- Jeff Jarrett's name and mugshot are hidden in the data for WWF SmackDown! on the PlayStation, due to his having left for WCW in 1999. His parts intended for the game were later included in Smackdown 2's Create A Wrestler mode (as is his music, since Debra continued using it after he left the company).
- Similarly, Goldust was planned for the first game, left for WCW, and his parts were included in the 2nd, although this isn't as surprising because the WWF owned the gimmick.
- Additionally, CAW mode parts for Shawn "Meat" Stasiak and Droz can be found in a prototype build of the original WWF SmackDown!. Stasiak's parts appear in the prototype's CAW mode regularly, but Droz's are hidden away in the game's files. Both were completely scrubbed from the final game. And unlike the previous examples with Jeff Jarrett and Goldust, neither star's parts are included in the sequel.
- WWF SmackDown! 2: Know Your Role for the PlayStation dummied out Ken Shamrock, who left the company in late 1999. He can be unlocked with a GameShark, but as he doesn't have an entrance video, trying to play as him without entrances disabled will freeze the game.
- Amusingly, The Big Show wasn't completely dummied out. While he got the same treatment as Shamrock due to having been sent to developmental, he still has a chance of entering the Royal Rumble as a random participant, complete with theme song.
- Smackdown 2 was also intended to feature a small Legends roster featuring André the Giant, Bob Backlund, Sgt. Slaughter, and Jerry Lawler, but all four were scrapped before release for unknown reasons. Like Jarrett and Goldust listed above, they all have their attire parts remaining in CAW mode, but their likenesses can only be unlocked for CAW mode through hacking. While Andre, Slaughter, and Lawler would each go on to appear as playable characters later in the series, Backlund still has yet to make an appearance.
- Similarly, WWF No Mercy for the N64 had a CAW mode face for Big Show and an alternative one for The Rock able to be unlocked with a GameShark, as well as an extra Create a Wrestler slot that would have been unlocked via connecting with the Game Boy Color version had it not been cancelled. A completed texture for the Brahma Bull
◊ belt is in game, and can be used with texture-modifying GameShark codes. Presumably, the belt was cut from the game because the real-life version never saw the light of day either; WWF Magazine reported that it was lost in the mail when shipped from the belt maker to WWF. - Smackdown: Shut Your Mouth was originally intended to feature both Shane McMahon and nWo member Scott Hall, but were both removed during development (Shane, for unknown reasons, Hall due to his departure from WWE). While a character slot for Shane still exists on the disc (albeit very glitched), there are no remnants of Hall other than a handful of CAW mode parts. Hall's role in Season Mode (which replicated the WrestleMania X8 nWo angle) was instead filled by X-Pac.
- Smackdown: Here Comes The Pain infamously had Hulk Hogan, Ultimate Warrior, and Jeff Hardy removed prior to release; lesser known is that it had many, many more dummied out characters (seen here). Their data is still on the disc and they can even be selected, but all cause the game to crash (with the exception of Al Snow, who instead strangely loads The Rock's model). There also remains Team Angle sweatsuit alternate attires for Kurt Angle, Charlie Haas, and Shelton Benjamin that are fully useable via GameShark (seen here).
- Also, Jerry "The King" Lawler appears in a tag team match during Here Comes The Pain's Season Mode in a storyline where either Eric Bischoff (if you're on RAW) or Vince McMahon (if you're on SmackDown!) humiliate and assault Jim Ross in Ross' home state of Oklahoma. He comes complete with a moveset and a model wearing ring gear (which is never seen outside this match, as he's normally seen wearing his crown and jacket). Despite this, Lawler is not unlockable, cannot be played as without a cheating device, and cannot even be controlled in the match he appears in (with control going to the AI if he's tagged in, in contrast to any other Season Mode tag match, where you control whoever the legal man is).
- Hacking the original WWE SmackDown vs. Raw would let one play as the British Bulldog (not in the game in any way), though one of the members of the main roster had to be replaced. There was also voice data for The Rock and Mankind in the game's story mode that was not used.
- WWE Smackdown VS Raw 2006 contains unused announcer voice clips in the game's data that reveal Maven, Kenzo Suzuki, and Hulk Hogan as Mr. America were on the roster at some point in development. A 2021 prototype leak also revealed complete models and movesets for Maven and Luther Reigns.
- WWE Day of Reckoning 2, which was released a few months before Smackdown VS Raw 2006, also had Maven dummied out of the roster: apparently, his deletion for this game happened so late in development that he had a character model on the game's official website◊ for a brief period of time. Also of note, Suzuki was the only character in the game who was not in 2006.
- In a couple of similar examples, in 2008 Armando Estrada and Maria both appear in parts of Season Mode, and one of the tag entrances is for Estrada and Umaga, but neither are selectable in any way. Similarly, in 2011 Hurricane Helms appears in each Road to WrestleMania route (including in a match in Rey Mysterio Jr.'s story), has a newly-done entrance and a full moveset, and can be used in the story creator, but for some reason you cannot play as him without hacking.
- In WCW vs nWo Revenge, Wrath was only accessible via a GameShark code. He had Sting's outfit and no sound effect for his finishing move, but was otherwise fully functional. Oddly enough, the character would be fully accessible without a GameShark as part of your save after the code was used. There were also dummied out managers that just were buggy versions of some of the existing managers with misspelled versions of the new managers' names.
- In AKI's next wrestling game, WWF WrestleMania 2000, a GameShark code could be used to access an unfinished version of the shootfighting mode that showed up in their next (Japan-only) game, Virtual Pro Wrestling 2.
- In WCW Nitro, Jeff Jarrett was dummied out very shortly before the game was released due to Jarrett leaving WCW on fairly bad terms. Images of Jarrett in the game could be seen on, of all places, the packaging of the PlayStation itself.
- Ric Flair was mostly dummied out of WCW Thunder (and completely removed from WCW vs. nWo Revenge) thanks to a legal dispute with then-WCW Executive Producer Eric Bischoff, giving us the rather hilarious option of being able to make any wrestler in the game a member of the 4 Horsemen... but not being able to use its founder and only consistent member. Flair, along with Johnny Grunge and Rocco Rock of Public Enemy, Glacier, Prince Iaukea, and Vincent (aka Virgil), who were also all dummied out, actually can be used in the game by using an "unlock everything" code at the title screen, though they have no entrances, finishing moves, all use the same moveset, and can't be used in the game's title modes.
- Defying all logic, Paige was inaccessible on the PC version of WWE 2K15 because she was included in the console versions as a Season Pass exclusive, and the Season Pass didn't exist for the PC version as the DLC was free due to being released 6 months late. Despite this, her character model, entrance graphics and music are still left in the game assets for a knowledgable modder to put back in at the expense of removing another woman.
- Bob Backlund was clearly available in WWE 2K18 at some point during development, as an entrance is still in there listed as "Darren Young and Manager".
- WWE 2K22 featured a rare case of advertised DLC being dummied out, as Nash Carter, one half of the MSK tag team, who was originally slated to be part of the "Stand Back" DLC pack, was removed following his release from WWE after images surfaced of him imitating a certain WWII dictator. Players were compensated with the rather lame replacement gift of two MyFaction cards. Carter's tag team partner, Wes Lee, would still be included as DLC, as well as the team entrance, victory motion, and moves for MSK (in spite of Carter's absence). Carter himself was completely wiped from the files of the DLC, with the only remnant being a select screen render and an empty character slot.
- 2K22's base game had noteworthy removed content in the form of scrapped MyRise storylines centered around characters who had been cut from the roster following their WWE departures, Bray Wyatt and Adam Cole. In addition to the stories, an entire removed backstage area based on Wyatt's Firefly Funhouse segments remains in the game's files, as well as unselectable Champion entrance motions for both Wyatt and Cole. The animations for both would appear in later installments, with Wyatt (who had made his return to WWE months after the release of the game, and later appeared as DLC in the following game) finally getting to use the new animations proper in 2K24 (alongside the return of his Fiend persona to the series).
- In a rare case of a company actually publicly saying this was happening it was announced two weeks before release that Brock Lesnar would be removed from the playable roster for WWE2K24, thanks to Lesnar being named (sort ofnote ) in the Vince McMahon sex scandal.
- An early-mid 2010's Lesnar can still be played as in the "40 Years of WrestleMania" 2K Showcase mode in recreations of his matches at WrestleMania XXX and 31 against The Undertaker and Roman Reigns respectively. This version of Brock also appears in the bonus match (a Royal Rumble consisting mostly of stars that appeared throughout the Showcase), but is the only participant that the player is unable to select. He cannot be unlocked or played as outside of the aforementioned Showcase matches. Meanwhile, the modern day version of Lesnar appears strictly as an opponent near the end of the Undisputed storyline in MyRise mode.
- Vince McMahon was also dummied out as a playable character, and even had his face blurred in several of the video packages in the "40 Years of WrestleMania" Showcase, but still appears in-game for the recreation of WrestleMania X8's match between "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and The Rock to play his part in Austin's infamous Face–Heel Turn.
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