Oh, I agree that there's fun to be had with All Stars, but I couldn't really get into it for some reason. It's probably because I'm too anal in wanting the wrestlers to play as closely to their real life counterparts as possible. I'm okay with the animations being over the top, but the move sets themselves should be accurate.
The SmackDown games took a nosedive after Here Comes the Pain, with SvR08 being the absolute worst title in the series, but WWE '12 is definitely a step in the right direction. I've been obsessed with wrestling games my entire life and have ran/moderated a number of wrestling game sites over the years, and I genuinely enjoy WWE '12. It's a good game. I just get frustrated sometimes when I see people shit all over it -- yeah, I agree that there have been some terrible entries in the series, but I don't think WWE '12 is one of them.