YMMV / WWE Video Games

• Alternative Character Interpretation: The Lock: Upon the former Lock's return to WWE, did Shawn Michaels really want him gone from WWE, or was it just to push him to becoming the Superstar that he knew he could be? What he says at the end of the story about trusting "the process" supports the latter. And giving that he was the one who negotiated the former Lock's return to the WWE in the first place, was Tavish aware of, let alone supported Michaels' plan?
• Alt-itis: As mentioned on the main page one of the first discussions of a new game is for every shirt, appearance and customization of Cena or any other superstar or diva in the game. Thanks to the solid Character Customization and budding online community if you can dream it you can make it up, or the talented creators have either already done one or several.
• Ascended Meme:
  • In 2K24, they restored the tag team controls, with one of them being somewhat memetic, especially with the return of the Dudleys, since it allows you to literally declare "D-Von... GET THE TABLES!"
  • Speaking of 2K24, should you lose to Hulk Hogan as The Ultimate Warrior in the 40 Years of Wrestlemania Showcase, the results screen will mention that "doesn't work for us, brother."
  • Also from 2K24, an achievement references a famous moment from Cody Rhodes' 2018 Starrcast panel appearances. Performing a fast count as a guest referee gets you the achievement "Where's that referee??", a memetic line attributed to Ted Dibiase Jr. after he botched the finish to a 6-man tag match match involving Dibiase Jr., Rhodes, Wade Barrett, Ezekiel Jackson, Daniel Bryan, and Sin Cara.
• Awesome Music: Sting's "Crow" theme in his 2K15 reveal trailer. It's the first time the song has been used since the 90s, and on WWE programming period, but the fact that the song was being played by an orchestra (In Sting face paint) just makes the moment that much more epic.
  • The in-game soundtrack as well. So much that we have a page dedicated to it.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: During the Outsider storyline in '12, Triple H is talking on the phone to somebody. It turns out to be Kevin Nash, who is then revealed to be right next to him. Trips wonders if he's still got what it takes, and Nash answers by saying he thinks he needs to knock some sense into him. He grabs HHH and hits the jackknife powerbomb on him. HHH gets right back up just a few seconds later and storms out of the room angrily to beat up the first person he finds, rather than, you know, hitting Nash back or something. This is never mentioned afterwards.
• Broken Base: On pretty much everything.
  • 2K Showcase and the various archival story modes that preceded it. While most can agree that the unlocks gained from the modes can provide fun inclusions to the roster, the modes themselves are either referred to as fun looks at classic moments or useless nostalgia with no replay value that take up resources that could go towards anything else. It doesn’t help that more recent showcases have skewed towards competitors that are still in action today, meaning that the vast majority of unlocks are costumes or duplicate character models (more on that later) rather than characters who may not have a chance in a 2K game otherwise. The mode was axed in 2K17 due to fan requests and the lack of available Legends to use for one, though it returned in 2K19.
  • Goldberg being the pre-order bonus for 2K17. Those who are against it believe it was a bad idea because unlike Warrior, Sting or even Arnold, Goldberg has appeared in previous games with little-to-no hype behind his inclusions and is someone that should have been available on the the disc. Those who support it point out that Goldberg has only appeared in two other WWE games: Here Comes the Pain and WWE 2K14^note He also appeared in WWE Raw 2, but that game isn't considered to be part of the same canon that were released ten years apart, that some fans were miffed at getting a non-wrestler the previous year and are happy not only to see the return of one of their favorite wrestlers, but the addition of the WCW Monday Nitro and Halloween Havoc arenas as a reasonable compromise for fans who keep asking for a WCW showcase, which will never happen now.
  • Fans who like the simulation style of recent games vs. those who want a return to the arcade-style prior to the SvR series. The former side appreciates the realism of the simulation style-gameplay and believe the developers should continue on that while the former believe that the arcade style was more fun overall and that simulation is slow and boring. A third camp is ok with the simulation style per se, but prefers the more high octane animations and memorable selling of moves from the arcade style games.
    • 2K22 has reignited this discussion, especially with its many control changes. Many wish the series would just revert to the pre 2K20 control scheme and actively shun the introduction of combos and requirement to grapple before every single attack. But taking the series in the direction of fighting games has also lead to a lot of praise for the speed of gameplay and ease of play, albeit after going through the extensive tutorial included when booting up the game for the first time.
  • The inclusion of duplicate characters across pretty much the entire franchise, though the 2K era has brought it out in force. While many could make the case that having different eras of characters who’ve made radical changes to their appearances (Kane, The Undertaker, Triple H, etc.), there are plenty who would believe the additional characters take away slots for wrestlers under contract (which has been proven to be untrue, but still). It’s gotten worse in recent years with the importance of Showcase Mode increasing, to the point where wrestlers can have over 5 different slots in the game (peaking with 2K22’s decision to create seperate characters for Rey Mysterio in August 2009 and December 2009 with the only difference being the decrease of a SINGLE POINT in his overall ratings). Even those who defend the practice would prefer the characters be grouped together more effectively.
• Catharsis Factor: In Universe Mode 2K18, as it was in real life, Jinder Mahal is WWE Champion, but there’s a key difference- the Singh brothers are nowhere to be found. Naturally, without the key to his constant victories, beating him for the title is much easier than most opponents.
• Common Knowledge:
  • There are those who wrongfully believe that THQ were the developers for WWE 2K starting with Smackdown!. They were actually the publishers up until WWE 2K14. It's actually Yuke's who had been developing the games since its conception with Visual Concepts assisting them on occasion during the 2K era up until Yuke's split from 2K in 2019 and Visual Concepts are now the sole developers from 2K20 onward.
  • WWE themselves are the ones who typically restricts the roster to specific stars and not 2K and Visual Concepts, something that they often take the flack for when it comes to discussions of duplicate characters, as well as DLC being made up of stars who have been with the company for some time (as opposed to exciting recent signings like the Undisputed Era in 2017 or Cody Rhodes in 2022, though that can also be attributed to the need to finish balancing the game rather than to add more characters in the month or so before release)
• Contested Sequel: WWE 2K15 received mixed responses from both critics and gamers. Most people will agree that the gameplay was improved significantly, but everything else has divided opinions. While most of the new scanned models look better than 2K14's models, they still look outdated for eighth-gen graphics, especially the seaweed-looking long hair and lack of cloth physics (the latter is fixed for 2K16). The removal of 85% of the creation tools, small roster, missing match types and settings, the overhyped, lackluster MyCareer mode and over-reliance on DLC ruined the experience for many.
• Crazy Is Cool: Create-A-Finisher mode, especially with diving attacks. Inverted corkscrew 900 shooting star hurricanrana? No problem! Add in the lack of weight restrictions on finishers in 2010 and you have the aforementioned move done by a 7'2" superheavyweight.
• Creator's Pet:
  • Barron Blade, a dev-made CAW that appears in WWE 2K15's MyCareer mode certainly fits the bill. He's extremely generic looking, has no personality other than being a total douche, and the game treats him like he is your greatest rival despite the fact that he's nothing more than a minor nuisance that we only have a few encounters with and probably squashed. To elaborate, he's the guy you wrestle your first match with in the Performance Center, he puts your CAW in a Boston Crab and refuses to release the hold even after your guy taps out, causing Bill DeMott to break it up. Then he reappears when you move to SmackDown and assaults you with a chair, you challenge him to a grudge match and squash him. And then he fades into obscurity. Until it comes time for you to choose who to face for your retirement match and Barron is one of the choices (the other two choices being Daniel Bryan and Flash Silva, an up-and-comer who is just as generic as Barron, to pass the torch to). And the caption hilariously says (paraphrased): "Barron Blade and I have had some amazing battles over the years". When, exactly did these amazing battles happen?
    • Even worse, Barron returned for no good reason in 2K17's otherwise much improved career mode ranked ludicrously high (for reference sake, he is ranked higher than Dean Ambrose and Randy Orton, two of WWE's biggest current stars). His awful design is made all the more apparent by the improved graphics and he is in nearly every title ranking despite having no storyline presence this time. For some reason the game bestows upon him this high standing.
    • He returns once AGAIN in 2K18. However, this time they actually seem to be taking steps to Avert this trope. His design is greatly improved and given more detail and character (Not that the bar was that high to begin with) and this time around he actually has a story presence and a character beyond "Jerkass", acting as a mentor to you in the early stages of your NXT career.
    • And in 2K19 he's your boss. And the commentator. And an unlockable playable character. (At least players can pummel him into oblivion now). In addition to his expanded role, he is no longer a pre-made CAW (instead having his own unique character model) and is fully voice-acted.
  • Eva Marie in 2K16. She's arguably the best looking Diva model in the game, has a much higher overall rating than she should (rated 77 when Layla who is much more talented is rated 74)^note These ratings can be changed if you purchase the Accelerator Pack, but we shouldn't have to, her fan reaction is set to "Cheer" by default even though A) she had been heel for well over a while now, and B) she is massively hated and not in a good way, getting booed heavily just for showing up at an event (regardless of whether she's a face or heel at the moment), she was one of the first Divas confirmed for the game, was featured a lot in the trailers and Jerry Lawler constantly talks about how great she is. Oh well, Eva's a Creator's Pet in real life, so why shouldn't the games reflect that? They do soften the blow a bit by having JBL make a few Take Thats at her ring ability and her botching 3MB's introduction, but he does that to everyone at some point since he is a heel commentator and it's clearly meant to draw sympathy to her character.
    • The developers got the hint for the next game, as Eva is the lowest-rated wrestler in the entire roster.
  • John Cena is the highest rated superstar in 2K16 and has been in most games since SVR 2008. Whilst this might seem like nothing since he is the top face, note that Cena has been in the midcard since January and Brock Lesnar is in the game, and WWE's kayfabe since WrestleMania 30 has been that Lesnar is nigh unstoppable to the point that he absolutely destroyed Cena in one of the most one sided world championship matches in wrestling history. This was fixed in 2K17 where Lesnar and "Stone Cold" Steve Austin are the highest-rated superstars in the game with Cena two points behind them.
  • 2K20's Red. From the start of the career mode to the end, expect Red's ass to be thoroughly kissed by any and everyone for everything she does. The career mode basically treats her as God's gift to wrestling, made all the more evident by having supposed partner Tre play the Bumbling Sidekick to make her look more impressive.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • From 2K19's MyCareer story, Cole Quinn was shown to be quite popular for being genuinely hilarious and being a great foil to Buzz, as well as being voiced by an actual WWE superstar (that being Mansoor). It was to the extent that Cole would eventually reappear in 2K20 as a playable character and makes a brief appearance in 2K22's MyRise, albeit this time he (along with all the new and returning original characters) is strictly an NPC and not playable through normal means (however, with Community Creations now cross-platform, PC modders have been able to extract his and other NPC models, some complete with unique commentary and ring announcer names, and upload them in playable form as essentially created superstars).
  • From WWE 2K22's MyGM mode, the local talent tend to get a good amount of love. Special mention goes to The Red Flame and Kyle Slickman, who seem to be the most popular of the local talent.
• Fandom Rivalry: Fans of the current WWE vs. Old School/Legends Fans. Especially after SvR 2009 had no Legends and WWE '13 and 2K14 were themed around the Attitude Era and WrestleMania respectively. One side complains that the inclusion of Legends takes spots away from current roster members and that Legends should be either minimally present (as in, limited to legends who are still popular such as the Rock, Stone Cold, Bret Hart, Edge and Eddie Guerrero etc), DLC only, or scrapped completely because "this isn't [insert year here] anymore". The more nostalgic fans and detractors of the current-day WWE want more Legends to play as, pointing out that a deeper Legends roster will be more appealing to older or lapsed fans and (theoretically) increase sales of the game.
  • Likewise with "duplicate" stars. Many claim that they are useless and just take up extra space on the roster screen while others point out that past versions of wrestlers are often times necessary due to differing movesets, stats and personality traits and that a retro model takes up the same amount of disc space as an alternate attire would, as it is still a separate character model. 2K also confirmed in this tweet that multiple versions of a superstar have no effect on others not getting in.
• Fridge Brilliance: In WWE '12's "Hero Story", one might note the irony of the invading WCW faction acting in a manner similar to the NWO in their own invasion of WCW. It actually makes sense that they would adopt these tactics, as they saw how effective they were when the nWo implemented them in the 90s; plus the ringleader of the invaders is Kevin Nash, who was a founding member of the nWo.
• Funny Moments: From 08 we get this gem in an interview between Triple H and Maria.
  Triple H: Do you know who I am?
  Maria: You're Triple H!
  Triple H: Do you know what I do?
  Maria: Um...you wrestle? Haitch gives the angriest You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me! look ever
  • Here Comes The Pain has some of the funniest moments:
    • One of the later storylines has you reenacting Kurt Angle's Milk-O-Mania stint at the alliance against the opposing stable. It's especially hysterical if you do it with either The Undertaker, Kane, Brock Lesnar or, hell, even Stone Cold Steve Austin. In addition, if the right cards are played, you can have "Stone Cold" Steve Austin spraying milk on Kurt Angle, having a payback on him.
    • You can also reenact the Royal Rumble 2000 finale scene where Big Show and The Rock allegedly touch the ground at the same time. In addition, if the right cards are played, you can have The Rock demanding to the general manager to declare Big Show's Royal Rumble win void, while Big Show will do everything he can to keep his WrestleMania main event spot. This is pretty funny and ironic considering both of them are heel by default in this game (unless you altered their alignment before the new season started), therefore equally pragmatic and willing to dirty their hands to get what they want.
  • At the very end of 2K23's Showcase mode, you get to pick who you think was John Cena's greatest opponent among all of the wrestlers you played as during it. Afterwards you'll get to play one final match as said wrestler against John Cena... Where he immediately proceeds to beat you in a cutscene with a single unblockable, uncounterable finisher. What does the match result screen say afterwards? LOLCENAWINS.
• Game-Breaker:
  • Running grapples, especially spears in the older games.
  • The Ho Train Attack -where you did a running whole-body smack against the opponent- always knocked him/her down, had almost no wind-up time, and seemed to be completely irreversible by the CPU. Sadly, it hasn't been seen in later installments (a very similar move reappeared in 2K14, but it has a little more wind-up and is easier for an opponent to avoid).
  • The Head Attack, which left the recipient incapacitated for a STUPID length of time and was banned in many e-feds (online wrestling groups) that used the game, was removed in WWE 12.
  • In WWE 12 an AI opponent will usually run in for an attack if you keep your distance. It's rather easy to grapple them when they do this.
  • The 10 count corner punch in 2K15 and 2K16. You gain a ridiculous amount of momentum for each strike you land and the A.I. rarely reverses it, making it very easy to gain a signature move through that attack alone. The move was nerfed in 2K17 perhaps because of this, and in 2K19, the A.I. almost always counters before the full ten.
  • Submission hold in older games; especially finishers. Even on Smackdown! difficulty, you can win many matches by applying a submission hold on you opponent.
  • The options to turn off injuries and morale in 2006/2007/2008's General Manager Mode. Injuries are caused by a Superstar's fatigue getting too high, so you're supposed to bench them for a bit until their fatigue goes down. Really bad injuries can put Superstars out of commission for months. Morale is the temperament of your Superstars, going up and down depending on how decently or badly they feel booked. If they feel angry enough about their treatment, they might jump to another brand. These systems are meant to encourage proper management of your Raw/Smackdown/ECW rosters. Turn off those systems and the whole mode is tipped tremendously in your favor. Now you can book the same Superstars in the same rivalries forever, because they won't get sidelined by injuries regardless of high fatigue, and they will never complain about title shots or losing streaks. As long as you snag the most popular Superstars, you'll never have to worry about getting General Manager of the Year ever again. The game's aware of this as well, and it requires you to beat the mode without access to these options first.
  • Just as overpowering is the ability to turn off fair roster trades. Anytime outside Pay-Per-View days, you can offer up to 3 Superstars from your brand in exchange for up to 3 from a rival brand. The catch is the AI will only accept if you give up a Superstar(s) equal or superior in popularity to whoever you're trying to get. Turning off fair trading allows you to make hilariously unbalanced offers that can leave rival brands with no one popular enough to draw in big ratings. You can fish the likes of John Cena, Triple H, and Shawn Micheals by trading away Lance Cade for example, or even a player-created Superstar with 20 popularity. Since this option would help tremendously with getting the General Manager of the Year award, you have to beat it the normal way to unlock it first.
  • Smackdown vs. Raw 2007 features the incredibly broken environmental grapples and total control moves. Most of the environmental grapples can be countered, but not all of them. Once you realize which ones can't be countered, you can abuse them to quickly rack up tons of damage to the opponent. Total control moves cannot be interrupted once they're begun, so you can easily hoist up an opponent onto your shoulders, walk towards the edge of the stage, and wait until a count of 7 or 8 before dropping them and hightailing back to the ring for easy countout victories.
  • In Smackdown! 2: Know Your Role, it is possible to win by pinfall rather quickly if your opponent is pinned with Small Package, Crucifix, Roll-up, and other complicated pin types even when your opponent isn't fatigued yet. The same thing can be used against your superstar as well, so take care to practice in countering moves.
• Good Bad Bugs
  • Big Show & Ken Shamrock were in the original SmackDown video game, but were Dummied Out for the sequel. However, they can still turn up in the Royal Rumble, complete with entrance music. It fits shockingly well with the idea of former superstars turning up for special appearances in the actual Royal Rumble.
  • In Here Comes The Pain, if someone is at the point where they could draw blood, and then uses an attack that can induce bleeding on the referee, there’s a chance the ref will reverse it and make them bleed. In a First Blood match, this is treated as a victory for the referee.
  • In Smackdown vs. Raw 2006, you can get infinite experience points for custom wrestlers by deleting a Super Heavy Weight CAW who was altered into a Cruiserweight beforehand. This allows you to quickly make high level characters without needing to beat RAW and Smackdown's Season Mode first, if you wanted to go through those modes blind.
  • The absurd amount of graphical and physics-related glitches in 2K20 could give Skate 3 a run for its money in the sheer hilarity department.
  • In Smackdown! 2: Know Your Role, if either your game disc is scratchy or you are using too many Gameshark cheats, there are chances for you to see Undertaker's hilarious entrance glitch. Need to be seen to be believable.
  • 2K22 lets you use entrance-only clothing options on your secondary outfits by switching the attire to "Manager", equipping the items in question, and then changing the attire to "Superstar" again; the game totally forgets to unequip them when you switch back. Obviously, several options were never meant to wear in the ring and cause clipping problems, but it also lets you get around some rather pointless and arbitrary clothing restrictions, like the numerous hats and jackets that normally cannot be worn during matches despite other, much more elaborate headwear and outerwear inexplicably being A-okay to use instead (e.g. A simple peaked officer's cap or cowboy Stetson is forbidden by default, but there's a towering "Cat in the Hat"-style stovepipe number and gigantic, goofy-looking sedge cap fringed with long, sparkling streamers that both can be worn in the ring).
• Growing the Beard:
  • Here Comes The Pain refined much of the gameplay of the previous games into near-perfection, and is considered by many to the be the crowning jewel of the "fast-paced arcade-y" era games, and was the first to add in a "struggle" system for submission moves, rather than treating all holds as simple attacks that randomly triggered a tapout. It's also considered to have one of the more interesting Season Modes (following you OOC as a performer, rather than being entirely in kayfabe) and was the last truly-inclusive game (where Divas could participate in all the same matches as the male Superstars with no restrictions).
  • SVR 2006 successfully began the transition from arcade style to simulator without slowing down gameplay to boring levels (which 2K15 was extremely guilty of), boasted an impressive Animation Bump for its day back in 2005 on the PS2, and featured a very authentically voiced Season Mode where all NPC wrestlers actually sounded and behaved like the real thing, and for the first time, fully voiced player controlled wrestlers as well, (including a selection of voices to choose from for created wrestlers); laying the foundation for the well recieved wrestler-specific Road to Wrestlemania modes of 2009 and 2010. It's arguably the one title that had the most sweeping improvements over its immediate predecessor and set the bar for the SVR series before Capcom Sequel Stagnation set in. Wrestler models were so good for the era that several of them look far better on the PS2 than the same wrestler's model did in later games on seventh generation consoles, especially from SVR 2011 onwards.
  • SvR 2007 was arguably the best blend of the prior games' fast, arcadey style and the more realistic, simulation-esque style of the later games. This made for a unique experience that managed to find the best of both worlds, being quick-paced and satisfying, but managing to avoid looking cartoonish and unrealistic (like the games before it had.)
  • WWE '12 had removed the Take That! comments from the last two games, cleaned up the controls and commentary and made the matches faster paced with downed opponents not being grounded for five minutes, as well as fixes to the AI.
  • Long before that, SmackDown! 2: Know Your Role drastically improved over the original SmackDown! game by allowing greater customisation of created wrestlers and a larger variety of matches.
  • WWE 2K16 took what was great about 2K15 and amplified it. It's nearly impossible to have squash matches with the A.I. now and with the addition of Irish whips during chain grapples, clean breaks in the corner and rest holds, it feels a lot closer to real life. It isn't quite perfect yet though.
  • 2K18 has no achievement for creating and uploading content. While this may seem like a small thing and an oversight it improves searching and downloading content dramatically as you are not flooded with no effort default works done just for gamer points, everything players upload by and large have at least some effort put in or is something they thought others would enjoy.
  • 2K19 generally has received the best reception of the post-THQ games, with a significantly-improved Career Mode that provides a tighter narrative complete with voice acting as well as discarding 2K18's backstage segments. Furthermore, with improvements to Hell in a Cell matches as well as other improvements that have added a bit more of the straight up "fun" to the games that have been partly lost in recent entries' strict simulation focus provided an all-around more solid game that is trending the series towards a more-balanced nature in the future.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • Jerry Lawler in WWE '13: "I've got to start keeping an EMT by me during these Eve matches. Every time I see her, my heart skips a beat." Lawler would suffer from a Real Life heart attack shortly after recording the line.
  • Any story lines pertaining to the Undertaker's undefeated streak at WrestleMania might count after the actual end of said streak at WrestleMania XXX.
  • In 2010, If you lose the last match in Shawn Michaels' RTWM, he has to retire. Guess what the stipulation for his match at WrestleMania 26 would be? And guess what the outcome was?
  • A rather minor one, but in the first SvR, during Matt Hardy's "Version 1" gimmick, facts about him would appear during his entrance, with one of them being "Matt still has his appendix." Yeah... not true after 2007.
  • Smackdown vs. Raw 2006 and 2007 had "the Curse of The Undertaker". The Undertaker's feuding opponent in career mode is Eddie Guerrero, who died two days after '06 was released. Then it gets worse in 2007's edition. His feuding opponent is Chris Benoit, who infamously killed his wife and son, then himself several months later after the game.
    • It's even more harsher considering with 2006, Taker beats Eddie by throwing him in a casket and burying him in it. In the case of Benoit for 2007, Taker at one point says to him "Your grieving family will have no one to blame but you when the inevitable occurs". Yikes.
    • Related to the above, SvR 2007 featured the song "Forgive Me" by post-hardcore band Versus the World in its soundtrack, a song with lyrics explicitly talking about suicide by hanging. A year later, Benoit would ultimately die by hanging himself.
  • 2K15 had the "Who Got NXT" mode for 360/PS3 users which had the rising stars of NXT playable for the first time, one of which was Corey Graves. Just a month and a half after the game was released, Corey Graves would announce his retirement due to injuries suffered about 10 months prior to the game's release. Look at Universe mode's stat's on him, his lowest durability is head damage. The injury he suffered was a concussion.
  • Season mode of Here Comes the Pain (where you are playing as a person who wrestle instead of an in-ring gimmick) implies that backstage bullying, hazing and even career sabotage exists in pro wrestling industry. Reminder that this game came out before the height of IWC discussion forums and social media in general, where most people know the bullying stories from.
  • 2K17’s Future Stars DLC featured Austin Aries, who was released 6 months after the pack’s release.
  • 2K22’s MyRise features a promo where the male character calls out Keith Lee for being all talk, including specific callouts on his having failed to make the cut for WWE on three seperate occasions. The final line even states that Keith will soon have to refer to himself as a ‘former WWE superstar’, something that came true after he was released from his contract a full four months before the game’s launch.
  • The "Most Wanted" DLC Pack for 2K22 is set to be released on May 17th. Indi Hartwell, who is a part of the aforementioned pack, would be the only member of The Way who is still in NXT as the others have either left WWE or moved on to the main roster.
• High-Tier Scrappy: Here Comes the Pain has Brock Lesnar with 91 overall stats and Goldberg with 90 overall stats, both are infamously programmed as powerhouses that can inflict major damage on average midcarders with a couple of simple body slams and their finishers can almost certainly secure wins even against topcarders.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • 2009 gained a Dueling Games situation with the TNA Impact video game by Midway's San Diego studio. To "welcome" the competition, creative director Cory Ledesma showed a TNA DVD used as a coffee coaster at a press conference. Cue a few years later where THQ buys out the San Diego studio and gets them to produce WWE All Stars with the Impact engine.
  • Story example: In the Hero RTWM in '12 your first rival, Husky Harris, complains about the fact that Jacob Cass is getting all of the attention while he is getting ignored. Fast forward a couple of years...
    • Also about Mr. Cass: his voice actor was former TNA star Austin Aries, who did his voice work while still part of said company. Half a decade later, and Aries would finally work under in the WWE in real life, and later, would appear as a playable character in 2K17 as Downloadable Content.
  • 2011 featured several new stars, but exactly two were playable only that one time: David Hart Smith and Vance Archer, the future Killer Elite Squad of NJPW fame.
  • This video shows many events from the games that would eventually occur in the WWE's future; The return of Brock Lesnar, the recreation of Evolution, Lesnar breaking the Wrestlemania Streak of The Undertaker, Edge and Christian reuniting, Randy Orton unifying the WWE and World Heavyweight Titles, the ECW's brief revival, Eric Bischoff's firing from the company, Shawn Michaels retiring at Wrestlemania, and Orton having a Triple Threat match with Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase Jr. at Wrestlemania. Yes, several of these are up to the player, but that only makes it more surprising to see the angle in real life.
  • Buzz and Cole from the MyCareer mode of WWE 2K19 were pretty widely recognized as No Celebrities Were Harmed takes on Daniel Bryan and Kenny Omega, who were friends and rivals in the indies before they ultimately went their separate ways after making it to the national scene. In September 2021, Bryan and Omega actually would finally appear together in a major national promotion, just like Buzz and Cole. Ironically, though, it wasn't in WWE, but in their biggest rival promotion.
  • WWE Crush Hour (2003) is a very strange WWE game that "borrows" from the Twisted Metal franchise by having WWE wrestlers engage in Vehicular Combat with random vehicles and weapons. Amusingly enough, a TV series based on the Twisted Metal franchise was released in 2023 with Samoa Joe,a wrestler, portraying the iconic killer clown Sweet Tooth in live action scenes.^note As of this writing, Samoa Joe doesn't work with WWE, but still.
• It's Easy, So It Sucks!: Even casual players will say that it is far too easy to win almost every match you play. Even on the "Legend" difficulty, which just turns the match into a reversal-fest, so if you're good at reversing, even the Legend difficulty is pretty simple. 2K16 has attempted to solve this problem by limiting the amount of reversals that can be used per match, which can be turned off for anyone who doesn't like it.
• It's the Same, Now It Sucks!: An incredibly common complaint amongst long-time fans is that while the developers do make changes throughout each iteration, the changes are rather minor in the long run and not enough to keep the games feeling fresh with each new release.
• Just Here for Godzilla:
  • Some Diva fans and non-wrestling fans mainly play these games for the Bra and Panties Mode, which involves one Diva stripping the other down to her underwear.
  • Some non-WWE fans have no interest in any of the in game grapplers. Instead they are far more invested in making up and playing as Ned Stark, Tracer, Dovahkiin, or any other number of fictional or real people.
  • While many Attitude Era fans claimed that they stopped watching WWF/E after brand extension in 2002, it is not uncommon for them to play Here Comes the Pain^note a game released in 2003 simply because it has both The Rock and Steve Austin (arguably two of the biggest icons in Attitude Era) as playable superstars without the need to fulfill certain requirements in Season Mode.
  • Due to the extended development schedule, much of the early speculation around 2K22 was about which released WWE superstars could still appear in the game. As more and more ended up getting revealed (despite 2K’s best intentions), it would be common to see fans rejoice at the prospect of using wrestlers making their first (and potentially final) appearance in the series like Karrion Kross or Tegan Nox.
    • Similarly, a lot of fans of wrestlers like Adam Cole or Daniel Bryan who had signed with competing brands were invested in the prospect of them being included prior to the proper roster reveal, though this was more of a long shot that ended up not being realized in most cases.
• Les Yay:
  • Shut Your Mouth and Here Comes the Pain had romance storylines possible, specifically special scenes for Valentines Day and a proper romance that was treated as real (Jim Ross would inquire about it being kayfabe and tell you not to hurt the woman you're in a relationship with). You could play as a Diva, and be involved with either one of the female competitors on the roster or a female CAW. Averted after this where you couldn't play as a woman.
  • Mickie James' Road to WrestleMania in 2010 was this in spades. It's essentially a rehash of her original Stalker with a Crush storyline with Trish Stratus only recycled with Mickie herself in the role of Trish and Natalya taking her spot. Natalya is basically her number one fan, and it's all but an official Love Triangle happening involving herself and The Brian Kendrick fighting for Mickie's affections. It's literally all but confirmed when at one point if you make a choice, she can act frustrated over the fact she and Mickie aren't going on romantic dinners together or how it's implied that she sent Mickie a bouquet of flowers. If you side with Kendrick, Natalya turns into a Clingy Jealous Girl that eventually causes her and Mickie to be put at opposite ends. Side with Natalya over Kendrick and you get the two-staying close 'till the end, Mickie winning at WrestleMania and celebrating with Natalya.
  • There is a feature in the original Smackdown vs. Raw where one Diva can spank the other after grappling them. If the player gets three spanks in a row, their Diva will pick up the opponent and kiss them.
• Memetic Badass: Ariya Daivari in 2K22 is notable for being the lowest rated superstar on the base game (aside from Eric Bischoff). However, Ariya's AI is surprisingly powerful despite this, even being able to squash Walter.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • "He's putting those educated feet to good use!"
  • Similarly, "Who does the methodical pace benefit, King?"
  • Making fun of 2k15's infamously terrible Canon Foreigner Barron Blade (who, after an absence in 2K16, returns in both 2K17 and 2K18).
  • 2K Brand Director Bryce Yang's timidness, stuttering and Verbal Tics during interviews are often mocked on the forums.
  • OBJECTIVE FAILED ^ExplanationIn 2K14's 30 Years Of Wrestlemania mode, you play through the match between Hulk Hogan in his Hollywood Hogan persona and The Rock. You play as The Rock and if you lose the match an animation of Hogan giving a cheesy face-style thumbs up plays while an "Objective Failed" marker pops up on screen, usually used as a reaction to attempts that miss the mark a fair bit.
  • Let's just say that the commentary in Just Bring It, which infamously featured badly spliced-together lines from Michael Cole and Tazz has generated no shortage of memes. The most noteworthy and often quoted one is Michael Cole's "[insert wrestler here]....has a great.....[insert signature move here]!". Other noteworthy examples include.
    • "The last ride! The last ride!"
    • "Hurry Hurry!"
    • [insert wrestler here] "is a good person"
    • [insert wrestler here] "is heading towards the battlefield!"
    • "Oh baby"
  • Still doesn't have Kane 98' though. ^note  A joke that started with a critical review of WWE 2K20 on Reddit, which cited the removal of Kane's 1998 model before any other issue. This led to any patches, updates and DLC releases to be met with this phrase.
  • Y2K20 ^note On January 1st, 2020, players of the already infamously bug ridden 2K20 were shocked to discover that a system clock bug made the game de facto unplayable once the new year came (meaning WWE 2020 literally could not be played in 2020) until it was patched a day later, drawing comparisons to the Y2K bug. For what it's worth noting, 2K20 wasn't the only game that suffered this problem (Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order also had a similar bug), but because of how well Fallen Order had been received, it wasn't as well-known, whereas because of just how panned 2k20 was, it became icing on the cake
  • "I must've twisted my knee pretty bad."
  • "I'm going to give your grandmother bed sores!"^note The female 2K20 protagonist's infamous Lame Comeback. Quite a few players have riffed on it, and it's not uncommon to see it in the very thumbnails/titles of Let's Play videos.
  • Wigs^note A Fan Nickname in reference to the in-game female hairstyles. Whether selectable or exclusive to female superstars (Though some become available in the next game).
• Misaimed "Realism": Earlier seventh-gen installments had an effect where face paint would realistically crumble and flake off as a match went on. Unfortunately, this applied to all types of facial decals that weren't tattoos, so even stuff like lipstick or mascara would very unrealistically do the exact same same thing, which looked both silly and strange. Later iterations did away with the mechanic altogether.
• Narm:
  • Just Bring It was the first game to allow players to fight in the crowd. However, they amounted to little more than crudely animated cardboard cut-outs that would effortlessly float away upon getting close.
  • Some of the entrances over the years have looked incredibly goofy and stilted, even in more recent installments. The same goes for the animation of several moves, with glaring examples of energetic or powerful looking animations from older titles getting replaced with lethargic and pedestrian looking ones. And that's without getting into the severe drop in quality of character models of wrestlers on seventh generation consoles making it impossible to take the affected wrestlers seriously.
  • The first PS2 release Shut Your Mouth gave created wrestlers a movable set of lips. It didn't give them a set of teeth to go with that. This looks every bit as goofy as it sounds.
  • Matt Hardy's entrance in Here Comes The Pain was an accurate recreation of his "Matt Hardy Version 1" gimmick, complete with a number of randomly generated Matt Facts previously used on television. However, due to Jeff Hardy's WWE release earlier that year, any mention of Jeff in the Matt Facts was replaced with the generic name "Superstar" and resulted in entries such as "Matt always received more Halloween candy than Superstar".
  • Several of the arcade-style games oversold hard impacts from falling to a hilarious degree, with wrestlers comically bouncing up and stiffly twirling in the air after hitting the floor, in a manner reminiscent of a dropped action figure. Some glaring examples of this are Brock Lesnar's F-5, Triple H's Pedigree, and Matt Hardy's Twist of Fate from HCTP.
  • The two Day of Reckoning games for the Nintendo Gamecube added in prominent sound effects when applying pressure to submission holds. Several other games did this too, but for some very baffling reason the effects they chose here sound remarkably like heavy "grandma" flatulence. Once that connection has been made, good luck keeping a straight face when locking in a hold on your opponent apparently makes them suffer from uncontrollable farting.
  • In 2k20's start of MyCareer mode, your female character will throw a threat on a high-school bully that is long-winded and non-sensical that sounds like a really bad promo and highlights the game's bad writing.
  Red: I'm gonna take that marker, bring it to your grandmother's nursing room and cross out parts of her chart so when the nurse goes to give her turn down service, she won't know to flip her over. That's right, I'm gonna give your grandmother bedsores!
  • 2k20's MyCareer mode in general is narm incarnate. From the stilted voice acting, bug-eyed character models, bad writing and so on.
  • Showcase Mode from 2K22 has Rey Mysterio deliver his career life story in kayfabe mode. While not a problem for most of it, him trying to sell the infamously dumb "Eye For An Eye" match against Seth Rollins as serious just falls into complete narm territory.
• Never Live It Down:
  • The inclusion of CM Punk in WWE 2K15 despite him having been gone from the company since January of 2014. While this was down to his contractual inclusion in that year’s showcase mode, many fans still cite his appearance as being justification for other released or departed stars to be included each subsequent game, only to take issue when they’re inevitably not present (at least in most cases).
  • Not including the "four horsewomen" (Charlotte Flair, Sasha Banks, Becky Lynch and Bayley) in WWE 2K16. Even though this was more on the part of WWE than 2K or Yuke's, and all four women were included in 2K17, fans refuse to let this go.
  • WWE 2K20 as a whole. While some are willing to approach future games with cautious optimism, many viewed it as the final straw with 2K or WWE games as a whole. Even the less gamebreaking glitches of 2K22 draw comparison to its predecessor, despite earlier 2K games having similar issues (the infamous crouch walk, for example, was present in 2K19 but appeared more often even in the latest patches of 2K20).
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • The vs. Undertaker RTWM storyline in 2011. Among other brainwrenching segments, your character participates in a battle royal match against Undertaker's Druids. Sounds easy, right? There's a special arena this match takes place in. No commentary and no crowd noise, just you in the match. Every member of the crowd is also a Druid. In the backstage area before the match, everyone else is a Druid, the area is an ominous purple, and where there should be pay-per-view posters, there are frightening images of various stills from Undertaker’s entrance video. And should you lose to the Undertaker himself, he has his druids turn your character into one of them.
  • Also, Masked Kane from the same game. How is it that, in the game's past — featuring the alternate skin — his mouthpiece never moves with his mouth (as it is in Real Life) but here it does? It's especially bad when the screen freezes post-match...
• Obvious Beta: The last few games suffered from this. No patch was ever released to fix the bugs.
  • The glitches and restrictions of the SmackDown games. For example, in SvR 2010, you can download wrestlers, but not edit their moves or entrances. Have fun with that Hulk Hogan that has an improper move set and entrance. Somewhat justifiable as the downloaded CAW comes with whatever custom finisher given to them. The same, however, cannot be said about the custom tracks used as a CAW's entrance theme, leaving him/her without any music once uploaded.
    • No Rumble matches or any match with six competitors for Divas.
    • It's been stated that, while there are still no Superstar vs. Divas matches, Divas could now participate in any match type in 2011 (save for six-person matches due to graphical issues).
    • Any match with a ladder. You can place a ladder at the entrance in a match that doesn't need it and the AI will limp from the ringside announce tables to get it. No. Matter. WHAT.
    • Becomes a Game Breaking Glitch in Money In The Bank Ladder matches - You can take one ladder, and leave it on the stage and every single one of the AI opponents will run after it, and start fighting over it, whilst you get the other ladder & start unhooking the briefcase.
  • Hurricane being in as an NPC in 2011 for whatever reason and not a full fledged playable character.
  • Interference is a pain in the ass in SvR 2011. When someone interferes on your opponent's behalf, the ref will totally ignore your pinning attempts entirely and actively seek out the interfering party. To spell it out, in a Falls Count Anywhere match, you can be wrestling someone in the entrance and someone runs out to interfere. Never mind the fact that they'll run past you and head for the ring, but if you pin your opponent, the ref will run to the ring and be "distracted".
  • Don't even think about messing around with the save game, it will corrupt and you'll lose all your data.
  • 2007's commentary will frequently have the commentators shouting random lines like "He reversed it!", despite no such action taking place. They'll also start randomly talking about wrestlers who aren't even involved in the match, especially William Regal. Perhaps the most infamous commentary glitch is JR and King will often call a chair shot a Stone Cold Stunner.
  • Where to begin with 2K20? Glitches, graphical issues up the wazoo such as missing faces, and physics being all over the place.
• Only the Creator Does It Right: WWE 2K20 has been very poorly-received for its bugs & glitches, removal of popular legends and legend alts. like DDP, 2015 Sting and 1998 Kane, Create-a-Championship being absent at launch, unnecessary altering of the controls, and focus on 2K originals at the expense of other past or present WWE content. The fact that this is the first game in the series that Yuke's had no involvement with is likely a big explanation as to why it turned out the way it did.
• Periphery Demographic: A not-inconsequential number of players couldn't care less about fidelity to the WWE brand and instead enjoy the games for their extensive creation modes, allowing them to use their imagination in crafting their own characters, matches, and storylines. This is, unsurprisingly, where most of the complaining comes from whenever create-a-whatsit features are taken out or pared down in newer editions.
• Porting Disaster:
  • 2k15 on the PC was prone to intense slowdown and random artifacts unless you had a great graphics card or very low settings. Some of these problems were fixed by the June patch that added DLC, but not all of them.
  • The Switch version of 2k18 is known to drop down to almost 10 frames a second in particularly busy scenes, enough that the audio will go out of sync, and patches have done very little to mitigate this problem.
• Questionable Casting: John Cena's voice actor in WWE 2K19's My Career mode (who Telltale's The Walking Dead fans will recognise as being Gavin Hammon, who voiced Kenny in that series) doesn't sound remotely like Cena, to the point of sounding downright bizarre.
• The Scrappy:
  • The protagonists of WWE 2K20's MyCareer mode Tre and Red are pretty much universally loathed by fans. Tre is disliked for being an incompetent doofus throughout the entire story and basically being a Bumbling Sidekick to Red, who many have called a "Mary Sue" due to her basically being better than Tre in every way when it comes to wrestling as well as the amount of Character Shilling and successes she receives compared to him. Red also gets a lot of flak for lying to Tre about his dead parents in order to manipulate him into joining her in a wrestling career, and still being treated as a good person for it. This is in stark contrast to 2K19's protagonist Buzz who, while still a bit of a goof at times, is generally likeable and far more believable as a hero.
  • The Lock, the male protagonist of 2K23 MyRise mode is also one of the most hated protagonists in all of the MyRise modes as he is often seen as a very unlikable protagonist even if you try to play him as a heel. This is due to him being an asshole towards everyone except his mentor and even at his kindest dialogue has him in a condescending tone. This is especially in contrast towards his female counterpart LJ, one of the most popular female protagonists who has a much more interesting personality and backstory and even if playing her as a heel, has much more depths compared to The Lock who is very one dimensional.
• Scrappy Mechanic:
  • Back when the promotion was still known as WWF, the first and second installment of THQ game series WWF Smackdown! and WWF Smackdown!2: Know Your Role allow you to block or counter punches, kicks, and even several grapple moves by tapping "Square" button, but there is nothing you can do when your opponent performs a Finishing Move on you, especially when KO and Give Up features are activated.
  • From SVR2007 onwards, any moves which ended in a pin, including certain finishers, were automatically replaced with a generic version of the move in any non-pin situation or match that did not have a pin stipulation; such as backstage brawls, table matches, MITB, or battle royales and Buried Alive matches. For some characters, this wasn't really much of a problem; but several iconic moves such as the Jackhammer and the 619 could not be performed at all in such matches, instead being swapped out for an extremely generic looking vertical suplex and hurricanrana respectively. To make matters worse, the game came out the year Rey had won the Rumble, meaning it was impossible to recreate his performance. The finisher version of the Tombstone was similarly replaced in such situations by the old grapple version which was in Kane's in-game moveset as well in Undertaker's own during his biker gimmick in HCTP, but with the taunts in the animation, looked terribly out of place with his Deadman gimmick. Thankfully, SVR2010 added non-pinning variants of these same moves and the 2K series made the pin in such maneuvers input based meaning they were no longer automatically swapped out.
  • The "New" Grapple system introduced in 2011 which no longer uses a modifier for strong or weak grapples, instead weak grapples will occur only on non-dazed opponents whereas strong grapples can only be performed on dazed opponents.
  • The game's refusal to let superstars be in more than one stable. Whilst it makes sense, it has one major drawback - Namely, you can't have a tag team as an individual unit with one name & be part of a differently named stable. So, to use WWE 13 as an example, the New Age Outlaws can't be a tag team on their own whilst still being part of the larger D-Generation X stable.
  • 2K15's slower-paced gameplay is this to those who prefer the fast-paced gameplay from 2K14. Even a sizeable portion of the fans who prefer a simulation-style dislike it because the pace is a bit too slow and doesn't vary based on wrestling styles and attributes meaning a battle between two high-flying cruiserweights will be just as slow as a Big Show vs. Mark Henry match.
    • During MyCareer mode in this game, if you retain any Championship ten times, you will be stripped of it because you have held it for too long, which many fans have criticized as being unfair. It is also unrealistic, as at no point in WWE history has any wrestler been stripped of any title for winning too frequently.
  • 2K16's new submission wheel, which was adapted from the UFC games. While fans had been asking for a new submission system that didn't require button-mashing, some even asked specifically for UFC's mechanic, many players claim that it's either unresponsive or It's Hard, So It Sucks!, though it can be mastered with effort. The devs caught on to this and including an alternate button-mashing submission mechanism in 2K17 for those who cannot master the submission wheel or prefer button-mashing.
  • 2K17's "Minor and Major" reversal system. Why? Because when hit with a major reversal, you go into a state where it's impossible to counter another move for about 15 seconds. The AI will not let you escape during this time unless you happen to be able to use ring escape and run away from them long enough to do a taunt (which disables the state), and will also probably save any opportunity to use a finisher for this, gaining utterly cheap wins. The worst part is that unlike the reversal stock system or stamina meter, this cannot be disabled in options.
  • In a meta example, on Steam, the second you agreed to the EULA for 2k20, you're locked to that game, and can't go back to 2K19 for whatever reason (i.e., want to go back and upload some screenshots), even if you get 2k20 refunded and removed from your library, seemingly in a way to have fans stick with the now Yukes-free era of WWE games. The only way to get around this is to make an entirely new account on Steam and buy 2k19 (as well as any DLC you had on your old account) on that new account. And good luck if you somehow made the mistake of doing this after all the pre-2k22 games were removed from Steam...
  • MANY for 2K22
    • The new feature for attaching custom renders to created characters and alternate attires has been well received by the community, but they can only be downloaded seperately and are not categorized as used in the game’s utilities. That means that if players opt to delete all unused images, they’ll wipe out all of their renders regardless of whether they’re attached to a creation or not.
    • Since 2K22‘s release, 2K has been able to patch in several locked tag team entrances. The only way to access them, however, is by resetting all of your teams to default so that the teams that use them can be restored, something that could be problematic for those who have deleted or created new teams in their Play or Universe modes since the game’s release.
    • More of a scrappy game mode, but MyFaction is not very popular for the amount of microtransactions involved and the bugs involved. What doesn't help is the amount of restricted content locked behind MyFaction, including alternate versions of superstars with different entrances and entrance music (the DX variants of Triple H and Shawn Michaels, for example, provide younger versions of those characters that aren’t present in exhibition unlike previous years). It’s also unlikely that these characters will ever be playable outside of the mode due to the nature of it, something that has made the prospect of future support for the game bleak as additional MyFaction packs will likely be the focus of any patches before WWE 2K23’s release. As of 2K24, it seems that at least some of the characters will be available in other modes with the introduction of Persona Cards, though most of them still require people to put precious time into the mode to gather the pieces necessary to unlock the cards and some exclusive characters are still locked to the mode.
    • It seems that even 2K is aware of the hatred relating to the mode, as the reveal that two MyFaction cards would be replacing Nash Carter after his release (which, while understandable, was very controversial in of itself) was only publicized by outside sources up until release.
    • Like the entrance attire, several create-a-wrestler items have gender restrictions that come off as ridiculous and arbitrary, only there's no way to trick the game into making them usable like there is with entrance parts. To illustrate this, all the stuff necessary to make an excellent Batman CAW is present, but his bladed gauntlets are only available to female characters. At the same time, you can't make a perfect Batgirl either because the pointed "ears" needed to complete the outfit can only be worn together with the cowl on male characters. There's no logical reason for either piece to be restricted like this.
• Seasonal Rot:
  • While there is some debate over which game was the best (usually either Here Comes the Pain or SvR 2006), SvR 2008 is generally agreed to be the point when the series started to go downhill. The acclaimed Season Mode and GM Mode had been combined together as 24/7 mode, which many considered inferior to both, the gameplay was just beginning to shift to full-on simulation but still had some arcade-y elements to it that didn't blend well with the rest and the introduction of fighting styles limited wrestlers movesets and prevented them from using moves and abilities that their real-life counterparts used.
  • SVR 2011 is the point where the games' graphics and character models took a serious nosedive and never recovered on seventh generation consoles after that. Many moves from previous games were either removed or replaced with half-assed, inaccurate animations, about half of the roster was locked by default and selling was lackluster.
  • 2K20 is the first game in the series not to be developed by Yuke's, instead, being hastily put together by NBA 2K developer Visual Concepts after the former dropped out. The result was an unpolished Obvious Beta with a myriad of problems (including a bug that stopped it from functioning when 2020 started), which was universally panned and led to the cancellation of 2K21 while the arcade-style Battlegrounds took its place for that year's release.
• So Bad, It's Good: The commentary on Just Bring It! is just a bunch of random interchangeable soundbites only vaguely related to what's happening in the ring.
• Surprisingly Improved Sequel: While the infamously unstable and widely-panned 2K20 left the franchise in serious doubt, 2K22 proved to be a significant second wind for Visual Concepts. 2K22 features none of its predecessor's technical volatility, the gameplay was smoothed out to be more responsive and fun, the graphic fidelity and character likenesses have generally improved, and while not without its detractors for certain changes of key features and its limitations (the long-anticipated return of GM Mode/MyGM, caught a lot of flack for being quite barebones), the game was overall considered a welcome improvement and return to form among fans and critics alike.
• Suspiciously Similar Song: One of cutscene music in SmackDown! 2 sounded way too close to the theme used when SmackDown! first adopted the "fist" stage.
• That One Level: 2K18's Royal Rumble, full stop. The match is tough enough with the AI's tendency to just reverse your attacks into an instant elimination, but the Fan Favorite version of the match forces you to win from the #1 position. Even if you manage to last that long, god help you if you ended up with less than 10 eliminations.
• That One Sidequest: Any time Showcase Mode asks you to perform defensive moves. The timing windows for reversals, dodges, and blocks are all extremely precise, and not every move can be countered by all three. Moreso, the Advantage Ball applies to these games just as much as it does in the actual sport, so being forced to suddenly stop your offense and let your opponent recover and attack you can disrupt your momentum considerably, not to mention if you screw up the counter, you'll generally be taking a lot more attacks than just that one.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: Much raging happens once the fanbase figures out which features have been removed completely, with there being many fans who heavily dislike the removal of the custom music and create-a-story features.
  • Outside of the many glitches, this was one of the criticisms lobbied towards the new control scheme in 2K20, since the new control scheme was seemingly only made so that there would be some change, as the actual gameplay is largely the same.
  • Changing how pre-orders worked for 2K20 - in the past, pre-ordering the game would not only let you access the game early, but it would also give you access to one of the more popular wrestlers on day 1, whereas everyone else would have to wait until their DLC pack dropped^note for example, 2k19 had Ronda Rousey and Rey Mysterio as preorder bonuses. For 2K20, on the other hand, not only did they change it to pre-ordering wouldn't let you access the game early^note likely because they knew they had a bad product on hand, you'd also have to wait until the "Bump in the Night" DLC dropped to access the wrestler in question - this wouldn't be that bad if said wrestler wasn't The Fiend, one of the most successful wrestlers from WWE as of late^note although on the flipside, pre-ordering did give you the entire first DLC pack for free, which also included the Fiend's Inhumanoids. This is also on top of the fact that if you pre-ordered a physical copy, an autographed plaque was included as a Feelie^note said autograph would be from either Rey Mysterio Jr., Kurt Angle, or Edge...didn't have said autographs^note although it's worth noting that because of just how many people this happened to, Edge did promise to set up a PO box so he could sign them after he was done filming a movie.
    • 2K22 would feature a collector’s edition based on the NWO, but there were no collectors items that came with this version. In fact, the only benefit to spending the premium was gaining early access to the NWO specific characters, championship, and arenas (which were made available later as a separate download anyway).
  • 2K22’s MyGM mode, full stop. Fans of the games have been interested in a comeback of a General Manager mode for years since its removal from the series in Smackdown vs. Raw 2008 and the announcement of its return in December of 2021 seemed to be one of the sticking points for why the game would be worth purchasing. This was until the mode’s features were extensively detailed in February 2022, which introduced several limititations to the way it would operate. These would extend to match types (only five to choose from with singles and tag matches being the only options), weekly cards (three matches with two optional promos, with only PPVs offering a vastly larger selection), and titles (only a main world championship and women’s championship). While some of these limits have been modified through the 1.09 patch, the mode is still lacking separate singles titles, additional match types, and the ability to play the mode indefinitely. Developers informed fans that they could go to Universe mode if they were interested in additional variety, which seemed to defeat the purpose of bringing back GM mode in the first place, especially when Universe only added a single character focused experience (entitled Superstar mode) into its options.
  • The controls in any simulation game after 2K19 appear to be this. 2K20 received a lot of criticism even before release due to its control changes, especially the ones relating around reversals and finishers swapping buttons (Pressing triangle or Y now reversed moves as opposed to using finishers, while finishers required the dual button press of square and cross or A and X). Many who expecting 2K22 to revert to something familiar were in for a shock, as the controls changed even more, including multiple new tactics for reversals, light and heavy attacks, and three different button combinations for finishers, paybacks, and signatures (originally mapped to one button). Worse still is that in both cases players were unable to remap the controls.
  • Newer 2K-era titles have removed the ability to fine-tune body proportions on created wrestlers, meaning you can make a unique face for them but must settle for a predetermined build, with how tall they are being the only thing you're allowed to adjust. It's obviously another one of those changes in service to "realism", but it also makes a lot of fictional characters impossible to recreate with any degree of accuracy, even though there are head accessories specifically intended to make literal cartoon characters (so, sorry, Popeye; you can come over and play, but no giant forearms for you).
• Unfortunate Character Design: Lita's "Hall of Fame" attire in 2K20 consists of a long red cheongsam dress patterned with white blotches. Yeah...
• Unintentionally Sympathetic: The Cruiserweight heels in SmackDown Vs. RAW 2007's Season Mode arc "Taking on the Show"... Sure, the unprovoked Zerg Rush on Big Show is a dick move; but given WWE's favoritism toward big men, their vendetta is pretty understandable. It helps that they stay loyal to each other - including you, should you accept their offer - to the end.
• The Woobie: Buzz from 2K19. His father's dead, he's implied to have no other family and is homeless, living in his deceased father's pest control van. Things aren't exactly easy for him once he gets signed to the WWE since Triple H does everything he can to make his life a living hell, and Bray Wyatt destroys his van.

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