks. Kids these days, as the saying goes. "Eidos is pleased to announce this strategic relationship with Backyard Wrestling, Inc," said Rob Dyer, President, Eidos Interactive. "The Backyard Wrestling video series is astonishing in its popularity and steadily-increasing fan base. The video series’ outrageous, reality-based hardcore action translates perfectly into the video game arena. Eidos looks forward to releasing a video game that brings-to-life the outrageous, bigger-than-life action of Backyard Wrestling."Source: http://xbox.ign.com/
