Big Damo (formerly Killian Dain in WWE) recounts the work he did for WWE 2K19.
The former Sanity member spent five years with WWE before being released in June 2021. During that time, he and the other members of the faction (Eric Young, Nikki Cross, and Alexander Wolfe) had the pleasure of being featured in WWE's annual video game, with their first appearance coming in WWE 2K18.
Speaking with Fightful's Sean Ross Sapp (full interview above), Big Damo shared that he was required to do facial performance capture for WWE 2K19 because of his character's role in the game's story mode.
"I didn’t have to do motion capture, but we had to do all of the scans. Then the second game I had to do all these things with lip movements because I think they used my character as an antagonist. So I had to do all this lip sync stuff. It was hilarious because you have to say different words from the ones they’re actually using because the way it stretches your mouth. So that was really interesting because I’d never done something like that before. I’m a huge fan of the 2k series for NBA and huge FIFA fan. So being able to see how they go about the ins and outs of these things was very cool. So that was really interesting," he said.
Beyond that, however, Big Damo says he didn't have to do much else other than update his face and body images. He also recalls them changing the color of his hair in the game from black to red, which he admits was quite funny.
"Other than that, you have to get updated shots and do full-body images and stuff like that. I think I changed my gear and somebody was very upset about it because they’re like, ‘Oh, we need to get this in time for the game.’ I think it was just a set of red gear I used a couple of times, but that’s what they ended up using. They actually changed my hair color to ginger, which was quite funny for the second game. Which, don’t get me wrong, there was an element of ginger in my hair. But I remember I went from black to ginger hair over two games. Obviously, I didn’t dye it. But it was very funny," Big Damo shared.
Big Damo finished by telling Fightful how amazed he was at the level of detail the developers put into the game, citing his move-set and how it included things he hadn't done for years. He even tried doing a coast-to-coast again because it was in the game, a decision he greatly regretted.
"But no, that was it. What was really interesting was the people who get involved with move-sets went way back to my indy stuff, even ten years beforehand, and had all these moves that I personally hadn’t done. Especially not on WWE television. So I was like, flabbergasted they had all these things. I was like, ‘Oh, my God.’ All my combinations, especially when I hadn’t done them on television by when the first game had started production. So they really went back and used a lot of the stuff that I hadn’t used since 2010. So the attention to detail they go through is incredible. Fair play to the guys who make the games. Because they go above and beyond to make that as cool as possible. I hadn’t done the coast to coast in WWE, but it was in the game. I was like, ‘Ah, Christ. I’m gonna have to do it now.’ I did it once and went, ‘Oh, that was a terrible idea,'" he said.
Up next for Big Damo is a return to New Japan Pro Wrestling, where he will face Tomohiro Ishii at NJPW STRONG: Mutiny on April 10, 2022. Fightful will have results from the event immediately following its conclusion.
Fans can check out Fightful's playthrough of WWE 2K22 MyGM mode by clicking here.
