What WWE 2K16 does right is embrace the artificiality of sports entertainment So much of wrestling is a construct, and what past WWE games have failed to do is use that construct to its advantage. What WWE 2K16 does right, despite the numerous issues that make the game a frustrating experience, is embrace the artificiality of sports entertainment, and it comes at a time when WWE is doing the same thing by airing behind-the-scenes shows like Breaking Ground on the WWE Network and allowing wrestlers to have personalities on social media outside of the ring. It makes sense that 2K would struggle to navigate the line between sports and entertainment because that’s exactly the type of identity crisis WWE has been going through for years now. The trouble is, wrestling isn’t exactly a sport, and that flawed approach is evidenced in last year’s lackluster game. 2K’s overall approach to creating a WWE game last year seemed to be based on what they do best, which is creating realistic, detailed sports games.
Videogames, especially last year’s 2K version, have struggled to capture what makes wrestling, and wrestling fandom, so unique. It was an icebreaker question, one meant to ease into the rest of the interview, but I realize now that it also touched on something important when it comes to discussing wrestling, or, in preferred WWE terminology, sports entertainment: the blurring of reality and fiction. So the first thing I asked him was this: “If I play as Daniel Bryan in WWE 2K16, will there be a part where you get injured, give a pseudo-retirement speech, and I end up crying?” He laughed and said that he couldn’t guarantee that such a scene wasn’t in there but that he hoped the videogame version of him would be safe. It was a real, emotional moment in a world often labeled as “fake.” A few months earlier, on WWE’s flagship show Monday Night Raw, he announced that he’d be out of action for an undetermined amount of time and that he’d be vacating his Intercontinental Championship. Six weeks ago, when I was in San Francisco to test drive the new WWE videogame from 2k, I spoke with Daniel Bryan, one of WWE’s biggest stars who’s currently sitting on the sidelines, recovering from a nasty, recurring neck injury.