As professional wrestling fans all know, we have officially entered the Road to WrestleMania - and we are also just days away from another entry in the "WWE 2K" video game series. After surpassing expectations two consecutive years (a sadly impressive accomplishment for annual sports games these days), WWE 2K24 looks to be bigger and better than ever.
The roster looks to be pretty up-to-date, despite the initial, pre-DLC exclusion of a couple characters that returned to or debuted in the company within the last couple of months, but, overall, it's looking pretty decent. Thankfully, as far as the roster breakdown is concerned, the amazingly helpful website The Smackdown Hotel has done almost all of the hard work for us, which is great. We'll run through who's in and out this year, for posterity's sake, then get to a few questions about what we'd like to see in this year's game and beyond. Let's get to it.
Who's out?
- Legends
- Brie Bella
- Brock Lesnar
- Goldberg
- Mr. McMahon
- Nikki Bella
- Zeus
- No longer with the company
- Aliyah
- Commander Azeez
- Dana Brooke
- Dolph Ziggler
- Edge
- Elias / Ezekiel
- Lacey Evans
- Mace
- Madcap Moss
- Mansoor
- Matt Riddle
- Mustafa Ali
- Rick Boogs
- Shanky
- Shelton Benjamin
- Titus O'Neil
- Top Dolla
Current main roster superstars who didn't make the cut
- Authors of Pain - Akam & Rezar (recently returned)
- Andrade El Idolo (recently returned)
- Elektra Lopez
- Naomi (recently returned)
Notable missing NXT superstars
- Ava
- Charlie Dempsey
- Gable Steveson
- Kelani Jordan
- Kiana James
- Lash Legend
- Lexis King
- Lola Vice
- Meiko Satomura
- Oba Femi (current NXT North American Champion)
- Oro Mensah
- Sol Ruca
- Tatum Paxley
- Xyon Quinn
Who's in? (* = DLC)
- Main Roster
- Bronson Reed
- Carlito*
- Chelsea Green
- CM Punk*
- Isla Dawn
- Jade Cargill*
- Kairi Sane*
- Maxxine Dupri
- Nia Jax*
- Pat McAfee*
- Tegan Nox
- NXT
- Brooks Jensen
- Channing "Stacks" Lorenzo
- Dragon Lee*
- Duke Hudson
- Fallon Henley
- Joe Coffey
- Josh Briggs
- Lyra Valkyria*
- Mark Coffey
- Sanga
- Thea Hail
- Wolfgang
- Legends/Other
- Bubba Ray Dudley*
- D-Von Dudley*
- DDP*
- Dude Love
- Dusty Rhodes
- George "The Animal" Steele
- Headbanger Mosh*
- Headbanger Thrasher*
- Honky Tonk Man*
- Ken Shamrock
- Lex Luger*
- Mankind
- Michelle McCool*
- Mr. Perfect*
- Muhammad Ali
- Post Malone*
- Ravishing Rick Rude
- Ricky Steamboat
- Sandman*
- Sensational Sherri*
- Stardust
- Superstar Billy Graham
- Terry Funk*
- The Fiend Bray Wyatt
- The Great Muta*
- The Iron Sheik*
- Theodore Long (Manager)
- William Regal
- Managers/Non-playable characters
- Cathy Kelley
- Jimmy Hart*
- Mick Foley
- Miss Elizabeth
- Paul Bearer
By the Numbers
At the time of posting, The Smackdown Hotel hasn't posted updated roster comparisons and, to be honest, we don't really feel like doing the math ourselves.
Roster take-aways
Overall, things are looking pretty good this year. It's a bummer that a few wrestlers debuted or rejoined the roster too late to make the cut, but we're sure some creative nerd out there will make a great Create-A-Wrestler to fill any serious gaps. There are a couple of the legends that we don't really care about, but it is nice to see a few old faces like the Dudley Boyz and Lex Luger. Also... Teddy Long!! Holla holla holla!!
What else is new?
A LOT. We'll hit you with some highlights and stuff that's getting us excited:
- One of the most hyped aspects of this year's game is a handful of new (or returning) match types: special guest referee, ambulance, casket and gauntlet matches.
- Showcase of the Immortals - 21 historic WrestleMania matches
- Throwable weapons!
- Facepaint gradually fades during matches? Awesome. Love that level of detail.
- Seven real WWE referees will appear in the game. Charles "Little Naitch" Robinson better be there!
- Super finishers (three stacked finishers) are new and, allegedly, nullify an opponent's "Resiliency" ability, which will be amazing. Always hated having some jabroni kick out of multiple finishers at 2 1/2.
- GM Mode:
- Four new GMs: Teddy Long, Paul Heyman, William Regal and Ted DiBiase
- A new playable brand: ECW
- The ability to trade superstars between brands mid-season (nice!)
- New promo types: Tag team call-out (AMAZING), Class change, Training
- Two new MyRISE stories
- Universe Mode:
- Double title matches and "Loser Leaves Town" matches? What?!?
- Create a Sign?!?!?
WWE 2K Q&A with A-Town
- Who will you play with first?
- Probably Cody Rhodes or John Cena. Maybe both. LA Knight is awesome, too.
- Who don't you want to play with at all?
- The less I see Roman Reigns, the happier I will be. I also won't ever willingly play as the Viking Raiders or most of Judgment Day. Eww. Definitely not Damian Priest.
- What is your go-to match type?
- Extreme Rules. Sometimes, I don't even need the weapons. It's just a nice safety net if things get crazy.
- What is your favorite game mode?
- I love GM Mode. I wish that there was more incentive to spend lots of time there, but there's really not quite yet. I spend most of my time in MyFaction, but that's such a grind. I hope to the high heavens that there's not another trophy for winning 100 Faction Wars matches. Please, please no.
- What is your least favorite game mode?
- I'll just come right out and say it: I hate MyRise. You get to do some goofy things sometimes, which can be interesting, but story mode is always the weak point of any 2K sports game.
- Is there anything you wish you could change or improve about these games?
- I was playing a lot of GM Mode in 2K23 recently and there were a few things that were bugging me. I really wish that you could do a triple-threat or four-way tag team match. I wish that injuries weren't quite so frequent. I hate that you get penalized for putting two big wrestlers in a match together - like, if you did Drew McIntyre vs Roman Reigns, it would say the fans don't want to see that, which is completely false. In MyFaction, I wish you weren't basically encouraged to play with one really good wrestler and three chumps. Why should I spend my time trying to get good "cards," only to never use them? There's just not a whole lot of incentive to have a stacked faction from top to bottom, sadly. Like I said, I hope hope hope that they don't make me grind out 100 wins in Faction Wars again because I've done that two years in a row now and it's one of the most tedious, repetitive things you could ever dream of doing. Oh, here's something - I wish that the "Statistics" feature on the main menu actually kept an accurate track of my wins/losses and superstar usage, because (I think I finally figured it out) I believe it's only tracking online games, which I rarely ever do. That would be nice.
- Make up a new tag team that does not currently exist:
- I think The Miz and Grayson Waller would be an amazing real-life tag team.
- Give us brand new champions for every single main roster belt:
- RAW:
- Men's Heavyweight Champion: Drew McIntyre (and he wins it in front of a packed stadium of actual fans)
- Women's Champion: Raquel Rodriguez (as a heel)
- Intercontinental Champion: Karrion Cross
- RAW Tag Team Champions: #DIY
- Smackdown:
- Men's Heavyweight Champion: Cody Rhodes
- Women's Champion: Tiffany Stratton
- United States Champion: LA Knight
- Smackdown Tag Team Champions: Tyler Bate and Pete Dunne
- Inter-brand Women's Tag Team Champions: Zoey Stark and Shayna Baszler
- Who are you most looking forward to beating up?
- Dominik Mysterio (always), Solo Sikoa and Jimmy Uso
The Bottom Line
We're looking forward to it. It's going to be fun. As we were attending Smackdown! in Salt Lake City a couple weeks ago, we realized that it was about time for a roster update, so it will be nice to slap a fresh coat of paint on the game and take it for a spin around the block. It's just nice to have a multi-year stretch where we're actually excited about getting a new game, which can't be said about most other sports franchises.
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Until next time.
