In the lead-up to WWE 2K26's official release date on Friday, March 13, those who had Early Access to the game via its most expensive editions quickly crowned it one of the best wrestling video games since the bygone era of Smackdown vs. Raw on the PlayStation 2.
They also, for better or worse, quickly discovered that in order to obtain all the DLC content, there'd need to be some serious grinding. Because, unlike past games, which made use of a one-and-done Season Pass model, WWE 2K26 introduced the Ringside Pass concept, a tier-gated non-expiring program that forces players to grind for DLC that they technically already paid for.
WWE 2K26 is delightfully violent in the most video game way possible.
Gamers quickly discovered a grinding method, one that involved making Eric Bischoff, an in-game manager character, tap out in 10 seconds after adjusting the in-game sliders was the fastest way to get the DLC characters they had already dropped cash on.
However, 2K works extremely quickly, and in a recent patch, has removed the exploit, going as far as to call it out in its...
