WWE 2K25 just wrapped up its final DLC with the Saturday Night’s Main Event pack, and soon the news cycle for WWE 2K26 will start to roll. This was confirmed thanks to a tease that included Xavier Woods and Tyler Breeze filming something with a WWE 2K26 logo in the background, and the big reveals tend to take place around Royal Rumble time anyway, so it all seems to line up. That got us thinking about what we want to see in WWE 2K26, and we’ve got 5 big additions that should help make WWE 2K26 the best entry in the franchise yet.
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5. The Island 2.0
The Island made its WWE 2K debut in 2K25, and while there are areas of potential, it left a lot to be desired. That said, unless something truly unexpected happens, The Island isn’t going away anytime soon, so it’s important that the mode gets a few tweaks and critical upgrades if it’s going to win people over with The Island 2.0.
One of the biggest problems with The Island is the lack of interactivity with the world itself. If you’re going to have this big open space where you can see all these cool buildings and stores, not only do you need to be able to explore far more of them, but they also need to have things to do. No one’s expecting a GTA level of depth here, but an additional layer of interactivity would be welcome.
If you see a food cart selling items, is there a cooking mini game you could do that has you beating a certain time or score to unlock new items? In the Arcade, can you earn points by playing older WWE games in the arcade cabinets to unlock things as well? Little areas of different interactions like this will make the world feel more alive and less like a big blank space, and if you really want to raise the bar, give more of the quests full voice acting and cutscenes than the silent portraits that populate there now. Just a few things that could very much give the mode a shot in the arm.
4. Streamlined Showcase Matches
2K hasn’t revealed who the new showcase mode will be built around, but one possibility that would make a great fit is the best in the world, CM Punk. Punk hasn’t had his extensive WWE career spotlighted in this new era of showcase mode since he returned, and with the run he’s on now, it would make all the sense in the world to have him featured as the main star.
If that’s the case, some tweaks to Showcase mode could make this version one of the best yet. The biggest change would be streamlining the matches themselves, and that specifically relates to the number of objectives you have to achieve during the match. There are few times that any showcase match is complete without having to pull up the menu for more details on what the game is asking me to do to complete the next moment, and these immediately break the immersion. Having fewer of these should keep you moving through the steps at a better pace, but it’s also critical that the game has some sort of way to convey the more complicated steps visually so you don’t have to break away to figure it out.
3. More Options in My GM (And One Major Change)
My GM is easily my favorite mode in WWE 2K, and that only continued in WWE 2K25. The mode got even better with online multiplayer and new Championships in the mix, but there are still a few ways to give the mode an even bigger upgrade.
The more match options you have to work with on each show, the better, and a few more were added in 2K25. For 2K26, there are a few options that would immediately have an impact on your shows and give you yet more options to fill out your card with and set you up for success. The first is having the option of bringing in a celebrity to your show for a certain amount of time, and while the cost would be high, it could help you get over the hump in terms of viewers, and bringing them in would also have other marketing and booking benefits that could help you down the line if the experience goes well.
Another choice that has gained prominence lately is one-off appearances from former WWE stars, including Dolph Ziggler and Zack Ryder, and having the ability to bring an unexpected pop to a premium live event or go-home show would give GMs an even more expansive toolset to craft their dream seasons of TV.
Two other options would be squash matches and open challenges, and both serve different purposes. If you bring in a new free agent or created wrestler, being able to build them as an unstoppable force would open things up for them and help get them over, though it would be at the detriment of other less-established stars on your roster. Then there’s the open challenge, which would be limited to Champions but could be a great way to keep your Champ rolling and find potential rivalries.
There’s also something I’d like either streamlined or outright removed, and that’s the scouting feature. While I appreciate the extra layer of depth in finding and hiring talent, the process of it all and the limits the system puts in place are more frustrating than immersive, and it’s ultimately still a bit random regarding who pops up in the free agent pool, which can be frustrating.
2. Mixed Match Challenge
WWE 2K25 brought back inter gender wrestling, and it seems to have gone over quite well with fans. That means we are in a perfect place to bring back one of my favorite tournaments from the past, the Mixed Match Challenge, which paired a male and female superstar together in a tag team as part of a tournament, and it would be great to have it as both an offline and online mode.
Offline, the game could randomly put together Tag Teams and probably come up with some interesting combinations for your dream team to face, earning unlockable rewards along the way. Online things would operate in much the same way, though it would be human players all choosing their dream teams to take yours down. If 2K wanted to go the extra mile, there could be rewards for pairing up specific superstars, unlocking matching gear colors, unique entrances, and even a combo finisher, though that’s quite a bit to implement for a new mode right off the bat.
1. TNA Crossover and NXT Roster Spotlights
The roster is always a major part of a new WWE 2K game, and this year’s version has some unique options to explore thanks to what’s happening in real life. After 2K25 was released, WWE started working extensively with TNA, and the two companies have taken some one-off team-ups and turned those into a full-on partnership. Now, TNA stars appear on a regular basis in WWE, and vice versa, and some WWE stars have even been TNA Champions, so seeing that present itself in the game would be amazing.
Now, it’s not realistic to have 2K simply move the entire TNA roster to the next WWE game, but having some of the bigger stars who have crossed over at times would certainly make sense. Names that come to mind for the playable roster in WWE 2K26 are Joe Hendry, Leon Slater, Moose, Lei Ying Lee, The Hardys, and Mike Santana, and other names we’d love to see make it into the game are Steve Maclin, The IInspiration, and Frankie Kazarian.
There are also some big names on NXT, Raw, and SmackDown that didn’t make it into WWE 2K25, and the hope is that 2K can get them into this year’s game. Those stars include Rey Fenix, Blake Monroe, Ricky Saints, Rusev, Jordynne Grace, Zaria, and Izzi Dame, but there are many others in NXT who could benefit from a spotlight and be fun to play in the game, including Hank and Tank, Myles Borne, Tavion Heights, Wren Sinclair, Lainey Reid, Kendal Grey, Jasper Troy, and Tyra Mae Steele. If even half of all these stars make the game this year, the roster will easily be one of the game’s standout elements.
WWE 2K26 currently has no release date.
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