Oh dont get me started on this game.
I bought it when it first came out, and sold it within days (luckily I did, as the price dropped dramatically within weeks).

Its one of the few PS3 games that I got rid of and have no intention of rebuying it now that the prices are coming down.

As you say, the control system was so basic, it was like going back 20 years to the days you had one button on a joystick.
The fact you also could not use any real wrestlers in the career mode was awful, and that you cant even win or defend championships in any other mode, made for a game that was so far below what people have become used to with the WWE games, that just like the tv show, it just comes across as a cheap and nasty knock off.

Oh, and they also were so fucking lazy, that all the independant companies you worked for in career mode, had 6 sided rings, which is obviously even more ridiculous when you consider that TNA used to love promoting the fact they were the only people in the world to use one.

Fucking awful game.
Even worse than Smackdown vs RAW 2008, and that was a huge pile of Snarf as well.