In the career mode, you take a wrestler through 5 different wrestling regions (Northeast, Southeast, Midwest, Southwest, and Pacific.) In each region, you will have a specific storyline, and meet a different promoter.
Once you win all of the titles in the U.S. regions, you go on to the World Region to win the World Title.
- An important note about storylines in Career Mode
If a storyline is about a specific wrestler, it will be blocked out when you are taking that specific wrestler through career mode. For instance, when controlling Baron Von Raschke, storyline #11 "The Baron" in the midwest, will be blocked out. Additionally, when controlling a female created wrestler or the Promoter Belle in career mode, all of the storylines involving romances will also be blocked out. Sorry guys, no lesbian storylines.
Help in career mode[edit]
The point behind the career mode is to gain 100% popularity with the crowd in the region. Along the way, you may be asked to do different things by the promoter, like winning the tag team title or throwing a match when the promoter is betting against you. You raise your popularity bar by the way you perform in the ring during your matches.
In your matches, you can earn percentage points in the following ways:
- Win Match
- 3-Way Dance
- 4-Way Dance
- Ladder Match
- Cage Match
- Battle Royal
- Counters or Reversals (3 times)
- 40% less damage spread
- Turnbuckle (3 times)
- Damage Bonus (3 times)
- Fight on Apron
- Attack outside Ring
- Ref Bump
- Linked ISP (2 times)
- Move Variety
- Finisher
- Bleeding
- Weapons
- Minimum High Spots
- Taunt (3 times)
- 2 on 1 moves (3 moves)
- Break up Pinfall/Submission
- Tag minimum
- Eliminate Opponent (2 times)
You can lose points in the following ways:
- Lose match
- A.I. Pins opponent
- Never Call in partner
- Never distract ref
- Stalling
- Repetitive moves
- Not enough tags
- Not enough ISP
- Not making minimum high spots
No matter how much your final match percentage is, the maximum you can raise your region popularity is 17% in the U.S. regions, and 12% in the World region.
So that means even if your end match percentage is 146%, your region popularity will only raise 17% at a time. If your end match percentage is around 85%, your region popularity may only raise 13%. While competing in the career mode, a helpful hint is to let one of your first 2 matches against the jobbers not gain 100%. You will only advance to the next cut scene with a region popularity total of 34%. If you have not reached 34% after your first 2 jobber matches, you will face another jobber, which is an easier match than the other more well-known wrestlers.
You can also change your upcoming opponent in most situations. For instance, if your next scheduled match in career mode is a 4 way dance, and you do not like 4 way dances, you can press "B" to exit career mode. Make sure that you save your career. Go back into career mode, and your next opponent probably has changed. It should be noted that key points in the storyline cannot be changed. If you have to win a battle royal to get a title shot, your next match will always be a battle royal; there is nothing you can do about it.
Personally, I always liked 3 way dances. That way, you can exit the ring and grab a weapon. You can taunt 3 times, and you will get percentage points for each time you taunt. While the other 2 wrestlers are going at it, you can go to the top rope and dive off. If you hit both of them, you will get turnbuckle points for each wrestler. You can also gain points for double team moves. Finally, you receive big percentage points when you break up a pinfall or submission.
A note about tag team storylines. When you have a storyline like "The Rock N' Roll Express" or "Promoter's Nephew," and you reach a critical part of the storyline like a title match, make sure that the wrestler you control gets the pin, and not your partner. If your partner gets the win, the promoter will act like you lost the match. In a similar aspect, if your partner gets pinned in any tag match, you will not lose the percentage points like if your character was pinned.
A way to speed up the career mode is to turn off the introductions before each match. You can cut almost a minute off each match. To make you not lose your mind hearing the same songs over and over, make your own playlist for the background music in the game.
Fast way to defeat career mode[edit]
First off pick a wrestler with the northern lights suplex and a submission hold for a finisher. Bret Hart and Rick Martel are 2 examples. In career mode, use the northern lights suplex, and make sure you hold them down for the pin. After you hit the move 3 times, you will be very close to getting your special. Exit the ring and grab a weapon. Do your taunt 3 times. You will get points each time for every taunt. By now you will have your special. Unless your opponent is in the red: DO NOT DO YOUR SPECIAL. Instead, strike them and get them groggy. Use this time to work on your linked ISP moves. Hit at least 1 in the match (and get the points for it) so you don't get deducted for "Not enough ISPs" at the end of the match.
When your flashing spirit meter ends without you using it, your spirit bar will drop to half. In your match, don't forget to bump the ref as well as do an apron grapple. Those are easy points to earn, as well as fighting with weapons and fighting outside of the ring. You can also get points for turnbuckle attacks 3 times. In tag matches, make sure to get your minimum tags and also call in your partner into the ring. You get big points for breaking up a pinfall as well.
Anyway, once your opponent is in the red and you have your special, applying your submission special twice will drain them completely of all their energy, and a quick 3-4 minute win.
You can use that to build up to a title match very quickly. In the title match and the match that follows, it does not matter how much in percentage points that you get. Therefore, use the northern lights suplex glitch over and over to get an easy 2 minute win.
Follow that formula and you will beat career mode in about 4 hours.
Add your own playlist. You will go nuts hearing the same 5 or 6 songs over and over again. Make your own playlist and add as many songs as you want to it.