WWE 2K26 Preview

Tick tock, pro wrestling fans. Tick tock! We are only a few days out from the early access release of WWE 2K26, and we've got a slew of new superstars, updated features, and new game modes coming at us!

With the help of The SmackDown Hotel, we've got a roundup of what's new, who's in, who's out, and what we're looking forward to in this year's installment, so let's not waste another second and just jump right in with the roster breakdown.

Who's out?

Legends/Other

• Bruno Sammartino
• George "The Animal" Steele
• Harley Race
• Headshrinker Fatu
• Headshrinker Samu
• Jake "The Snake" Roberts
• Jalen Brunson
• KSI
• Peter Maivia
• Ricky Steamboat
• Shaquille O'Neal
• Tyrese Haliburton

No longer with the company

• Akam
• Andrade
• Ashante Thee Adonis
• Baron Corbin
• Blair Davenport
• Braun Strowman
• Carlito
• Carmella
• Cedric Alexander
• Cora Jade
• Dakota Kai
• Duke Hudson
• Eddy Thorpe
• Elektra Lopez
• Gigi Dolin
• Giovanni Vinci
• Indi Hartwell
• Isla Dawn
• Jakara Jackson
• Joe Koffey
• Karl Anderson
• Karrion Kross
• Katana Chance
• Kayden Carter
• Luke Gallows
• Mark Coffey
• Oro Mensah
• Paul Ellering
• Rezar
• Scarlett
• Shayna Baszler
• Shotzi
• Sonya DeVille
• Tamina
• Tegan Nox
• Valhalla
• Wes Lee
• Wolfgang

Notable missing Main Roster superstars

• Bravo Americano
• Brie Bella
• Danhausen
• Matt Cardona
• Rayo Americano
• Royce Keys

Notable missing NXT superstars

• Adriana Rizzo
• Arianna Grace
• DarkState (Cutler James, Dion Lennox, Osiris Griffin, Saquon Shugars)
• Kendal Grey
• Lainey Reid
• Luca Crusifino
• Vanity Project (Brad Baylor, Jackson Drake, Ricky Smokes)

Who's in? (* = DLC)

Main roster

• AJ Lee
• JC Mateo
• Rey Fenix
• Rusev
• Talla Tonga

NXT

• Blake Monroe
• Hank Walker
• Izzi Dame
• Jazmyn Nyx
• Joe Hendry
• Karmen Petrovic
• Myles Borne
• Ricky Saints
• Tank Ledger
• Tavion Heights
• Wren Sinclair
• Yoshiki Inamura
• Zaria

Lucha Libre AAA

• El Hijo Del Vikingo*
• Flammer*
• Lady Shani*
• Mr. Iguana*
• Pagano*
• Psycho Clown*

Legends/Other

• Ax*
• Crush*
• Jelly Roll*
• Smash*
• Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley

Managers/Non-playable Characters

• Booker T (commentator)
• Wade Barrett (Commentator)

By the numbers

As was the case last year, The SmackDown Hotel says that this will be the largest roster in the history of WWE video games, with "over 400 playable characters." Of course, this also comes with the yearly caveat that "AJ Lee" and "AJ Lee '15" count as two different playable characters, and we're getting (as far as I can see, so far) - nine different versions of CM Punk, so let's not get too excited.

Roster take-aways

My first reaction is, dang, look how many people got cut this year! That feels like a ton. But other than that, uh, hey - we're getting AAA stars, so Mr. Iguana should be interesting! I'm just learning right now that the feature that previously granted all superstars and unlockables immediately may not be in 2K26, and many of the wrestlers on the roster will need to be obtained through the new "ringside pass" system, which I think I'm going to hate... but more on that later.

AJ Lee is back, Adam Pierce and Nick Aldis are playable this year, we're getting both versions of El Grande Americano... There is a character named "Bronze Breakker"? Man, that's hilarious.

I also see that they're counting a bunch of "MyRise" characters as official members of the roster, which is lame because I will never use any of them.

What else is new?

• Interactive superstar entrances
• Manual gestures, taunts, and pyro sequences
• Start of Match Actions
• Play to the crowd, offer a handshake, trade blows, surprise attack, chain wrestling
• New match types
• Dumpster Match
• I Quit Match
• Inferno Match
• Three Stages of Hell
• Showcase Mode: CM Punk
• New weapons
• Shopping cart
• Thumbtacks
• Stackable tables
• Championship pedestal
• Upgrades to GM Mode
• Intergender matches
• 5-, 6- and 8-wrestler matches
• Handicap matches
• Default 50-week seasons
• Double booking
• "Invasion" promos
• Three new GMs
• Upgrades to Universe Mode
• WWE Draft
• Universe wizard tool
• The Island
• New storyline and environment
• Faction system
• MyFaction Mode
• Intergender lineups and matches
• Ringside Pass
• Now, you don't just have to pay for DLC expansions - you have to grind out the characters you bought, too! (This sounds terrible.)

WWE 2K Q&A with A-Town

• Who will you play with first?
• Depends. Who will be available to play with and who will I have to play for hours to unlock? Joe Hendry is a fun pre-order bonus, though. Might have to check him out. Maybe a tag match between Chad Gabe and the original El Grande Americano vs. Ludwig Kaiser and El Grande Americano. I love LA Knight and Penta, too. Heck, maybe it will be Chelsea Green. She's hilarious.
• Who won't you play with at all?
• Any of the MyRise characters. Pretty much everybody from the Bloodline that isn't currently on the main roster. Most wrestlers from NXT.
• What is your go-to match type?
• Extreme Rules, baby! Anything with no DQ.
• What is your favorite game mode?
• I like GM Mode. I wish that I played it more instead of having to grind out MyFaction and play through MyRise. Having to play through MyRise multiple times last year was not my favorite chore.
• Is there anything you wish you could change or improve about these games?
• Dude, I hated ambulance and casket matches in 2K25. I would literally have to beat my opponent within an inch of their life before I could close the door on them. It was horrible and I will not likely ever willingly choose to play either of those match types ever again.
• There were some really weird trophies last year - particularly in GM Mode. I wish that I could just play this game the way I wanted to play it instead of having to do these random things like having Kyle Slickman win the main event of WrestleMania.
• I've begged about it for years now, but I want the "Statistics" feature to count all of my matches, not just the ones where I'm in Play Mode vs the computer. Count my MyFaction wins and everything else, too. We live in the modern age. I'm not asking for much.
• I still have gripes about GM Mode like I did last year. The penalties for having two powerhouses fight each other are stupid. You shouldn't have to use exclusively cruiserweights against Drew McIntyre or Brock Lesnar. The other thing that drove me nuts about GM Mode was that when you tell the computer to book a show for you, it would put the most random matches together. I wish it was a bit more intelligent with its decision making.
• I don't like The Island. I played that thing as briefly as I had to last year, but I fear that it's going to continue to be a big part of these games moving forward, and I just don't care whatsoever about the online aspect of these games. Just let me enjoy myself without having to get online with strangers.
• Make up a new tag team that does not currently exist.
• The way that Danhausen debuted at Elimination Chamber over the weekend was about as weird as I could possibly have ever fathomed, but I went down the rabbit hole and watched some clips and I think I want to like him. His first appearance on Raw cost Dominik Mysterio the Intercontinental championship, so that was lovely. If Danhausen teamed up with R-Truth and Mr. Iguana, that would be comedy gold. Maybe even an odd couple tag team of Danhausen and The Miz? But Danhausen isn't in the game this year (yet), so I'll come up with something else...
• I mean, it's got to be Tiffany Stratton and Blake Monroe, right? Give Blake the call-up after WrestleMania and give them a shot.
• Give us brand new champions for every single main roster belt:
• RAW:
• Men's Title: Finn Balor
• Women's Title: Naomi was going to be great before she got pregnant
• Men's IC: Penta literally just won it tonight, but if you had asked me 24 hours ago, I might have said him.
• Women's IC: Nikki Bella
• Men's Tag: LA Knight and Sheamus
• SmackDown:
• Men's Title: Randy Orton
• Women's Title: Break up the Judgment Day and move Raquel Rodriguez to SmackDown
• Men's US: Joe Hendry after a main roster call-up
• Women's US: I pledge allegiance to Chelsea Green
• Men's Tag: Shinsuke Nakamura and Kevin Owens would be fun if they could stay healthy
• Inter-brand Women's Tag Team Champions: Bayley and Lyra Valkyria
• Who are you looking forward to beating up?
• Always Dominik Mysterio and Liv Morgan. Triple H probably deserves a beating for some of his odd booking decisions, too.

The Bottom Line

The race to cross the finish line for WWE 2K25 was absolutely brutal. Some of the matches I had to play in order to beat all of the World Tour locations were completely insane. I hated it. Having to play and simulate literally 17 seasons of GM Mode with CM Punk as the GM of NXT Mutiny just to finally win the main event of Backlash was moronic. Hated it.

But I'll be danged if I'm not looking forward to this Thursday night when I can boot up some WWE 2K26. I'm getting the Monday Night Wars edition, so I might have to relive a bit of the old WCW glory days for a bit.

Honestly, the new game looks good. It looks fun. I mean, is it just a shiny new roster update? Maybe! But it's about time we got real versions of some of these new characters. I think I'll just basically need to get in and download community creations of Matt Cardona and Danhausen, but then we'll be good to go!

Another year, another 11 months of WWE action on the PlayStation. Can't wait for the weekend.

*****

The road to WrestleMania is upon us! Hit us up in the comments section to let us know if you're still clinging onto dear life or if WWE has priced you out completely! While you're at it, check us out on Twitter (here and here) or chat with us on Facebook.

Ready to rumble yet again.

Until next time.

Playstation Wrap-Up 2025

Greetings, everyone, and welcome to one of my most-anticipated blog posts of the year: the Playstation Wrap-Up for 2025!

However, let's just go ahead and get this out of the way right now - this was a disappointing year for Playstation's yearly recap. Typically, they're really good about continuing to update the stats through December 31, but this year, despite the website being up through January 8, I didn't see an update to my numbers after December 23. This really rubbed me the wrong way this year, in particular, because I was on paternity leave during all of December, so I know that I got short-changed. This means that my numbers this year are not completely accurate and, most likely, quite different than what they actually wound up being.

But with that in mind, we'll jump in and break down my top games from last year, with a bit of an asterisk on top of it all. Let's take a look and see what topped the Playstation charts for 2025!

Total Hours:

Playstation said that I played 961 hours this year, but I know that to be lower than whatever the final number ended up being. I presume that I probably played another 10 or 15 hours (maybe more) in the final eight days of the year, especially considering that I wasn't working at the time.

The screenshots above also don't indicate that I spent a dozen hours or so playing the Playstation 3, cleaning up trophies on Skyrim and some old NCAA football games that my brother played on my profile back during my college years. (Also, if I did play "a dozen hours or so" on the PS3, the numbers in the Wrap-Up wouldn't add up. I'm skeptical.)

Ultimately, I don't know what my total number of hours for 2025 ended up being, so we'll just call it "961+ hours," for the sake of my final stats.

I wish that they would have given me the stats for my controller usage because I've been using a new purple controller pretty much exclusively for months, so I really must have loved that black controller in the first half of the year.

Top Five Games:

1. Assassin's Creed Shadows: Ah, yes. "Assassin's Creed Shadows." After getting some real burnout from "Assassin's Creed Valhalla," I was hesitant to pick up the next big, open world installment in the franchise, especially after having played the significantly smaller "Mirage," but I had a great time sneaking around Japan as Naoe and Yasuke. I learned to rely on Naoe for exploration and Yasuke for butt-kicking but truly enjoyed playing with both characters, which I had been a little hesitant about. I, sadly, didn't spend nearly as much time cultivating my ninja hideout as I thought I would, when I first heard that that was going to be a thing, but that was still a fun aspect of the game. My mind was constantly blown when I thought for the thirtieth time, "There's no way that this villain board can get any bigger," and then watched in amazement as a new sub-faction of thugs appeared in my objective map. I picked up the "Claws of Awaji" DLC but only played that for about an hour around Christmastime, so my total number of hours played actually should have been 95, not 94, but who's counting, right? Thanks to Assassin's Creed for pumping out a game that never felt too big and never made me bored. Good stuff.
2. Star Wars Outlaws: I hadn't heard a single good thing about "Star Wars Outlaws," but I love Star Wars and I wanted to give it a shot anyway. I really liked it! I don't know if I was just late enough to the game that the developers had fixed all the stuff that players complained about, but I didn't really have many issues with it. No Force usage, no lightsabers, sure, but the thing about Star Wars is that there is room for so many stories to be told that don't directly involve the Skywalker family. I really liked Kay Vess and her little space puppy. I had fun sneaking around and trying to avoid detection. I enjoyed the reputation system revolving around the biggest crime syndicates in the galaxy far, far away. I was secretly hoping that "Outlaws" would be one of my top games and was really glad to see that it was. I also picked up and completed all of the DLC missions, so if you were ever wondering what it would be like to play Lando Calrissian in Sabaac, have I got some stories for you!
3. Disney Dreamlight Valley: Sixty-eight hours of "Dreamlight Valley" is going to look weak next year, I tell you! With the final days of my paternity leave in early January, I put in WORK on DLV, but those stats will have to wait until the end of 2026 to manifest themselves. The most impressive thing I can say about "Dreamlight Valley" is that it remains one of my top games despite already having earned the platinum trophy. Almost 70 more hours of this game and not a single trophy to show for it? That's just wild.
4. WWE 2K25: Yep, back at it with the pro wrestling. "2K25" was a solid entry in the series with a more up-to-date roster at the time of its release than some of the other recent WWE games, and the game modes are fun enough to merit several dozen hours of play time. However, I dislike how much 2K wants us to play the "career" mode each year. It's my least favorite thing to do with each installment, and it seems like 2K is just doubling down on it every year, as if we think the cheesy original storylines are fun. Less of that in the future, please! But I did appreciate some improvements to GM Mode and (shockingly) the decreased load time required to boot up MyFaction mode. Thank you!!
5. Blue Prince: Talk about an original game! If a puzzle and an escape room had a baby, it would be "Blue Prince." It was free for Playstation+ members and I had heard some online rumblings about it being a noteworthy release, so I figured I'd try it out. The fact that I spent 56 hours on it speaks volumes to how deep I got into it. I HAD A PHYSICAL NOTEBOOK TO KEEP TRACK OF WHAT I HAD DISCOVERED. Trial and error, trial and error, and some great successes along the way. I'm too weak of an individual to try to beat the game on its intimidating harder difficulties, but I mostly enjoyed my time in that weird old mansion, and this game will probably wind up as one of my more memorable gaming experiences for years to come.

Honorable mention: "Indiana Jones and the Great Circle," which was my #5 game when Playstation Wrap-Up first kicked off but got booted from the leaderboard by "WWE 2K25" a few days later.

Games Played:

Aside from my top five games of the year, here are a few other games that I loved in 2025:

• NHL 25, NHL 26 - New year, new hockey game. The Mammoth have arrived!
• Final Fantasy VII Rebirth - I'm not brave enough to go for the platinum, but a very good game with a lot of stuff to do along the way.
• Astro Bot - The continuous addition of free DLC speed run levels was a lot of fun and occasionally very stressful.
• Backyard Baseball '97 - Not as good as it was on PC when I was a kid, but a nice shot of nostalgia nevertheless.
• Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3+4 - THPS 4 takes me way back! I had never played THPS 3, but I always love a good shred session.
• Split Fiction - More on this later, but a really innovated and exciting game.
• The Outer Worlds 2 - One of the funniest games in recent memory. It got pushed to the backburner toward the end of the year, but I look forward to hopping back in very soon!
• Anno 1800 - I can't believe it but I finally beat the story. Good heavens, this was one of the hardest games I have ever played and I don't think anything in the world could convince me to try for the platinum.
• Sunderfolk - This was a really cool local co-op game where you and some friends can use your phones as controllers. I would have played it more often if I felt more comfortable asking my married guy friends if they could come over to play video games. Those parental responsibilities will get you, man!
• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 - This game basically took over at the end of the year - not soon enough to crack my top five but there's a small chance that the time I've spent playing it in January could get it high up on my list for 2026. I bought it on sale after it won Game of the Year and a ton of other awards and loved the unique, original story. (It definitely had some outbursts of profanity that caught me off guard with my wife and kids in the room, so be aware of that, but it was a very fun late-night game for dad.) The combat system was incredibly difficult to learn and master but provided some of the most thrilling moments when I finally figured out the timing and beat some hard bosses. I'm sure I'll be writing more about this in my recap for next year, so... stay tuned for that, I guess.

Trophies Earned:

Although Playstation said I earned 751 trophies in 2025, it didn't account for an additional 18 trophies earned after December 23, so my actual total for the year would have actually been 769. That's the fewest trophies that I've earned in a year since I started keeping track of my stats back in 2020, but paternity leave with three kids is way different than paternity leave with one kid - especially since the older two boys are smart enough to vote me off of the big TV from time to time.

Here's a list of all of the games for which I either got the platinum trophy or reached 100% completion in 2025:

1. Sonic Frontiers - January 4
2. Epic Mickey Rebrushed - January 14
3. WWE 2K24 - February 2
4. No Man's Sky - February 10
5. Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions - February 17
6. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2 - March 9
7. Star Wars Outlaws - March 27
8. Hello Neighbor 2 - April 30
9. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle - June 17
10. LEGO Movie: The Videogame - July 2
11. MLB 14 The Show - July 13
12. Disco Elysium - August 1
13. Split Fiction - August 16
14. Assassin's Creed Mirage - August 20
15. NCAA Football 11 - August 25
16. Stick It To the Man, 100% - November 5
17. Endling: Extinction is Forever - November 6
18. Assassin's Creed Shadows - November 7

Thoughts on that list:

• I played "Sonic Frontiers" mainly because my oldest son accidentally earned a trophy on my profile and I therefore felt the need to finish the game for the sake of my completion percentage. Same thing with the "LEGO Movie" game. Probably wouldn't have played either of those if it weren't for my son "helping me out." Whoops!
• I had played "Epic Mickey 2" but never the original, so I was happy when they remastered it; that was a fun game.
• "No Man's Sky" certainly deserves some credit for how much better the game has become over the years - it's basically a totally different game than what it was when it was first released about 10 years ago.
• Getting the platinum trophy for "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2" was incredibly tedious. I love that game, but I did not love that trophy list. Sheesh.
• "Hello Neighbor 2" and "Endling: Extinction is Forever" were two games that, if I'm being honest, I only played because I Googled how long it would take to get the platinum trophies and I wanted to boost my stats.
• Speaking of boosting my stats, I spent a decent amount of time cleaning up games on my old Playstation 3. I got the platinum trophies for "MLB 14 The Show" and "NCAA Football 11" but also cleaned up the original "Skyrim" (even though I made it further on the PS4 version of the game) and a "Call of Duty" game that I had never actually played. NCAA and CoD were played on my profile by two of my brothers way back when I was in college and the completion level was not good. They're looking much better now.
• "Stick it to the Man" was a free PS4 game for Playstation+ members years and years ago. I played it but didn't complete it, and I finally got around to just knocking it out so I never have to think about it again.
• "Indiana Jones" was a lot of fun. I'm a product of the '80s and love Indy, so I loved the game. I had a couple of gripes about it - one of the areas was very dark and difficult to navigate, and the collectibles were such a pain. Holy cow, I think I was missing a collectible that took me about an hour and a half to find. Horrendous. Other than that, though, really enjoyable.
• I had heard great things about "Disco Elysium." It was a very interesting game that took me a while to complete. I don't believe that I would recommend it to most of my family, friends and associates.
• I got the platinum trophy for "Split Fiction" after playing the entire game with my oldest son, who is five years old. I do not believe that the game was intended for such young players. I was so proud of him. It was extremely frustrating at times and probably took two or three times longer to beat than it would have if I had played with, say, my wife (with whom I had originally planned on playing), but the fact that I beat it with a child was a fantastic accomplishment.
• "Assassin's Creed Mirage" was great. In fact, it's probably one of my top three or four AC games of all time. I enjoyed the series reverting back to the old stealth system, the simplified controls, and the much, much, much smaller map. It only took me about 35 hours to beat, including the free DLC update that came out toward the end of the year, and I'd recommend any AC fans who were on the fence about "Mirage" to give it a chance.

In the past, Playstation has given us a monthly breakdown of top games, hours logged and play sessions, but they didn't do that again this year. Instead, they gave us some trophy milestones to sort of journal our stats throughout the year. Here's what they had for me:

...except this wasn't my latest trophy - just proof that Playstation gave up on me after December 23, frowny face emoji.

Yearly Comparison:

• 2025
• Hours played: 961+
• Top games: Assassin's Creed Shadows, Star Wars Outlaws, Disney Dreamlight Valley, WWE 2K25, Blue Prince
• Trophies earned: 769
• Platinum trophies: 16
• 2024
• Hours played: 1,091
• Top games: Baldur's Gate III, Disney Dreamlight Valley, Assassin's Creed Valhalla, WWE 2K24, Star Wars Battlefront II
• Trophies earned: 845
• Platinum trophies: 15
• 2023
• Hours played: 1,212
• Top games: Disney Dreamlight Valley, Hogwarts Legacy, Marvel's Midnight Suns, NBA 2K23, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
• Trophies earned: 911
• Platinum trophies: 20
• 2022
• Hours played: 1,308
• Top games: WWE 2K22, Disney Dreamlight Valley, Gotham Knights, Ghost of Tsushima, Stardew Valley
• Trophies earned: 968
• Platinum trophies: 18
• 2021
• Hours played: 1,203
• Top games: MLB The Show 21, NBA 2K21, Marvel's Avengers, Watch Dogs Legion, Final Fantasy VII Remake
• Trophies earned: 1,091
• Platinum trophies: 14
• 2020
• Hours played: 2,419 (holy crap, COVID!)
• Top games: MLB The Show 20, Kingdom Hearts 1.5+2.5 Remix, NBA 2K20
• Trophies earned: 1,410
• Platinum trophies: 15

Final Thoughts:

So, in the end, the combination of having growing kids and playing really long games resulted in a year with fewer hours and trophies, but that's ok. Games like "Assassin's Creed Shadows," "Clair Obscur: Expedition 33," "Disco Elysium," "Anno 1800," hockey games and even "The Outer Worlds 2" all have stretches where trophies are few and far between, not to mention the 68 hours I put into earning no trophies on "Dreamlight Valley." But I had a great time playing and, perhaps, even a few less regrets about the games I've played than in past years, so that's a win, ultimately. I'll be back next year, probably even bigger and better, so I look forward to the exciting games, stories and platinum trophies that lie just beyond the horizon.

Mainly, I'm just disappointed in Playstation for not continuing to update my stats through the end of the year like they have in the past. Come on, guys. That was just lazy. Do you not really love me, after all we've been through??

Anyway, feel free to let me know what your top games were by leaving a comment below, following us on Twitter (here and here) or finding me on Facebook or some other method of communication.

Until next time!

WWE 2K25 Preview

We are mere hours away from early access for WWE 2K25! It's looking like we're in for another solid installment in the franchise, so I'm looking forward to logging on at 10 PM Mountain Time tonight for a little bit of late night gaming.

But before we get to that, let's break down the roster changes and some of the new features that we can expect from the new game!

Who's Out?

Legends/Other

• AJ Hawk
• Bad Bunny
• Beth Phoenix
• Big Boss Man
• Boston Connor
• Darius Butler
• Jerry Lawler
• Muhammad Ali
• Post Malone
• Robert Roode
• Ronda Rousey
• Sanga
• Shane McMahon
• Ted DiBiase
• Ty Schmit

No longer with the company

• Bobby Lashley
• Cameron Grimes
• Damon Kemp
• Dijak
• Drew Gulak
• Jinder Mahal
• MVP
• Ricochet
• SCRYPTS
• Veer Mahaan
• Xia Li

Current main roster superstars who didn't make the cut

• Shockingly, I think that the DLC pretty much covers all of the recent additions to the main roster!

Notable missing NXT superstars

• Hank Walker
• Jazmyn Nyx
• Karmen Petrovic
• Luca Crusifino
• Meiko Satomura
• Ricky Saints
• Tank Ledger
• Zaria

Who's in? (* = DLC)

Main roster

• Akam (no longer with company)
• Alex Shelley*
• Andrade
• Chris Sabin*
• Elektra Lopez (no longer with company)
• Erick Rowan*
• Finn Balor (Demon)
• Jacob Fatu
• Kiana James
• Naomi
  
• Penta*
• Rezar (no longer with company)
• Tama Tonga
• Tonga Loa

NXT

• Charlie Dempsey
• Eddy Thorpe
• Ethan Page
• Giulia*
• Jaida Parker
• Jakara Jackson
• Je'Von Evans
• Jordynne Grace*
• Kelani Jordan
• Lash Legend
• Lexis King
• Lola Vice
• Oba Femi
• Oro Mensah
• Shawn Spears
• Sol Ruca
• Stephanie Vaquer*
• Tatum Paxley

Legends/Other

• Abyss*
• Afa
• Alundra Blayze
• Billy Gunn*
• Bull Nakano
• D'Lo Brown*
• Great Khali*
• Headshrinker Fatu
• Headshrinker Samu
• Hunter Hearst Helmsley
• Islander Haku
• Islander Tama
• Jamal
• Jesse Ventura*
• Junk Yard Dog*
• Mark Henry*
• Mr. Wonderful Paul Orndorff*
• New Jack*
• Peter Maivia
• Road Dogg*
• Rocky Maivia
• Rosey
• Sid Justice*
• Sika
• Tito Santana*
• Victoria*

Managers/Non-playable Characters

• Afa
• Armando Estrada
• Ava
• Brother Love*
• Captain Lou Albano
• Mr. Fuji
  
• Nick Aldis
• Paul Ellering (no longer with company)

By the numbers

According to The Smackdown Hotel, this is the biggest roster ever for a WWE video game, boasting "383 characters," which is a bit inflated because of "persona" characters (alternate versions of wrestlers, like "Masked CM Punk") and throwback versions of wrestlers (like "Becky Lynch," "Becky Lynch '17" and "Becky Lynch '18," which they're counting as three different people). The website says that there are 69 new characters this year, which seems like a lot.

Roster take-aways

This actually feels pretty good. The only really significant wrestler that didn't make the base roster or DLC is NXT's Zaria, which is probably a lot more important to hardcore NXT watchers than it is to me. I'm sure that's nothing that a quick Community Creations download can't solve. The roster would have been looking really great about a month ago, before a handful of surprising releases, including Baron Corbin, the Authors of Pain and Paul Ellering, Blair Davenport, and (most shockingly) Sonya DeVille, among a few others. But their inclusion in the game doesn't feel nearly as egregious as what happened a few years back when the game launched with a significantly outdated roster on Day 1.

THANK GOODNESS that Pat McAfee's dumb friends aren't in the game anymore. Man, what a waste of DLC last year. I lowered the stats for all of those fools and beat them up so many times. They had such punchable faces. This year, we're getting a few surprise celebrity wrestlers and a couple yet-to-be-announced NBA stars, who I assume will be WWE superfans Tyrese Halliburton, Jalen Brunson and somebody else. Maybe Shaq or something? Not really excited about any of those, but maybe we'll get a few more punchable faces before all is said and done.

What else is new?

• The biggest addition this year is WWE 2K25's "The Island" mode, which is basically a wrestling version of NBA 2K's "The City," which I've never really cared for. It will be fun for people who like to play online against other people.
• Intergender matches. I have absolutely zero desire to beat up a woman with a male character, so the only time I can see myself doing an intergender match would be to have Rhea Ripley beat up Dominik Mysterio.
• New backstage areas. You can even fight on the old SmackDown! fist.
• Underground matches. Yeah, that weird gimmick from the COVID era that has shown up in NXT from time to time over the past few years will be in the game this year.
• "Bloodline Rules" matches. Just like on -the TV shows, I have absolutely no idea what that even means, unless there are, like, five scheduled run-ins per fighter. For real, though, what is the difference between "Bloodline Rules" and "No Holds Barred"?? Somebody explain this to me.
• I just confirmed it - it's a No-DQ match in which you can schedule up to three run-ins per side. Man, that's hilarious.
• New match types for Special Referee stipulations. You can now do a special ref in 30 different match types, as opposed to it only being for 1-on-1 matches, like last year. That's cool.
• New weapons! Trash can lid (my personal specialty!), safety cone, Undertaker urn, juggling pin, clown horn, clown shoe, "sugar rush," "Damian's Chair" and carnival hammer. I assume there is maybe some kind of amusement park tie-in for MyRise mode or something, because that's a lot of random clown crap.
• Showcase Mode: "Bloodline Dynasty." We'll get a full helping of Roman Reigns and family this year, which is not probably the most enticing option for me, personally, but whatever.
• New MyGM Mode features. You can play online now (I won't), there are new Premium Live Event features (PLEs are now shared across shows instead of each brand doing their own full show - I'm not sure that I like that, despite it being more similar to real life), nine new GM character options, and a few other things. Although the newly introduced mid-card women's titles are not an option (yet?), there is now a feature to have women's tag champions, which will be a nice improvement.

WWE 2K Q&A with A-Town

• Who will you play with first?
• I mean, heel John Cena is sounding pretty good right now, considering what happened at Elimination Chamber last weekend...
• I'm really looking forward to getting Penta and Jordynne Grace on DLC in the next few months.
• Who don't you want to play with at all?
• Probably 95% of NXT and the legends. Probably as few "Bloodline" characters as possible; I simply don't have any interest in playing with any Samoans that pre-date The Rock.
• What is your go-to match type?
• Last year, I probably played more standard 1-on-1 matches than anything, and I tried to take the action outside of the ring as little as possible. I just wanted to hit a couple special moves and pin or submit my opponents as quickly as possible.
• What is your favorite game mode?
• I really love GM Mode, but like I said last year, I wish there was more incentive to play that mode a lot. I thought that the WrestleMania showcase was really well-done last year (if not a bit too lengthy), but the replayability is extremely low for that mode.
• Is there anything you wish you could change or improve about these games?
• There absolutely needs to be about 150% fewer ladder matches this year. When I was playing MyFaction last year, it was like 66% ladder matches, and most of those were tag team matches, so they were truly aggravating. MyFaction was better last year than it probably ever has been, but it was such a chore to do those tasks that I never switched up my roster and I simply played it because I had to, not because I actually wanted to.
• I think they might have patched it eventually, but I remember when I first started playing 2K24, the ref would take their sweet time getting to the three-count. It was ridiculously slow. Like I said, I think it got better, but that was horrendous.
• They've got to got to got to fix the "Statistics" feature on these games. I have no idea what stats they're tracking, but I can tell you that they are completely inaccurate. Please, for the love, just track all of my play stats, regardless of what mode I'm in.
• I think that the logic used in GM Mode that penalizes you for putting, say, Drew McIntyre and Roman Reigns in a match together is totally stupid. "The fans don't like to see this." Excuse me???? That's a great match. I get that it's not the same as Rey Mysterio fighting the Great Khali or something, but don't tell me that fans don't like two powerhouses going at it. That's crap.
• Make up a new tag team that does not currently exist:
• I mean... Drew McIntyre and Bronson Reed? They would absolutely WRECK. (I actually really liked Bronson teaming up with the New Bloodline for War Games. Thought he fit in well with them. Too bad he busted his ankle for the love of the game.)
• Give us brand new champions for every single main roster belt:
• RAW:
• Men's Title: CM Punk
• Women's Title: Move Jordynne Grace up to the main roster and give her the belt
• Men's IC: Chad Gable
• Women's IC: Dakota Kai is the obvious choice, but it should stay Lyra Valkyria
• Men's Tag: Heel New Day would get nuclear heat if they won
• SmackDown:
• Men's Title: Heel John Cena
• Women's Title: Jade Cargill
• Men's US: Jacob Fatu
• Women's US: I refuse to pick anyone other than Chelsea Green
• Men's Tag: Motor City Machine Guns shouldn't have lost the titles so quickly
• Inter-brand Women's Tag Team Champions: Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross
• Who are you most looking forward to beating up?
• Dominik Mysterio, Liv Morgan, Carmelo Hayes, maybe even Bianca Belair

The Bottom Line

Overall, I'm pretty happy with how things are shaping up. I was kind of surprised to see that we aren't swapping out any match types, so we are getting new stipulations and keeping the casket and ambulance matches from last year. The roster is solid, we're keeping the Judgment Day's old entrance theme (which was such a banger) and I can immediately change John Cena's alignment to "Crowd Reaction: Boo," which is still so crazy to think about. Let's get to it!

And now, if you've got a couple minutes, let us know what you're thinking about the current state of WWE in the comments section, on Twitter (here and here) or on Facebook, if you can find us.

Let's get ready to rumble!

Until next time.

Playstation Wrap-Up 2024

It's the post that everybody in The Underground has been looking forward to for an entire year! It's time for the Playstation Wrap-Up, where we boast about our gaming accomplishments and put all of our friends to shame. The trophies we earned, the games we loved, the ones we wish we had never started in the first place... it's all here, folks!

How will our stats for 2024 stack up? Let's find out together!

Total Hours:

That's a considerable number of hours. I don't know how I did it nor how it is possible.

Top Five Games:

1. Baldur's Gate III: I never in my entire life thought that I would ever play Dungeons & Dragons. But alas, I was corned by my next-door neighbor back in the summer of 2024 about playing D&D with some other neighbors and I just didn't have the stones to say no to his face. So I went. And I liked it. Upon telling some friends and coworkers that I had ventured into D&D, several of them immediately recommended "Baldur's Gate III," which I had never really heard of, let alone did I know that it was essentially a D&D video game. I picked up BG3 and gave it a shot. Let me say this unequivocally - this game is not for everyone, especially children. Literally, the very first thing it asked me was whether I wanted to turn on graphic nudity. Uh... NO?! There are certainly some mature themes in this game, but if you're wise and make good choices, almost all of them can be avoided, in my experience. With no further gilding the lily, I can say that I absolutely loved "Baldur's Gate III." I had an absolute blast. And there's an extremely high replayability factor - perhaps higher than any other single-player campaign in any other game I've ever played. You could choose a different character type and make a few different choices and get a totally different experience in a second or even third playthrough. I started over with a new character and got a little way into the game again but have been taking a break. But it's just absolutely insane that I spent 116 hours on this game and could probably do it all over again. That's my game of the year for 2024, without a doubt.
2. Disney Dreamlight Valley: Another year, another 90+ hours in The Valley. Props to the team for pumping out so much content that my family never gets bored. In terms of cost per time played, this might be one of the most cost-efficient purchases I've ever made for the sake of my entertainment.
3. Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Great game. But there was a completely mind-boggling plot twist at the very end that went way over my head because I apparently, like, missed one side mission or something? I had no idea what was going on there during the finale and had to spend a considerable amount of time Googling my questions.
4. WWE 2K24: Another solid edition in the "WWE 2K" series. I think it's safe to say now that "2K" has dug itself out of the monumental hole it fell into for a couple years and they've got the train chugging down the track (other than MyRise mode, which I continue to dislike - it's just so painful). Tonight, as I watch the premiere of "WWE RAW" on Netflix, I see that they'll be announcing "WWE 2K25" three weeks from tonight, so I better finish up '24 and get ready for the new game.
5. Star Wars Battlefront II: If you would have told me at any point in my life that I was going to get the platinum trophy on any "Star Wars Battlefront" game, I wouldn't have believe it. But I've got a coworker that is a hardcore gamer and he somehow convinced me to get back into the game and finish it up. It took forever to do it, and I screamed when I got that final trophy, but I somehow did it, in, perhaps, one of the most impressive feats of video game completion in all my years.

Games Played:

Beyond my top five games, here are some of my other favorites from 2024:

• Anno 1800 - even though it's extremely hard and I can't figure out how to get more than about an hour into the game without going bankrupt.
• Burnout Paradise Remastered - one of my favorite games from my college years, remastered (haven't been able to pull off a triple barrel roll yet, though).
• Fallout 76 - which is a zillion times better than it was at launch and has a great and very friendly online community now; it's practically an entirely new game, at this point.
• Final Fantasy VII Rebirth - what a massive, massive game; gonna take many more hours just to complete the campaign.
• Harry Potter Quidditch Champions - I couldn't believe that this was free at launch for Playstation+ subscribers.
• LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga - still chipping away for that platinum trophy; maybe 2025 is the year!
• Lost in Random - a weird little game that I picked up on sale for like two or three dollars.
• No Man's Sky - another game that is completely different now than it was years ago; I had never played it and really enjoyed the time I spent.
• NHL 25 - the Utah Hockey Club has arrived!

Top Games Each Month:

Trophies Earned:

Here's a list of all of the games for which I either got the platinum trophy or reached 100% completion in 2024:

1. Disney's Dreamlight Valley - January 8
2. LEGO 2K Drive - January 30
3. Lost in Random - February 8
4. WWE 2K23 - February 22
5. Valiant Hears: The Great War, 100% - February 23
6. PowerWash Simulator - February 27
7. SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake - June 21
8. LEGO The Incredibles - July 10
9. Planet Coaster - August 5
10. MLB The Show 24 - September 9
11. Astro Bot - October 8
12. Hot Wheels Unleashed 2: Turbocharged - October 21
13. Beyond: Two Souls - October 31
14. Star Wars Battlefront II - November 15
15. Skull & Bones - November 19
16. The Plucky Squire - November 26

Thoughts on that list:

• "Dreamlight Valley" is a family favorite at our house. If we're looking at cost per hour, that game is well worth the money I've spent on it.
• "LEGO 2K Drive" had one of the most ridiculous trophies ever. I literally had to tap and rubber-band the controller and let it run for hours (even while I slept), lest I be subjected to mindlessly playing for hours and hours and hours just to rack up the numbers on my virtual odometer. By the time I was done with that asinine task, I never wanted to play the game ever again.
• My three- (now four-) year old son, Stockton, started a couple games on my profile this summer, which meant that I was essentially contractually obligated to 100-percent them, so if you thought that it was my idea to play "SpongeBob: The Cosmic Shake" (which was stupid) or "LEGO Incredibles" (which was actually pretty enjoyable), you are mistaken.
• Astro Bot was super fun. My kids love Astro.
• I wouldn't recommend "Beyond: Two Souls" to pretty much anyone, and I somewhat regret that I even went back to it to clean it up. The fact that it was my most-played game of October pretty much sickens me, but at least it's done now and I never need to play it ever again.
• My hardcore gamer coworker encouraged me to get back into "Star Wars Battlefront II," which I never thought I would ever be able to beat... but I did it. It took me FOREVER... but I did it.
• "Skull & Bones" was a great time. It would have been more fun to play with friends (I forced my brother to play with me a couple times, which was fun - but mostly for me), but I had a good time playing solo. I wrapped it up - MY 100th PLATINUM - on my birthday, which was also a fun little planetary alignment for me.

Yearly Comparison:

• 2024
• Hours played: 1,091
• Top games: Baldur's Gate III, Disney Dreamlight Valley, Assassin's Creed Valhalla, WWE 2K24, Star Wars Battlefront II
• Trophies earned: 845
• Platinum trophies: 15
• 2023
• Hours played: 1,212
• Top games: Disney Dreamlight Valley, Hogwarts Legacy, Marvel's Midnight Suns, NBA 2K23, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
• Trophies earned: 911
• Platinum trophies: 20
• 2022
• Hours played: 1,308
• Top games: WWE 2K22, Disney Dreamlight Valley, Gotham Knights, Ghost of Tsushima, Stardew Valley
• Trophies earned: 968
• Platinum trophies: 18
• 2021
• Hours played: 1,203
• Top games: MLB The Show 21, NBA 2K21, Marvel's Avengers, Watch Dogs Legion, Final Fantasy VII Remake
• Trophies earned: 1,091
• Platinum trophies: 14
• 2020
• Hours played: 2,419 (holy crap, COVID!)
• Top games: MLB The Show 20, Kingdom Hearts 1.5+2.5 Remix, NBA 2K20
• Trophies earned: 1,410
• Platinum trophies: 15

Final Thoughts:

After writing up that last little section there, it's very interesting to see how my top games have changed over the years - and how much free time I had during COVID. Overall, 2024 was a pretty good year for gaming. My top game, obviously, was extremely unexpected, so that was kind of refreshing. I'm still having a good time playing video games, even though I'm sure many people out there find it inappropriate for someone of my advancing years. But I'll tell you what - I've had some great times playing games with my kids, and my son Stockton is a fantastic problem solver due to his time spent with a controller in his hands. I was watching him play "Epic Mickey Rebrushed" on the PS5 earlier today and just sat there in amazement at what he was doing, without my help. He's a smart kid, and if I can thank Playstation for that, I'm happy to do so.

Here's to another fun year of gaming in 2025!

*****

That's a wrap for our Year in Review season! If you missed any of our other 2024 Recap blogs, be sure to check them out now!

• A-Town's Bookshelf: The Year in Books, 2024
• A-Town Playlist: Top Spotify Songs of 2024
• Nintendo Year in Review 2024

What were your favorite games of 2024? If you're playing on a Playstation and we're not friends, feel free to add me (PSN ID: atownmania). Who knows? Maybe we can "plat" a game together in the upcoming year!

Hit us up with your gaming recommendations or any other commentary in the comments section below, on Twitter (here and here) or on Facebook... if you dare!

Until next time.

WWE 2K24 Preview: Time to Finish the Story

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.

While we've got you here, you might as well take a look at our other WWE content by clicking here. You can also leave a comment on this post, follow us on Twitter (here and here) or find us on Facebook... if you smell... what The Underground is cooking.

Until next time.

WWE 2K23 preview: Ready for War (Games)

It's tiiiiiime for another year of WWE 2K! In our opinion, the developers really righted the ship with WWE 2K22 last year, which was great - and even ended up being our top game of the year for 2022, with over 120 hours logged. Before the game launches at 10 PM Mountain Time tonight, we need to look over the roster for the new installment. But first of all, let's just talk for a second about what a weird year it was for the previous cast of characters.

WWE made a ton of budget cuts over the past two years, releasing a bunch of wrestlers - some of which were more deserving of being let go than others. This resulted, however, in a video game roster that was completely outdated on Day One. It was wild. By our count, there were 37 people included with last year's game that weren't with the company anymore - 11 of which were "new" characters who weren't with WWE anymore by the time the game launched. Wild.

The other weird thing was that Vince McMahon, being the weirdo that he is, became obsessed with changing wrestlers' names and he re-branded a ton of people, so even wrestlers who survived the budget cuts quickly became outdated in the video game. For instance, "Walter" became "Gunther" and "Pete Dunne" became "Butch." It made very little sense to us, but Vince was gonna Vince. It will be nice to have a game where players are actually referred to by their current TV names.

After reviewing the roster this year, we can confidently say that a much more up-to-date cast of characters will grace our flat-screens for 2023. Let's channel our inner D-Generation X and break it down:

Who's out?

• Legends and celebrities

• Machine Gun Kelly
• Mickie James
• Mr. T
• Papa Shango
• Ric Flair
• Road Dogg Jesse James
• William Regal

• Still with the company, not enough TV time

• A-Kid
• Sarray (Minutes before posting this blog, Sarray confirmed that she has officially left the company)
• Tegan Nox

• No longer with the company

• Alexander Wolf
• Arya Daivari
• Billie Kay
• Cesaro
• Danny Burch
• Ember Moon
• Fandango
• Gran Metalik
• Isaiah "Swerve" Scott
• John Morrison
• Kalisto
• Keith Lee
• Kushida
• Kyle O'Reilly
• Lana
• Lince Dorado
• Mandy Rose
• Murphy
• Oney Lorcan
• Peyton Royce
• Samoa Joe
• Sasha Banks
• Slapjack
• The Brian Kendrick
• Timothy Thatcher
• Toni Storm
• Trent Seven
• Tucker

• WWE status uncertain

• Naomi
• Nia Jax

• Head-scratchers

• Candice LeRae
• Mia Yim/Reckoning
• Roderick Strong

Editor's note, May 15, 2023: A patch coming up for the game later this week will make Candice LeRae and Mia Yim fully playable characters in the game. Also, Roderick Strong made a surprise debut with WWE's main competitor a couple weeks ago, so it's apparently a good thing he wasn't included in the game. 

Who's in? (* denotes characters available via DLC)

• Main Roster
• Aliya
• Ashante Adonis*
• Bray Wyatt* (At the time of posting, rumors are circulating on Twitter that Wyatt might be quitting the company imminently, which would be shocking and a huge failure on the part of WWE)
• Cody Rhodes
• Ezekiel
• Karl Anderson*
• Luke Gallows*
• Madcap Moss
• Queen Zelina
• Reggie
• Ridge Holland
• Shanky
• Solo Sikoa
• Top Dolla*
• Valhalla*
• Veer Mahaan
• NXT
• Andre Chase*
• Blair Davenport*
• Bron Breakker
• Brutus Creed
• Carmelo Hayes
• Cora Jade
• Damon Kemp*
• Elton Prince*
• Gigi Dolin
• Grayson Waller
• Ivy Nile*
• Jacy Jayne*
• Joe Gacy*
• Julius Creed
• Kayden Carter
• Kit Wilson*
• Nathan Frazer*
• Nikkita Lyons
• Noam Dar
• Roxanne Perez
• Tiffany Stratton*
• Tony D'Angelo*
• Trick Williams*
• Wendy Choo*
• Zoey Stark
• Non-playable characters
• B-Fab*
• Legends/other
• Batista (Leviathan)*
• Bad Bunny
• Brie Bella
• Brock Lesnar '01*
• Bruno Sammartino
• Eve Torres*
• Harley Race*
• Jean-Paul Levesque
• John Cena alternate attires
• John Cena '02
• John Cena '03
• John Cena '06
• John Cena '08
• John Cena '09
• John Cena '12
• John Cena '14
• John Cena '16
• John Cena '18
• John Cena (Prototype)*
• "Super Cena"
• Kurt Angle
• Lita
• Mighty Molly
• Molly Holly
• Nikki Bella
• Randy Orton '02*
• Rick Steiner*
• Scott Steiner*
• Wade Barrett*
• Zeus*

Wrestlers with new names

• Alba Fyre (previously Kay Lee Ray)
• Butch (previously Pete Dunne)
• Cruz del Toro (previously Raul Mendoza)
• Giovanni Vinci (previously Fabian Aichner)
• Gunther (previously Walter)
• Iyo Sky (previously Io Shirai)
• JD McDonagh (previously Jordan Devlin)
• Katana Chance (previously Kacy Katanzaro)
• Ludwig Kaiser (previously Marcel Barthel)
• Ma.ce (previously MACE)
• Man.soor (previously Mansoor)
• Queen Zelina (previously Zelina Vega)
• Raquel Rodriguez (previously Raquel Gonzalez)
• Valhalla (previously Sarah Logan)

By the Numbers

"WWE 2K23" includes:

• 199 unique, playable characters - including DLC but not including managers and alternate versions of superstars
• Up 30 from "WWE 2K22."
• We counted Elias and Ezekiel separately because we're 97.2% positive that they are, in fact, not the same person.
• 237 playable characters, including alternate versions of superstars
• Up 42 from "WWE 2K22."
• 52 unique, playable women
• Up 11 from "WWE 2K22."
• 245 total characters, including managers and alternate versions of superstars
• Up 44 from "WWE 2K22."

Roster take-aways

We are actually really happy about how this year's roster turned out. The people who are gone (for the most part) don't deserve to be there anymore. The "head scratchers" we listed are truly that - people who don't have any apparent reason for not being included - particularly Mendoza, whose entire stable is in the game, and LeRae, who you'd think would have been a package deal with real-life husband Johnny Gargano. Oh well. We'll snag somebody's created versions of them and act like they're the real deal.

A couple other highlights include the fact that Elias and Ezekiel are both in the game together, Wade Barrett appearing as a WWE Legend, and the triumphant return of the American Hero, Kurt Angle, who won a gold medal with a broken freakin' neck.

The fact that several of last year's DLC characters are not returning (Machine Gun Kelly, A-Kid, Sarray) shows how weak last year's crop of paid content bundles was.

Speaking of DLC, there are some hefty batches coming this year, on a monthly basis. There are going to be some pretty good wrestlers being made available throughout the summer. We copped the Icon version of the game, which includes the season pass, so we'll be looking forward to those additional content drops.

We're also happy to see the return of a lot of female legends that were inexplicably cut from last year's game. Welcome back.

What else is new?

• The biggest bomb dropped for "2K23" is the virtual arrival of War Games, a "premium live event" match gimmick which has become an NXT staple and even made its main roster a few months ago. If you're unfamiliar with the concept, think this: a double-ring cage match. It should provide for some pretty crazy 3v3 and 4v4 tag team matchups for gamers this year.
• "WWE 2K22" re-introduced "GM Mode," which was fun, albeit very brief. I didn't spend nearly as much time as a General Manager as I anticipated, due to limited match options and somewhat limited gameplay options. From the sound of it, they've bolstered this mode for the upcoming game, encouraging players to spend multiple seasons with the same GM, which was not really the case last year. Last time, you pretty much ran through a calendar year and that was it. A multi-year lifespan with improved match and title capabilities and an expanded roster of available GMs should make "2K23" a step up from its predecessor.
• "Showcase Mode" returns this year with the spotlight on our good friend, John Cena.
• "Universe" mode is listed as a new feature on the 2K website. It's probably a retread of a feature that appeared in many past games but seems to have been revamped as "the ultimate sandbox," which should give players some variety if they want to step away from similar modes like My GM or MyFaction.

WWE 2K Q&A with A-Town

• Who will be the first wrestlers you play with in "2K23"?
• Cody Rhodes will be one of my first choices, for sure.
• Are there any superstars that you are more excited to play with in "2K23" than you have been in the past?
• I hardly used Cena last year, for whatever reason, but I'm sure I'll use him a ton this year. Sami Zayn has had the year of his life. Elias/Ezekiel will be fun. Raquel Rodriguez would be fun on the women's roster. Rhea Ripley has been a beast, too.
• Are there any superstars that you are less excited to play with in "2K23" than you have been in the past?
• Toward the end of my time with "2K22," I was almost exclusively using Roman Reigns and Charlotte Flair in MyFaction because I could win matches in about 30 seconds if I hit their submission moves right off the bad. If I could, you know... not have to play like that again this year, that would be awesome.
• Are there any superstars that you have no intention of playing with in "2K23"?
• The Usos. Sick of them. Dominik Mysterio, who is universally hated by everyone, at this point. I probably won't touch any male characters from NXT, with the possible exception of Bron Breakker. There's a good deal of women on the main roster that I'll never use, either (Aliyah, Doudrop, Nikki A.S.H., etc.)
• Who are you most looking forward to beating up?
• I don't really know the dude but Grayson Waller seems like a real idiot down on NXT. Dominik Mysterio is definitely going to get the crap kicked out of him, too.
• What is your weapon of choice?
• I used a lot of chairs last year. I wish they didn't break after four hits. Kendo sticks, as always, and baseball bats are nice, too.
• What feature are you most looking forward to?
• The new My GM mode should be a big step in the right direction. I'll hop into War Games but I don't expect to constantly be playing with that stipulation. I spent nearly 100 hours in MyFaction last year due to the trophy that required 500 matches played. What a nightmare. After scanning the trophy list this morning, I don't think I'll have to do that again, thankfully, so I'm hoping for a much less tedious experience in that mode for "2K23."

The Bottom Line

We're really looking forward to stepping between the ropes with "WWE 2K23." Last year's installment was a massive, massive improvement over the abomination that was "2K20," so if they can keep that momentum going, it should be a great time.

We should thank The Smackdown Hotel for their help with the updated roster. They're always on top of this stuff and they do a great job.

If you've got nothing else going on right now, take a look at our other WWE content by clicking here. You can also leave a comment on this post, follow us on Twitter (here and here) or find us on Facebook if you feel like talking shop.

C U in the ring.