Recently, I was invited by 2K to attend a hands-on event for their upcoming wrestling game WWE 2K26. What I got to play left me impressed and chomping at the bit to play more.
At this preview event, I had almost four hours with a full, but not yet final, build of the game. That means everything that will be available in WWE 2K26 at launch was available to try. From the new CM Punk showcase mode, to the new match types, MyGM, MyRise, The Island and more.
WWE 2K26 Is Familiar But More Challenging
To start the preview, I played a one-on-one standard match pitting CM Punk against Roman Reigns. Immediately, the gameplay felt largely familiar, with light and heavy combos, dodging, combo breaking, and reversals continuing to be ever-present. Stamina management also returns, but it has been tweaked to allow for more strategic gameplay.
While the system isn’t fully explained, at least without doing any tutorials, it appeared that reversing certain moves would provide you with a temporary boost to stamina. This was signified by your stamina gauge turning purple for a while before switching back to the default yellow color. During the preview, I didn’t really notice a big difference in how stamina works in WWE 2K26 compared to previous titles. However, I did notice that AI-controlled wrestlers seem to be more aggressive and smarter than in previous years. In turn, even on the default normal difficulty, WWE 2K26 is more challenging than the series has been in a long time.
One of the most noticeable improvements this year comes in the upgrades to visual presentation. Superstars with new models boast the most realistic hair in the franchise to date. Even one of the retro CM Punk models looks fantastic, and these retro models have previously stood out like a sore thumb, and not in a good way.
What About Showcase Mode?
WWE 2K26‘s Showcase is, of course, centred around cover star CM Punk. The showcase kicks off with an intro from CM Punk, following a gameplay-driven recap of the events of last year’s triple-threat main event Wrestlemania match. However, the real first match of this showcase is CM Punk vs. JBL from SummerSlam 2008, a match that took place very early in CM Punk’s reign as World Champion. Seeing this long-haired version of Punk, accompanied by his era-appropriate WWE theme song, “This Fire Burns” by Killswitch Engage, immediately took me back to many fond memories of my youth.
Showcase Mode structurally is exactly as we have seen previously. You play through matches with a set of objectives to complete for various rewards, with some pre-match talk from Punk himself about each of these encounters. However, if you aren’t one for checking boxes but you still want the rewards, then 2K has you covered with the new Showcase gauntlet. The gauntlet allows you to skip playing through the full showcase; all you have to do is defeat twenty superstars in a row while playing as either CM Punk or his wife, AJ Lee.
New Weapons And Environments
WWE 2K26 adds some long-requested weapons, namely the shopping cart and thumbtacks. Both of these I got to mess around with during the preview, and while the shopping cart is limited in capability and feels a bit on rails, thumbtacks are a blast to use. From the sound effects of hitting the opponent with the unopened bag to pouring them out and turning your opponent into a pincushion, using thumbtacks didn’t get old in my four hours with the game. They also add a nice bit of visual realism and presentation as they will actually stick into both you and your opponents.
Something that adds to the experience of using not only these new weapons but all weapons in WWE 2K26 is the revamped weapon physics. These physics make them break and react more naturally to how they’re used, but, as with any physics system, they can occasionally lead to hilarious gameplay moments.
In addition to the weapons, WWE 2K26 also has backstage environments to explore, and I spent time with the new Scrapyard environment. While I didn’t uncover all the interaction possibilities in this area, it has quickly become one of my favourites, with a huge variety of weapons, an ambulance, and even a jump pad that adds some verticality.
Between the new weapons, revamped physics and new Scrapyard environment, extreme rules matches, and backstage brawls are about to become more engaging than they have been in years. I just hope that the fun I had with these elements in the preview translates across to many more hours of fun in the full game.
New Match Types Are Great
In my preview, I had enough time to test out two of the game’s new match types: I Quit Matches and Inferno Matches. Both of which I found to be great fun, but I would definitely lean towards I Quit Matches as the more engaging of the two. That’s because, from a gameplay perspective, Inferno Matches are fairly simple. Do enough moves to fill the metre, then throw your opponent over the rope with a small button-mashing mini-game to complete.
I Quit Matches, by contrast, are a little bit more complex. Sure, they involve damaging your opponent enough to make them quit, similar to Inferno Matches. However, mechanically, the quitting mini-game is more nuanced, taking a cue from the ladder match mini-game of old. With a ball rotating around a dial with green sections, timing a button press in one of them decreases your I Quit metre. There is one problem: your opponent can mess with you by placing a red section on your dial, making it harder to land in the green. Each time the dial rotates without you stopping the ball in a green section, your I Quit metre fills up, and if it fills all the way, you lose. It’s a great rework of an old mini-game for a new match type, but whether it remains engaging and fun to play after many more hours, who knows?
I unfortunately didn’t have time to test 3 Stages of Hell or Dumpster Matches out during the preview, but I’m looking forward to seeing what they have to offer.
The Island Gets Meaningful Improvement
The Island is WWE 2K‘s version of NBA 2K‘s The City, with more story and craziness involved. It was fun last year in WWE 2K25 but it struggled to keep me engaged long-term. However, this year that could be about to change, thanks to a few meaningful improvements.
Firstly, everything now appears to be fully voice-acted, so no more reading text boxes for hours on end. As we have seen in MyRise for a few years, the voice acting can leave a bit to be desired at times, but from an accessibility standpoint, it’s always nice to have, especially for those with dyslexia and similar conditions.
The second improvement to The Island comes by way of three factions to join, each of which, it appears, will offer you unique missions and tasks to complete. No longer being purely focused on Roman Reigns and the Bloodline should allow this mode to expand and ultimately gain more relevance. Time will tell whether WWE 2K26‘s Island can keep me entertained for months after launch, but the early signs suggest a decent improvement over last year.
MyFaction Feels The Same At First
Towards the end of my preview session, I jumped into MyFaction, a mode that I’ve always wanted to enjoy but has never been able to grab me for long. From the small amount I played, initially, MyFaction feels and functions pretty much exactly the same as previous years. You set up your faction, open some starter packs and then jump into world tour, faction wars, etc., as you grind your way to bigger and better superstar cards. Nothing about MyFaction has really changed. Well, almost nothing.
The one change that sounds promising but I didn’t have time to test is quick-swap matches that let you change superstars on the fly, adding faster-paced tactical gameplay to MyFaction. It sounds great, but right now I haven’t had enough experience with it to make a meaningful comment.
It’s worth noting that yes, you can still spend real money on VC to unlock more packs and get great cards faster. However, at the moment, we don’t have pricing details on the cost of VC, and therefore, we can’t make a judgment on how this microtransaction system is balanced against the rate at which you can earn items through gameplay.
A Promising First Impression
This concludes what I focused on during the WWE 2K26 preview event. I made the conscious decision to avoid MyRise and MyGM due to limited time and to save something for future coverage opportunities. Speaking of future coverage, make sure you head over to The Outerhaven YouTube, where we have WWE 2K26 gameplay up right now.
Ultimately, WWE 2K26 made an extremely promising first impression on me. If it can carry that impression through release and into the months beyond, then wrestling fans could be in for a special video game this year.
