Mortal Kombat is Wrestling

Yikes, has it really been a month (give or take) since I last updated? My, how time flies.

So, just a quick update: I’ve been busy doing various thing, ranging from the usual Nintendo Force and Mega Visions stuff to this:

That’s right! For the better part of the last year, and even up through yesterday, I’ve been working on a follow-up to the Mega Man Robot Master Field Guide from UDON Entertainment. If you’re interested in pre-ordering on Amazon, the US page is right here, whereas the Canadian one is over here.

This doesn’t mean I haven’t been doing anything for the site, though.

Presently, I’m working on a Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate article that is taking a lot longer than I thought it would. Besides working around other obligations, as well as my wife’s own schedule, not getting the review copy of the original version of the game I was supposed to has probably put me a bit further on the back foot than some others when it comes to exploring the new content.

And that’s not all! I’m also working on covering Tetris Effect: Connected, the Xbox Series X itself, its new controller, and with any luck, I can talk about Yakuza: Like a Dragon and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game before very long, and maybe some other things sprinkled in-between.

As I’ve been working my way through Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate‘s wealth of content, however, a thought occurred to me that I thought I could use as a stopgap here in the meantime (it didn’t quite seem worthy of the full feature treatment, so consider it a bonus?): There are a lot of Mortal Kombat names that are the same (or similar to) wrestler names, aren’t there? Here are some I’ve noticed:

Brian Cage and Johnny ___ – Johnny Cage – Brian Cage speaks for himself, but the WWE’s John Morrison tends to go by “Johnny” with a different surname in other promotions. Fittingly enough, he also often gives off a movie or rock star kind of vibe. The fact his partner in crime is The Miz is also interesting for a reason we’ll get back to.

Nia Jax – Jax – One knocks people into hole, the other fell on theirs.

Black Scorpion – Scorpion – One is a masked shadow warrior, the other is Ric Flair. Woo.

Basile Baraka – Baraka – Sadly, only one has blades in their arms.

Serena Deeb – Sareena – Slight spelling difference, but I’m counting it.

Melina Perez – Mileena – See above.

Matt Striker – Kurtis Stryker – Not only do they share a name, but they also share the fact that few people seem to like either one.

Meat – Meat – I’m not explaining this one.

Lady Frost – Frost – Lady Frost has appeared on AEW Dark in recent weeks. No points for guessing what gimmick these two share.

Moloch – Moloch – I tried to keep away from more of the lesser-known wrestlers here (otherwise, this well gets a fair bit deeper), but this was too hard to pass up. Looking at the two, I wonder if the latter was inspired by the former?

KroniK – Kronika – Despite the similar spelling of their names, these former WCW Tag Team Champions and this Titaness of the realms respective gimmicks couldn’t be more different.

Bonus: Here’s some other more random commonalities:

Glacier had to have been originally inspired by Sub-Zero

After way, way too much buildup, the wrestler known as Glacier finally debuted in World Championship Wrestling… and then he disappeared for a while, emerging once again in a much less-infringing attire.

The Miz and Johnny Cage share a moment

For a while (and maybe still?), WWE’s The Miz rode his direct-to-video movie stardom to a very Johnny Cage-like persona. So when the original Johnny Cage, Daniel Pesina, showed up on UpUpDownDown, the two had to meet.

Ronda Rousey as Sonya Blade in Mortal Kombat 11

Warning: Mature content.

Former WWE Women’s Champion Ronda Rousey was chosen to take over as the voice of Sonya Blade in Mortal Kombat 11. Meanwhile, Austin Creed/Xavier Woods, Kofi Kingston, and Zelina Vega had to make do with cosplaying as characters from the series at the reveal event:

And finally…

RoboCop in WCW

RoboCop in Mortal Kombat 11

Warning: Mature content.

The Terminator in WWE

Also:

The Terminator in Mortal Kombat 11

Warning: Mature content.

Oh, and I almost forgot: Netherrealm Studios, who make the Mortal Kombat games, made a WWE fighting game for mobile called WWE Immortals:

Sadly, it never got any further than mobile devices, and was apparently shut down in 2019. Terrible shame, since a console version would probably have been better than anything the WWE 2K brand has released since then.

Thanks for reading!

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David Oxford is a freelance writer of many varied interests. If you’re interested in hiring him, please drop him a line at david.oxford (at) nyteworks.net.