Professional wrestling legend Kevin Gill who is currently active in the Game Changer Wrestling GCW recently revealed that ECW almost got a video game deal with Rockstar games. He also talked about the reason behind the failure of this deal.
Rockstar Games is considered as one of the best video gaming publishers and developers there ever was. The company is famous for making some of the best video games in the history including the likes of the Grand Theft Auto series, which is mostly famous as GTA. They are also famous for making the Red Dead Redemption series.
Kevin Gill Reveals ECW Almost Signed A Video Game Deal With Rockstar Games
If ECW could Grab a deal with Rockstar Games it could have been a huge deal for the promotion for sure. It is not that ECW did not have their own video games. First video game was Hardcore Revolution which was made by Acclaim Entertainment. They also released a sequel to this video game named Anarchy Rulz which was the sequel to their first game.
But this video games could not make much difference since they were already on they are dying stage. Acclaim made the games on the same engine as they made previous WWE or WWF video games like WWF Warzone and WWF Attitude. There were already a better engine on the market introduced by THQ. Even though we believe if they could sign a deal with Rockstar Games, this could even save the promotion from death.
Kevin Gill who is currently active in the Game Changer Wrestling GCW recently spoke to the Tru Heal Heat Wrestling program where he revealed that ECW almost got a video game deal with Rockstar games. He also talked about the reason behind the failure of this deal. Kevin Gill said;
“I would say I have no regrets and I got to work with so many great things there that opened up other doors for me. The way the game came about, I had actually put together a deal for Rockstar Games to do the ECW video game. Like I had put together a deal with Paul Heyman. We had a series of meetings.
“One weekend, I rented a van and brought the whole Rockstar Games team, like a 15 passenger van and brought everyone down to the ECW arena in Philly to see it in person.. I was like you guys have to see it.. Then also in my mind, be comfortable and fully understand every fucking thing that’s happening. You can’t pretend, ‘oh I didn’t know there was gonna be blood.’ A video game takes so many years to develop and cost so much to develop.”
Kevin Gill continued, “We had the contract signed from ECW and we were about to issue the check and the check then makes it because we didn’t sign the deal yet. Like we returned this signed deal and the check and that locks the deal. So he’s finally like, ‘if this was your million dollars right now, would you sign this check and send it to Paul?’ And I’m like ‘if it was my only million dollars’.
“Because let’s be honest, if you’re on the pool of $15 million, it’s a good million dollar bet.. He’s just like ‘if it’s your only million dollars right now, would you bet everything you have that ECW will be here in 18 to 36 months when this game comes out?’
“I was like ‘it breaks my heart to say it, but you know what I mean? I can’t, if literally like in this context, I couldn’t take that bet, you know what I mean? He’s like ‘I really appreciate that, that takes a real man to do that’. Then he had me rip up the contracts, not in a bad way, but in a symbolic way.
“It’s crazy, it’s sad because I really wish I did. Sometimes I think about it like, well say I didn’t put the business first and would have put myself first, I would have chosen to just do the game. I still would have two years of experience, working with all those guys and who knows what would have come of it, with ECW’s financial situation and stuff.
“I always choose what’s best for all, or what’s best for the business. I sometimes wonder if I would have just done that, maybe ECW still would of went the same way, maybe the game would have been whatever, but I might have made a career changing relationships and moves that would have changed everything, I don’t know.”
H/T and transcribed by Fightful