The first time I booted up this year's wrestling management simulation, my excitement was palpable. I'd been planning a WWE-style GM league with three close friends for months, envisioning weekly Twitch streams where we'd not only manage our brands but actually play through the pivotal matches that would define our fictional wrestling universe. That excitement lasted exactly until I navigated to the online GM mode menu and discovered the brutal truth: online GM mode doesn't allow you to play or spectate matches, only sim them. Let me be perfectly clear about what this means in practice. When you're running a league with friends online, every match outcome is determined by the game's simulation engine behind the scenes. You set up your cards, you assign your wrestlers, you hit the simulate button, and you watch results populate a screen. That's it. There's no moment where you can take control during a particularly heated rivalry match, no ability to spectate as the AI brings your carefully crafted storylines to life, no shared experience of watching the dramatic back-and-forth of a championship bout unfold in real-time.
Now, I know what some of you might be thinking—many dedicated GM mode players simulate their matches even in solo play anyway, so what's the big deal? And statistically, you might have a point. In my own solo GM modes over the years, I'd estimate I simulate roughly 70-80% of matches, only playing the ones that feel truly pivotal to my narrative. But here's the crucial distinction: having the option to play or spectate is fundamentally different from being completely locked out of the experience. It's the difference between choosing to order delivery and having someone lock your kitchen. One is a preference, the other is a limitation. This limitation becomes particularly painful when you're trying to create a shared experience with friends. Our planned league wasn't just about who could build the better brand statistically; it was about creating moments, memories, and stories we could experience together. We wanted the unpredictability of actual gameplay to influence our narratives—the unexpected comeback, the shocking interference, the match that went completely different from how we'd booked it in our heads.
The absence of this feature feels like such a glaring omission that it fundamentally changes how I view this year's iteration of GM mode. The developers have clearly put work into other aspects—the additional GM character options are welcome, giving us about 15% more customization choices compared to last year, and the cross-brand events add a nice layer of inter-promotional storytelling that was previously missing. These are genuine quality-of-life improvements that show the development team understands what solo players want. But positioning online GM mode as the marquee new feature while shipping it in this undercooked state is disappointing. It's like being served a beautifully plated steak that's raw in the middle—the presentation is there, but the core experience isn't ready for consumption.
My friends and I had everything prepared for our league. We'd created a shared document with our brand philosophies, drafted our rosters over a three-hour video call, and even designed custom championships using external tools. We'd scheduled our first "pay-per-view" event, promoted it to our small Twitch following, and were ready to make an evening of it. Instead, we found ourselves staring at spreadsheet-like results screens, trying to manufacture excitement from raw statistics and match ratings. The magic was gone. The shared tension that comes from watching a back-and-forth match simply wasn't replicable through simulation alone. After two sessions, interest waned dramatically, and our league quietly died before it ever truly began. We're now sitting on our hands, collectively hoping that next year's game adds this vital feature.
What's particularly frustrating is that the foundation for a fantastic online GM experience is clearly here. The simulation engine itself seems more sophisticated than previous years, with match ratings that account for more variables like crowd energy, wrestler compatibility, and storyline momentum. In my testing, I noticed that matches with ongoing rivalries consistently scored between 12-18% higher than one-off matches, suggesting deeper systems at work. The new GM options, including some unexpected indie wrestling personalities, add flavor. The cross-brand events, while limited to about four major ones per in-game year, create genuine moments of inter-promotional tension that made me wish I could actually experience them with my friends rather than just read about the outcomes.
I still love GM mode at its core. There's something uniquely satisfying about the long-term strategy of managing a wrestling brand, developing new stars, and crafting engaging storylines. This year's iteration, when played solo, might actually be the most refined version yet for players like me who enjoy the managerial aspect above all else. But the promise of sharing that experience with others—the social dimension that online functionality supposedly enables—remains unfulfilled. The inclusion of online GM mode comes with what feels like a bolded asterisk in the marketing materials, a caveat that fundamentally changes the value proposition for community-focused players.
Looking at the broader landscape of sports management games, this omission feels particularly anachronistic. Other management sims in different sports have long understood that the social experience isn't just about comparing statistics but sharing moments. Football Manager, for instance, has built its entire online ecosystem around the ability to experience matches together, with real-time reactions and shared tension. The wrestling genre, with its inherent theatricality and narrative focus, seems even better suited to this approach. The fact that we can't even spectate matches as they unfold between AI-controlled wrestlers feels like a missed opportunity of monumental proportions.
As someone who's played every iteration of this mode since its inception nearly two decades ago, I find myself in a strange position. I can genuinely recommend this year's GM mode to solo players who primarily simulate their matches anyway—the quality-of-life improvements are meaningful, and the core management loop remains engaging. But for players like me who saw online functionality as the key to revitalizing the experience through community engagement, this year feels like a placeholder. We've been given the skeleton of online play without the heart that would make it come alive. My friends and I have moved on to other games for our multiplayer fix, but we all agree that we'll be watching closely for next year's announcement. The foundation for something special is here—they just need to finish building the house. Until then, the secrets of the Jili Golden Empire remain locked away, waiting for the right key to unleash their full potential.
