Wwf Smackdown - Just Bring It Caws
The face creation was primitive by today’s standards but revolutionary then. You used "parts": pre-drawn eyes, noses, mouths, and jawlines. However, you could layer facial hair, glasses, masks, and paint. The "Face Paint" section was a massive breakout feature, allowing you to place logos (stars, flames, tribal patterns) anywhere on the face. This was the key to creating Sting (Crow paint), Goldust, or original supernatural characters.
The Context: The PS2 "Beta Test" Era Released in 2001 as the first SmackDown! game on the PlayStation 2, Just Bring It occupies a strange space in wrestling gaming history. It was a graphical leap from the PS1 era, but it played like a game stuck in transition. While the roster was decent, the real longevity of the game wasn’t found in playing as The Rock or Stone Cold; it was found in the Create-A-Wrestler (CAW) mode.
Looking back, JBI’s CAW mode was a glitchy, limited, yet oddly liberating sandbox that birthed some of the most legendary (and broken) original characters in gaming history.
The Aesthetics: The "Action Figure" Look The first thing you noticed with JBI CAWs was the visual style. Unlike the realistic, scanned faces of modern WWE 2K games, JBI CAWs looked like painted action figures.
The Mechanics: Depth vs. Intuitiveness For its time, the creation suite was deep, but it had a steep learning curve.
The "Save File" Controversy It is impossible to review JBI CAWs without mentioning the biggest community grievance of the era: The Memory Card Limit. In Just Bring It, the game saved everything in one massive block. If you wanted to create a wrestler, you had to overwrite your Season Mode progress. Furthermore, the number of CAWs you could make was severely limited compared to its predecessor (SmackDown 2: Know Your Role) and its successor (Shut Your Mouth). This limitation forced players to be choosy. You couldn't just spam 30 terrible creations; you had to curate a roster of your absolute best 5 or 6 guys. It made every CAW slot feel valuable.
The Culture: The Birth of the "Internet CAW" Just Bring It was one of the first games where "CAW Formulas" became a massive internet phenomenon. Because you couldn't upload/download files like you can today, gaming magazines and websites like GameFAQs were flooded with text formulas. "Use Face Model 12, set eyes to -45, nose to +10" was the language of the community. This era is famous for the "Legends Gap." Because JBI had a limited roster of current (2001) stars, players scrambled to create missing legends like Hulk Hogan, Ultimate Warrior, and Randy Savage. The community effort to reverse-engineer these likenesses using the limited JBI parts was impressive. wwf smackdown just bring it caws
The Glitches: The "Hunchback" Phenomenon JBI CAWs are most fondly remembered for their susceptibility to glitches.
The Verdict The CAW mode in WWF Smackdown: Just Bring It is a time capsule. It represents a period where creators had to work against the engine to get what they wanted.
Final Score: 6/10 (Aged), 9/10 (Nostalgia) By modern standards, JBI CAWs are primitive and frustrating. However, looking back, it was the "Wild West" of creation. It forced players to be imaginative with limited tools. If you played this game, you almost certainly created a black-clad, trench-coat-wearing anti-hero with a finisher that was just a variant of the Stunner. And for that, the game deserves respect.
WWF SmackDown! Just Bring It (JBI), released in 2001, was a landmark title as the first wrestling game for the PlayStation 2. While it boasted improved graphics and the first-ever full-motion entrances, its Create-A-Wrestler (CAW) mode remains its most enduring legacy. Fans used this deep customization tool to fill a roster that, due to development timing, lacked many "Invasion" era stars from WCW and ECW. The CAW Legacy: Building an Invasion
Because JBI was released during the height of the WWF/WCW/ECW Invasion angle but only featured 44 selectable characters, CAWs became essential. The community quickly developed "formulas"—step-by-step instructions for facial features, body types, and gear—to recreate missing legends and then-current rivals. Popular recreations included:
WCW Icons: Hulk Hogan (nWo and Classic), Ric Flair, and Sting. The face creation was primitive by today’s standards
The Alliance: Rob Van Dam, Booker T, and Diamond Dallas Page. Rising Stars: Early versions of Brock Lesnar and AJ Styles. Customization Features and Mechanics
JBI introduced several "firsts" for the series' creation suite: WWF SmackDown! Just Bring It - Create-A-Wrestler FAQ
| Game | True CAW | Morphing | Texture Import | Community Rating (CAW) | |------|----------|----------|----------------|------------------------| | SmackDown! 2 (PS1) | ✅ Limited | ✅ Basic | ❌ | 7/10 | | Just Bring It (PS2) | ❌ No | ❌ | ❌ | 1/10 | | Shut Your Mouth (PS2) | ✅ Yes | ✅ Advanced | ❌ | 8/10 | | Here Comes the Pain (PS2) | ✅ Yes | ✅ Full | ❌ | 9/10 |
The most passionate use of WWF SmackDown! Just Bring It! CAWs was filling the gaps left by THQ. Here are the CAWs that dominated online forums and memory cards everywhere:
The "Invasion" Faction: With no official Rhyno, Raven, or Tazz? You made them. Raven's kilt and crossdresser pants were tricky, but the "Hair over eye" option made him recognizable. Tazz required the orange singlet and that specific "mean-mug" face morph.
ECW Originals: Tommy Dreamer (camouflage pants, singlet top), Sabu (facial hair, brown pants, bare feet—though feet textures were horrifying), and Sandman (jeans, taped fists, cigarette? Not really, but we pretended). The Mechanics: Depth vs
WCW Ghosts: Booker T proved difficult because the game lacked a dreadlock hairstyle that looked good. But Sting? The "Crow" Sting was the ultimate test. Black trench coat, white face paint, black lines over the eyes. Every CAW creator measured their skill by how well they built Sting.
Alternate Realities: Because the main roster had The Undertaker (Big Evil) but not the Ministry Taker, people built him. Because Hollywood Rock wasn't a thing yet, they built future versions of stars. The CAW mode became a time machine.
One of the most popular pastimes was creating wrestlers specifically for the Hardcore and Tables matches. The physics engine in Just Bring It was loose, to say the least, allowing for hilarious ragdoll moments.
CAWs became the test subjects for the most brutal moves in the game. Who can forget the joy of placing a table on top of two other tables, climbing the Titantron, and crashing through them with a custom high-flyer? These weren't competitive matches; they were physics experiments, and the CAW was the crash test dummy.
| Game | CAW Quality | |------|--------------| | SmackDown! 2 (PS1) | More parts, but 2D sprites in menus | | Just Bring It | Better 3D models, fewer parts | | Shut Your Mouth | Huge leap – layers, morphing, logos | | Here Comes the Pain | Gold standard of the era |
Creating a wrestler in 2001 was an exercise in imagination. The graphical limitations were obvious—blocky limbs and textures that looked like they were painted onto the skin. Yet, the game offered a surprising amount of depth.
Players spent hours tweaking the "Move Set." This was the golden age of the " clone." You could take The Rock’s moveset, mix it with Undertaker’s entrance, and give your CAW a finisher that combined the Stunner with the Diamond Cutter. The freedom to mix and match moves allowed players to dream up wrestling styles that hadn't been seen on TV.
And let’s not forget the outfits. While the selection was primitive compared to today, the layering system allowed for some iconic looks. From the ubiquitous "Baggy Pants" to the detailed tattoo editor, Just Bring It gave players the tools to create distinct silhouettes, even if the faces often looked like they had been melted by a heat lamp.