I enjoyed No Mercy but SvR 2007, WWE 2K13/2K14, and the latest Fire Pro were the first times I've played a game where I could actually "work" a match. HCTP, other 2K and SvRs were more fighting and you couldn't work a match. I think No Mercy and HCTP are a bit deified too much and great aspects of new games are ignored. But the 2K games have been going backwards since 15 ... the stuff you could do and the AI has been regressing. And bugs galore.
I am happy to see a new style game coming with next gen. I am not super excited for grapple/combo or grapple/ToS/Combo gameplay again. I hope they update it a bit in that regard. The booking, management, creation suite, etc. is what I actually care the most about. Omega called is next-gen No Mercy and Yukes said No Mercy-style meets SvR, which personally has me more excited than Omega's comment.
That being said, I'm looking forward the most to a TNM 7 style promoter/booker sim as Grey Dog's Total Extreme Wrestling is the only one around now.
Those were great games. I was sad they dropped the CAW out of those games because I have been looking for a game with a deep CAW for a long time.