WWE 2K22: Confirmed Roster, and Guaranteed Superstars Appearances

WWE 2K22: There are up to six wrestlers we are 100% sure of from the WWE 2K22 roster: Bayley, Booker T, Cesaro, Randy Orton, Rey Mysterio, and Ric Flair. But there is still room for speculation as to who else could feature on WWE 2K22’s ultimate superstar list. We have mentioned 45 additional grapplers we can expect to see in the next installment of the WWE 2K series. We can expect to have some other announcements some time August around Summerslam. We’ll try to keep you updated about any further developments regarding WWE 2K22’s Roster.

WWE 2K22 Roster 100% Confirmed

Booker T

The five-time former WCW World Champion and one-time WWE World Champion, Booker T was confirmed to be a part of the WWE 2K22 roster in a behind-the-scene footage, made to show technology being used in this year’s WWE game. Hopefully this means we will get a modern version of the King Booker along with the gold-hoarding retro look of the spinner-rooney.

Cesaro

WWE 2K22‘s another confirmed character is Cezaro. The Swiss king of swing is shown doing some Rey Mysterio moves in the game’s WrestleMania 37 reveal trailer. He fared much better at the real-life supershow, defeating Seth Rollins in a technically excellent Saturday night highlight.

Randy Orton

This man is 41 years but he is still going strong. Randy Orton got his 14th world wrestling title in 2020 and was always certain to be a part of WWE 2K22. In May lead dev Patrick Gilmore confirmed that Orton will be there in this year’s WWE game with a very simple tweet, addressed to @MattyJBayBay: “I think you will be happy with Randy Orton’s entrance!”.

Rey Mysterio

Apparently, Rey Mysterio was the very first character to make a return in the comeback edition of the 2K series’, as per WrestleMania 37 reveal trailer. Though, the 32-year veteran didn’t feature on this year’s big show, but his athletic wrestling made him a sure short pick for WWE 2K22.

Bayley

In May, new WWE 2K22 supremo Patrick Gilmore revealed that Bayley was the very first wrestler captured for this year’s game. “First to get scanned this year was @itsBayleyWWE,” he wrote on Twitter. “Thank you, Bayley! I owe you a bottle of wine. Name your grape and it’s on the way.” Her response? “I’ll take a case of 19 Crimes Snoop Dogg Edition and the cover of the video game too, thanks!!”

Ric Flair

Similar Booker T, Rick Flair was confirmed for WWE 2K22 by way of a May scanning session. ‘The Dirties Wrestler in the Industry’ carries the record for most number of world title reigns across WWE, WCW and NWA with sixteen.

WWE 2K22 Roster 99% Confirmed

Alexa Bliss

Alexa Bliss, One of the most baffling wrestlers in the last entire year has also been confirmed to be in the WWE 2K22. As ‘The Fiend’ Bray Wyatt’s sidekick, then getting into a feud with Randy Orton in the latter’s absence Bliss had us completely entertained. However, that storyline ended at WrestleMania, with Bliss crying black tears as Wyatt lost clean to Orton following an RKO.

Adam Cole

NXT’s four-man stable The Undisputed Era looked set to be one of the biggest main roster additions of 2020 – but they were never called up to Raw or Smackdown and, in February, the faction broke up when Cole turned heel on Kyle O’Reilly. Will he ever escape NXT? Does he even want to? Who knows, but he’ll be in WWE 2K22.

Asuka

Presented with the Raw Women’s Championship upon Becky Lynch’s maternity leave, Asuka briefly traded the belt with Sasha Banks before slaying all comers in 2020. Aussie newcomer Rhea Ripley finally dethroned her at WrestleMania 37, but it won’t be long before she’s back in the gold.

Big E, Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods

Collectively known as The New Day, this timeless trio shockingly split in 2020 – with Big E claiming Intercontinental title glory on Smackdown after his partners moved to Raw. The threesome still appear together at big events and are certain to have a trio entrance included in WWE 2K22.

Bobby Lashley & MVP

Lashley exiting WrestleMania 37 as the WWE Champion, after felling Drew McIntyre, ensures this pair grab spots on the video game roster. It would have been shocking for the fans to not see Bobby Lashley, who is the reigning WWE champion to not be in the next-gen WWE 2K game.

Charlotte Flair

Her Father Ric Flair has been already confirmed for WWE 2K22, and it should not be surprising for people to see the ten-time women’s world champ to follow him. This means we can expect to see the daddy-daughter partnership in WWE 2K22. This would also guarantee the return of inter-gender tag matches, one of WWE 2K20’s few decent additions.

Daniel Bryan

Daniel Bryan had retired because of injury in 2016. He made a shocking return two years later, but it wasn’t until the this year that WWE added some required changes in his character. The bearded one shone on Smackdown from January through March, but still fell short of title glory at WrestleMania 37.

Drew McIntyre

As in real life, 2020 was a year like no other for WWE, with fans kept away from arenas for more than nine months. McIntyre carried the company during that time, claiming the WWE Championship twice and making hay from feuds with Randy Orton and AJ Styles.

Edge

Edge, the ‘Rated-R Superstar’ made a return in 2019. But it wasn’t until 2021’s Royal Rumble when he became a part of the big game in the industry. Though, he fell short to Roman Reigns in his Universal title quest, he still deserved to be in the next installment of WWE 2K. While he’s assured of a WWE 2K22 place, tag partner Christian is out after signing with rival federation AEW (which has three games coming out in 2021!) earlier this year.

Elias

Once known on the independent circuit as curious names such as Heavy Metal Jesus and Logan Shulo, the guitar-playing grappler has featured on WWE’s main roster since 2017 – but never with a fully defined role, aside from his pre-match waxing lyrical. A short-lived tandem with Jaxson Ryker ended in late May, casting Elias adrift once more. 

‘The Fiend’ Bray Wyatt

WWE 2K20’s brief saving grace was offering Wyatt’s evil-clown alter ego as DLC, at a time when he was the company’s coolest character. Yet the magic has worn thin following an awful feud with Randy Orton, in which he miraculously recovered from being burned alive. The Fiend should still be fun to slam heads with in videogame terms, though.

AJ Styles & Omos

WWE 2K19 cover star AJ Styles is a cert for the game after a glittering career spanning WCW, ROH, TNA, and WWE. Tag partner Omos – formerly known as Jordan Omogbehin – is less assured of a spot, but enhanced his chances but claiming the Raw tag championships with Styles at WrestleMania 37.

Asuka

Presented with the Raw Women’s Championship upon Becky Lynch’s maternity leave, Asuka briefly traded the belt with Sasha Banks before slaying all comers in 2020. Aussie newcomer Rhea Ripley finally dethroned her at WrestleMania 37, but it won’t be long before she’s back in the gold.

Baron Corbin

There are plenty of fans who’d like to see Corbin disappear from WWE 2K22 – and the company altogether – but the man himself enjoys riling up his haters on social media, and survived the latest round of cuts which bade farewell to Braun Strowman and Aleister Black. Real name Tom Pestock, he played in the NFL for the Arizona Cardinals and Indianapolis Colts. 

Becky Lynch

WWE’s biggest star of recent times had the misfortune of being cover athlete on total dud WWE 2K20 – but enjoyed much happier real-life news with partner Seth Rollins (who’s also a cert for WWE 2K22), giving birth to daughter Roux in February 2021. She’s due back in a WWE ring imminently.

Bianca Belair

After graduating from developmental brand NXT in 2020, Belair stormed to victory in January’s female Royal Rumble – then claimed the Smackdown world title from Sasha Banks at WrestleMania 37. Her likeness was one of many infamously downgraded from WWE 2K19 to 2K20, meaning a sizable visual improvement in 2K22 is essential.

Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode

An unlikely pairing thrown together in 2019, this twosome transitioned into genuinely watchable tag title contenders – and finally overthrew Street Profits for the Smackdown gold in January 2021. The only doubt for WWE 2K22 is whether Roode’s superb solo theme Glorious makes the cut. To omit it would be a gaming travesty. 

Finn Balor

The traditional modern career path in WWE sees a grappler spend a couple of years in NXT before ascending to the main roster. Balor followed that trend, eventually capturing the WWE Universal Championship in 2016 – then returned from whence he came. Re-established in NXT since October 2009, he became champion of the brand for a second time by defeating Adam Cole last September.

Jeff Hardy

Last summer saw rumours of retirement swell after Jeff’s brother and tag partner Matt Hardy jumped ship to join the AEW roster. However, the ‘charismatic enigma’ later revealed that he’d signed a new contact with WWE, widely believed to be for five more years. That’ll see him right for ladder matches in WWE 2K22, and far beyond. 

Jey Uso & Jimmy Uso

These multi-time champs will both make WWE 2K22, but they’ve been through markedly different experiences in recent times. As Jimmy recovered from injury, twin brother Jey spent 2020-21 feuding with cousin Roman Reigns, only to align with him and christen himself ‘Main Event’ Jey Uso. It paid off when he won the annual Andre The Giant Battle Royal in April.

John Cena

The most decorated wrestler of modern times – and I mean in terms of belts rather than garish T-shirts – hasn’t been a TV regular since 2017, but he’ll still be a fixture of this series for many years to come thanks to 16 world championship reigns, five US Championship reigns, five WrestleMania main events, and TV and film appearances. Yes, even 12 Rounds.

Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn

These real-life best pals finally got the match they’ve always dreamed of in April 2021: a face-off against one another at WrestleMania. Sadly it was only given nine minutes (with Owens predictably triumphing over Zayn), but it still made for a fun flashback to the pair’s heated and hard-hitting bouts in Ring Of Honor and NXT.

Natalya & Tamina

This unlikeliest of tandems have become cult favourites in 2021, going so far as to claim the Women’s Tag Team Championships from Nia Jax & Shayna Baszler. Lapsed ‘80s fans will recognise both of their fathers: Natalya is the daughter of Jim ‘The Anvil Neidhart’, while Tamina is the offspring of Jimmy ‘Superfly’ Snuka.

R-Truth

WWE invented the 24/7 Championship in 2019 with the idea of a belt that could be defended in-ring, backstage, on the road or in the air (really) – and it’s become a comedy vehicle for R-Truth, racking up 52 reigns by May 2021. Other past holders such as Doug Flutie, Rob Gronkowski and Santa Claus (!) are less likely to appear. 

Roman Reigns

While Drew McIntyre helped Raw through the pandemic, previous super-face Reigns was doing likewise on Smackdown – presently recast as an imperious heel with incredible yarn-spinner Paul Heyman as his mouthpiece. Simply don’t specify the WWE 2K20 cover.

Sasha Banks

WWE’s standout female performer of 2020 and 2021 so far, thanks to a barnstorming run as tag-team champs with Bayley, a fiery feud after that pairing inevitably overheated, and a fantastic Wrestlemania night-one main event in which she dropped the Smackdown gold to Bianca Belair.

Shayna Baszler & Nia Jax

They won’t be winning any prizes for match quality, but this pairing have largely dominated the women’s tag-team division in the audience-free (due to the pandemic) era of WWE. Submission expert Baszler is wasted in this role – you know what to do when 2K22 lands.

Sheamus

“It’s a shameful thing, lobster head…” The Irishman man no longer uses his comically misheard entrance theme, but is still delivering bruising, highly watchable brawls at 43 – such as a WrestleMania 37 US title victory over Riddle. Should be super fun to smash jobbers with in WWE 2K22.

The Undertaker

Taker’s last real match came against AJ Styles at WrestleMania 36, with all signs since pointing to retirement. Just don’t expect that to apply to digital rings. Clocking up more than 30 videogame appearances over three decades, ‘Taker has never missed out on the WWE sim roster – going all the way back to its PS1 debut, as WWF Smackdown.

WWE 2K22 Roster 95% Confirmed

Angelo Dawkins & Montez Ford

The Street Profits were fast-tracked to the Raw roster in 2019 after shining on NXT, and by the turn of 2021 had enjoyed tag-title reigns on both main WWE brands. The concern is what happens next: WWE has a history of breaking up tandems for the sake of it, such as other former NXT faves American Alpha and Heavy Machinery. That type of quizzical decision-making is the only potential threat to their WWE 2K22 status. 

Apollo Crews

Once beloved on the independent circuit as Uhaa Nation, WWE never quite got Crews’ character right as a babyface – and so turned him heel, complete with cringeworthy fake Nigerian accent. He overcame the dodgy new voice to claim the Intercontinental title from Big E at WrestleMania 37.

Rhea Ripley

An instant hit upon appearing in WWE’s 2017 Mae Young Classic tournament at the age of 20, Ripley regularly outshone the entire NXT female division before finally arriving on Raw this past February. She overcame Asuka to claim the brand’s Women’s Championship at WrestleMania 37, in her very first man roster singles bout.

Riddle

If there’s a Raw special effect even more cringeworthy than Braun Strowman’s steam train noise, it’s the CGI flying birds intended to enhance Riddle’s ring entrance. Thankfully the former MMA star’s matches are often sufficient to overcome such clownishness, and he repeatedly shone in strong bouts with Sheamus and Randy Orton this past spring. 

WWE 2K22 Roster 90% Confirmed

Jinder Mahal

You’ve have been a laughing stock on wrestling forums in 2014 for suggesting that two members of comedy troupe 3MB would one day be world champions. Yet here we are, with Drew McIntyre’s long 2020 reign following Mahal’s six-month stint as WWE Champ in 2017. Wherefore art thou, Heath Slater?

Johnny Gargano

A three-time NXT North American champion, Gargano opened up 2021 as leader of four-person stable The Way. Real-life wife Candice LaRae was in WWE 2K20 and so should also make the roster, but it’ll be touch and go for bandmates Austin Theory and Indi Hartwell – neither of whom have appeared in a WWE game before. 

Otis

WWE has become notorious in recent times for splitting up tag-teams before their time, and Heavy Machinery are a textbook example. Promoted from NXT to Smackdown in 2019, Tucker and Otis caught on with fans, partly due to the latter’s unique bowling-ball build – leading to an unnecessary break-up. After a short singles push Otis was back in tag action alongside Chad Gable, and Tucker was released. Bravo.