Pro-wrestling games have predominantly always played as beat-em ups/fighting games with health bars; with the objective being to deplete the opponents health to score a pin/submission. This however is only one side to what in my opinion, pro-wrestling and wrestling games represent. Though 'damaging one another' as a concept works, ironically as performers, pro-wrestlers do almost the complete opposite, in that they try to avoid hurting each other as best they can. Legitimately hurting each other compromises not only their health but also the wrestling match itself. Unlike boxing or MMA, pro-wrestling is of course scripted, but it's that very aspect which is what Project Joshi attempts to capture at it's core. The scripted reality of pro-wrestling is what drives the gameplay of Project Joshi.

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Rather than having a health system, there is a 'Crowd Energy' system. It's up to each player to choose moves to perform in order to keep the crowd interested. Each wrestling move has a score that acts a measurement to how well the crowd will respond when it's performed. Of course some moves will have a higher score than others, so one would ask why not just use the highest scoring moves over and over?

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Because much like a real-life wrestling match, if a wrestler were to use the same move over and over, each time they did it, it would become quickly stale and repetitive. Imagine a wrestler performing their finishing move 10 times in a row during a match, the crowd would likely lose interest fast. Which is why it only usually gets performed once a match and at the very end to make it seem more devastating. In the case of Project Joshi, repetitive usage of moves would actually diminish their score, making them less and less effective.

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So decision making, balancing, and choosing the right moves at the right time is what players will need to consider when playing. There will also be a random aspect to how the audience reacts as well. Sometimes they don't react to well to moves one would expect them to but sometimes they can be more appreciative of other moves unexpectedly. It's about strategizing and paying attention to their levels and what tools each wrestler has in their locker.