You now had a new grapple system that greatly expanded the number of moves a wrestler could now do. This game changed up the gameplay considerably.
I get why they did this and it does streamline things, but I do wish they let us walk around like in SmackDown: Shut Your Mouth. It loses the first-person point of view from the previous game and instead has you using menus to move around the locker room/backstage area. Season Mode in WWE SmackDown! Here Comes the Pain gives you a lot of leeway in what you do.