The ring is your weapon

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Our exclusive screens and video show brutal new ways to twist everything to your advantage in WWE SmackDown! vs RAW 2007

Fighting hand-to-hand was all well and good way back in the 8-bit stone age of video games, but these days, audiences expect a little more. Specifically, they expect to be able to use anything and everything to mete out horrible injury to their enemies.

When it hits in November, WWE SmackDown! vs RAW 2007 will answer the call by enabling players to take advantage of environmental hotspots spread out across the arena. And whether it's grinding your opponent's face into a chain-link fence or yanking him junk-first into a steel pillar, you'll have total, analog control over how much pain you inflict. Read on as we shed some light on a few of the ways you'll be able to turn the ring into a weapon, and thenclick hereto see nearly all of these atrocities in motion on the Xbox 360.

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Turnbuckle ten punch
We'll start off with a bona fide classic. Effectively grappling your opponent in 2007 all but stuns them, giving you a moment to drag them around the ring. If you drag the other guy over to a turnbuckle, you'll shove him against it, climb up on the second rope and - with your sweaty abs just inches from his face - draw back your fist and punch him in the head.

Naturally, your opponent will be helpless to move his arms or resist in any way at all as you push up on the right stick and yank it back down again to slam your knuckles into his head. Get up some good momentum to deliver a few really powerful punches, smack him with a flurry of little punches or just draw back and release the stick. Ha ha, fake-out! As a bonus, the crowd will keep count as you deliver the blows. It's just like being there, or at least just like watching it on TV.

Foot rope choke
Got your opponent down on the mat? Good. Click the right stick to grab him, and drag him over to the edge of the ring to place his neck against the bottom rope. Now, place your boot on the back of his head and push for all you're worth by moving the right stick up and releasing it. You can do this for as long as you like, unless the referee is watching, in which case you've got until the count of five.

Mikel Reparaz
Mikel Reparaz
After graduating from college in 2000 with a BA in journalism, I worked for five years as a copy editor, page designer and videogame-review columnist at a couple of mid-sized newspapers you've never heard of. My column eventually got me a freelancing gig with GMR magazine, which folded a few months later. I was hired on full-time by GamesRadar in late 2005, and have since been paid actual money to write silly articles about lovable blobs.