WWE 2K26 Review – A Fun Game With A Dark Cloud Hovering Over It

There are a few games with yearly releases that get me excited, and WWE 2K (post WWE 2K20) is one of them. However, we’ve seen a change in the gaming industry that’s been infesting almost every genre to the point that NO ONE can purchase the full experience regardless of purchase tier, and this is extremely disappointing. This is exactly where WWE 2K26 is at right now.

Presentation

WWE 2K26 looks and sounds amazing. There is a wide variety of camera options to choose from, allowing you to produce whichever type of visual experience you’re looking for. We can now queue up Pyro and taunt the crowd as your superstar heads to the ring. The multitude of arenas and stadiums, along with the new camera and Pyro abilities, make the presentation feel very free.

Honestly, at this point, I don’t know what else they can add except the ability to link Spotify or Apple Music so you can incorporate different entrance music for your CAWs. The crowd chants are fitting for the situation. Heels get booed, babyfaces get cheers, and hearing the crowd say YEAH! For L. A. Knight is fantastic.

Gameplay

You know the old saying, if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it. Thankfully, that still holds here, and the controls haven’t been messed with. We now have a new “ragdoll effect” which shows the wrestlers really selling impact moves, especially on objects such as chairs, steel steps, and the newly added thumbtacks.

Dive off crowd barriers, double-stack tables, or whack your opponent in the face with a bag of thumbtacks before dumping them onto the mat and powerbombing your opponent on them. All of this controls well and looks smooth, blood and all. Now you will still get the occasional collision issue when Irish whipping an opponent to the ropes and bumping into them awkwardly on the rebound. But overall, the gameplay is solid.

Game Modes

This year, we have a few new ones, such as Inferno, I Quit, Dumpster Match, and 3 Stages of Hell. Believe it or not, the oddest one is the Inferno match since it doesn’t play as you would expect. For example, you can throw your opponent out of the ring and fight at ringside.

When doing so, the fire around the ring turns off until BOTH superstars are back in the ring. Since inferno matches never played out like this in the real world, it feels out of place. I get why they did this, so you can have more action outside the ring, but it takes away from it being an inferno match and making this more of a visual experience.

The more damage you deliver, the higher the flames. Once the flames are high, you can attempt to throw your opponent out of the ring, BUT you need to get them leaning on the ropes to perform this mini game or in the turnbuckle. If you just Irish whip them, they will fly over so you can take the action ringside. Once you do win the Inferno match, there is no crazy cut-scene of a wrestler running away on fire. You see them lying ringside in pain. Again, this looks great but doesn’t offer much new in the gameplay department.

The best of the new match types, in my opinion, is the 3 Stages of Hell since you can make each stage unique, such as Extreme Rules for one, 2^nd Tables, and 3rd Steel Cage. The least interesting is the Dumpster match, which plays out exactly like the Casket match. I would have preferred a Bone Yard / Buried Alive match instead.

RXP System for Ringside Pass

Now, this is the absolute major problem with WWE 2K26. One would assume, especially if you are a completionist and purchase the highest-tier version of a game release to obtain all the content day one, that in doing so you this is what you would receive. Unfortunately, this is not the case. The highest tier version, titled Monday Night War Edition, priced at $149.99, includes the 6 paid Ringside Pass for this year’s WWE 2K26 (think battle pass from COD or Fortnite), but you will still need to grind out the Ringside Pass to obtain all the rewards. I recall a few years back, people were upset that they purchased the highest-tier and still had to play showcase mode when all they wanted was to have everything unlocked. Now those folks have completely lost their minds over this Ringside Pass, along with the entire WWE gaming community.

There are plenty of YouTube videos already showing how many types of matches one would need to play to complete the first paid Ringside Pass and how much RXP each type earns you. Now there is a free Ringside Pass, but no surprise, the rewards are not as enticing as the paid pass. This Ringside pass / Battle pass works great for free-to-play or live service games like Fortnite that don’t have a yearly release, and prior character unlocks from previous years can still be played today. BUT WWE 2K is a yearly release title. We don’t get any carryover. Spending all this money only applies to this year’s release.

I fully understand trying new ways to produce revenue, but when purchasing a game, especially the highest-tier edition, and it doesn’t include everything the game offers, then the product feels incomplete. WWE 2K26 is a fun wrestling game that is filled to the brim with content. From match types, game modes like MYGM, the CM Punk Showcase, Universe mode, My Rise, MyFaction, and the return of the Island. There is something for every type of player.

But the dark cloud over all the good in this game is the Ringside Pass. Now the developers have been adjusting by adding more RXP per match type, but this doesn’t address the problem of having the pass to begin with. Just because others are adding this system doesn’t mean people want it. Players should not be forced to grind for hours after spending a good amount of money in hopes of obtaining all the content. It’s upsetting and disappointing to see such a system added to such a fun game.

This review was written based on a digital review copy of WWE 2K26 for the Xbox Series X provided by 2K.