RetroMania’s Mike Hermann Discusses How The RetroMania Roster Came Together

RetroMania is a throwback to WWF WrestleFest featuring 2D sprites and gameplay that can be simple to learn, but hard to master. 

The game has appealed to the nostalgia side of fans and features a roster housed with names from every promotion including Johnny Retro (John Morrison in WWE), Matt Cardona, Nick Aldis, Jeff Cobb, Colt Cabana, and throwback names such as The Road Warriors. 

Speaking to Tommy Dreamer on House of Hardcore, RetroMania developer Mike Hermann discussed how the roster came together. 

“[Hawk & Animal] were the first ones I signed,” Hermann said, noting he was in contact with Animal before his passing. “I did that on my own. I went through a ‘bookaprowrestler.com’ kind of site and I thought there was one guy who managed everybody, and I learned very quickly, all of them say they know everyone in the business and are willing to take a finder’s fee for setting something up.”

The Road Warriors were part of WWF WrestleFest in 1991. 

Hermann continued by saying, “Me and [Licensing and Business Development] Mike Archer were formulating a plan. We met at a coffee shop and were coming up with names. We wanted to take someone from every era and different guys who aren’t seen too much in video games and first appearance guys like Austin Idol. An off-the-beaten road approach of taking an eclectic roster where you would like someone. Getting [Tommy Dreamer] and the Road Warriors were the mainstream appeal because everyone knows them. Adding [Matt Cardona] and [Brian Myers] really solidified a bigger audience since they were just coming out of WWE. I knew they were going to get picked up immediately. We called them the same day and (thinking), if I got let go from my place (of business), I would feel good knowing other people wanted to do business right away. I wasn’t sure if there was a time to wait to talk to them, but I took wrestling out of it. We did an IndieMania tournament. We came up with this as we wanted to get an Independent wrestler who wasn’t signed anywhere. Obviously, it was good for publicizing the game, but we also wanted to shine a light on people who hadn’t had a light shined on them. We had IndieMania and had 32 Independent wrestlers to sign contracts, and that alone was a fee, and that turned out well. It was a great success and Warhorse won that tournament. It was based on fan voting.”

Upcoming DLC wrestlers include Chris Bey, Mr. Hughes, and James Storm. 

You can view Fightful’s gameplay of RetroMania by clicking here. You can also follow and subscribe to our Twitch channel, which features gameplay across multiple games and platforms, post-shows, watch alongs, and more by clicking here. 

If you use any of the quotes above, please give a h/t and link back to Fightful for the transcription.