The show never stops.
Aside from the news about CM Punk being one of the few wrestlers in WWE to make the cover twice and the info on his 2K Showcase, the biggest takeaway from a recent roundtable with
a few members of the WWE2K26 development team was that their tagline isn’t just a few words they slapped on the box for marketing purposes. 2K’s latest WWE game is built to do the Energizer bunny thing and keep going as long as you want it to in a myriad of ways.
But let’s start with the man of the hour. Punk becomes one of the chosen few to grace the game’s cover twice, and one of an even more elite group to get an entire 2k Showcase built around his career. Now, obviously Punk’s time in WWE is far from a straight line. That afforded the developers some creative freedom for Punked – CM Punk’s Personal Journey as they charted his rise, rebellion, and return. You not only get to fight those battles that are a part of WWE lore, but also the ones we never got to see in the decade missing from his WWE resume. 2K took a “fantasy warfare” approach to parts of the Showcase. What if Punk never left WWE? Or, even better for us wrestling nerds, what if he got the chance to tangle with wrestlers before his time? Unfortunately, I can’t share with you who any of those wrestlers are. For one, they didn’t tell us and B, I’d be sworn to secrecy if they did. If there’s one thing I take seriously, it’s my oaths to caginess and subterfuge.
Let’s get back to that first point about the game never stopping. Part of that is embedded in its massive roster: there are over four hundred wrestlers to play with in this year’s game. There are the usual suspects like Roman Reigns, Becky Lynch, “Macho Man” Randy Savage, and Andre the Giant, plus newcomers like Blake Monroe, Ray Fénix, and Joe Hendry. The team noted that fans said his name enough so he had to appear.
The other components are new match types and the additions to current features. For us sickos begging for I Quit matches, Inferno matches, Three Stages of Hell, and even thumbtacks, 2K answered our pleas. MyRise now continues once the main storyline ends. The more you play, the more achievements and content you unlock. MyGM allows more shows and more wrestlers per match, which means more challenges for perspective GMs out there itching to get their hands on the pencil. Universe mode gets its own WWE Draft, and Creator Suite comes equipped with 200 Create-A-Superstar save slots.
Oh, and then there’s Ringside Pass. 2K’s ambitious plans for post-launch content is all about the show never ending as it allows players to gain XP across all game modes. Ringside Pass Premium replaces the previous DLC model, rewarding players with all-new playable characters unavailable on the base game roster, including current Superstars, Legends, Personas, and more of those surprises 2K didn’t divulge so stop asking me about them. The plan is for six Ringside Pass seasons this year with Season 1 available at launch.
Which segues perfectly into the other most important information I can relay. WWE2K26’s Standard Edition featuring The Best in the World on the cover, drops Friday, March 13. The Attitude Era, Monday Night Wars, and King of Kings Editions drop on Friday, March 6. The game is available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S|X, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC.
There’s a wide assortment of bones that come in the special editions such as the aforementioned Ringside Passes. era appropriate wrestlers, arenas, attribute points, and Virtual Currency. As someone who beat the drum for the 1998 Raw is War arena, I can’t tell you how happy I am someone finally heard my incessant percussion.
There’s a ton packed into this game. So much so that I couldn’t even list it all. No, not out of fear 2K will snipe me but simply for word count. But we’ll have more information about the game as winter turns to spring and the calendar gets closer to the release date. Like I said, the show never stops.
What edition are you most looking forward to? How does the CM Punk Showcase sound? Holla at us in the comments!
