Create-a-Finisher sounds good, I hope we're able to designate custom names for them as well. I like the fact they're going for different finishing moves than the traditional movelist offers though I think it would have also been cool to have the option to take an existing move (like a chokeslam) and add some small variations, like a taunt beforehand. From that article, it doesn't look like that will be possible though I can certainly live with that since moves like the chokeslam will no doubt be in the game anyway. Still, it would be good to be able to customise them or give them a custom name in a CAW profile.
Nice to know that tag team matches are being looked at and a couple of those additions sound nice but much like the wrestling styles last year, it remains to be seen how it plays out. Tag matches remain one of my least favourite aspects of career mode though a co-op career mode sounds cool.
This is what I like to hear though:
There are multiple Superstars you can take through on their path to Wrestlemania, and so we're offering one tag team story, but we're also offering a lot of single-player stories as well, so you build up experience [for] different Superstars, and this year, each story is tailored around that Superstar and a much more specific storyline around that Superstar. So [there] won't be a lot of generic stories where you see Undertaker's not really doing something that you would see him doing on programming or is kind of generic that old roles can fit that. It's more that this is the Undertaker in the WWE and you get to live that life and you get to experience his path to Wrestlemania.
Exactly what they needed to do in keeping the current career mode format. It's not so bad when you're using a created wrestler or someone with a more traditional character because the rest of the wrestlers in the angle are scripted to behave as in real life but as we all know, if you take control of someone like The Undertaker the dialogue doesn't usually fit. Changing that up so that we're controlling a character rather than just playing through storylines and picking someone to slot into a role sounds like a definite change for the better.
Downloadable updates sound great, especially if it means some additional wrestlers who didn't make the original cut. I'm guessing downloaded wrestlers wouldn't have their own Road to Wrestlemania storylines since there's only going to be a set number of wrestlers available in that mode anyway (with another mode presumably fulfilling the more traditional career/GM Mode from what was said in the interview). That still sounds good to me.
Reducing the loading times, cutting down on the repetition in the commentary and some of the outlined improvements to the animations sound like a step in the right direction but like everything else we'll need to wait and see. I was a bit let down by SDvRAW 2008, it wasn't terrible but I thought it could have been better. I'll probably end up getting 2009 but I'll be downloading the demo first.