While the quality of the game's graphics was lauded and sales were good during its month of release, the control was received negatively by critics, who felt it was awkward and unintuitive.

[4] 26 real-life wrestlers are initially available, notably Jyushin Thunder Liger, The Great Muta, Don Frye, Koji Kanemoto, Antonio Inoki, and Masahiro Chono.

[3] Wrestlers return to full health after each match, and the game keeps track of the time of victories and records with the PlayStation 2 internal clock.

[1] The score, which was never released in album form, consists mostly of rock music and was composed by Tsuyoshi Sekito, Kenichiro Fukui, and Kumi Tanioka.

[6][7][8] Square's aim with the title was to create some of the most realistic wrestlers seen in video games, with accurate details such as a faithful replication of body-muscle physics and facial expressions.

[15][16] Jeff Gerstmann of GameSpot rated the game 4 out of 10, and criticized the battle system more severely along with IGN, which stated that the default analog controls are "mind-boggling"; with pins being very difficult to execute whereas some other maneuvers can be chained with single button presses.

Regarding the game's fluidity, Gerstmann and one IGN critic compared it to the speed of an "underwater soccer match", with smooth moves coexisting with simple, three-second long movements.

[3][4] Still, both GameSpot and IGN lauded the realism of the wrestlers' appearances, their faithfulness to those of their real-life counterparts, and the efficient use of the PlayStation 2 Emotion Engine.

[3][4] While both IGN reviewers noted the sparcity of the audio commentary and crowd shouting, one critic felt the sound was adequate albeit less impressive than the graphics.

Finally, the omission of features such as weapons and modes such as "create-a-wrestler", steel cage match, battle royal, and multiplayer tag team, was felt as a very noticeable weak point compared to American wrestling games present on the market (WWF SmackDown!

[20] Both sequels added multiplayer tag team and battle royal modes, playable using a multitap with up to 5 players at a time (4 wrestlers and the referee).