WWE 2K19’s Female Roster Is Bigger Than Ever… And We Still Want More
In WWE 2K19, there are 42 playable female Superstars, including four still-to-be-released DLCs I can’t wait to play as—Maria Kanellis, Dakota Kai, Candice LeRae, and Lacey Evans—and Ronda Rousey as the female pre-order bonus. I suppose it only makes sense that Ronda Rousey’s WWE 2K debut would coincide with the video game franchise featuring the largest collection of female Superstars in WWE 2K (and the entire WWF/WWE) game history. At the very least, the stars certainly aligned. In fact, two-fourths of MMA’s Four Horsewomen are in this game (with Shayna Baszler holding things down for NXT), and by next year, all four (as Jessamyn Duke and Marina Shafir are currently in NXT) could easily be in WWE 2K20.
At an overall rating of 87, Ronda Rousey is the highest-rated woman in the game. But there’s not a wide berth between her and the rest of her fellow female WWE Superstars’ ratings, as the second highest overall rating of the game—85, simply two points lower—belongs to women like Alexa Bliss, Alundra Blayze, Beth Phoenix, Charlotte Flair, and Trish Stratus. (In WWE 2K19, blondes certainly have more fun.)
As for the lowest rated woman on the game—Dana Brooke, at an overall rating of 69—even she can put up a good fight against “The Rowdy One” with the right player, just like she probably would if given the chance on Monday Night RAW.
Then you have legends like Jacqueline (overall rating: 82) and Ivory (overall rating: 80)
Alundra Blayze, for example, gets her due as an eternal badass in this game: Despite the lack of women’s ladder matches during her time as an active competitor in real life, I’m perfectly willing to admit that, in this game, she always somehow ends up winning any multi-woman ladder match I put her in. No matter who I played as and who the other competitors were.
While players have the ability to have the female superstars in every possible match type—including a Royal Rumble, Elimination Chamber, or Money in the Bank match—as well as create some of their own, it’s worth noting the line between the men and the women is still strong. The majority of the women in the game are classified as cruiserweights (with Nia Jax as the sole heavyweight), meaning they’re technically classified under the same weight classes as their male counterparts… But while it’s no surprise intergender wrestling matches aren’t possible in the game, the more surprising fact is that mixed tag team matches are also off the table—which is especially difficult to understand when WWE TV is currently in the thick of the second season of its highly-entertaining Mixed Match Challenge competition.
So for anyone hoping to get their Fabulous Truth (R-Truth and Carmella) vs. Awe-Ska (The Miz and Asuka) on in WWE 2K19—complete with a “DANCE BREAK!”—that’s a dream you’ll have to save for a future WWE 2K game.
Much like Tommaso Ciampa on the male side, the most surprising thing about the deep female roster for this game is that NXT’s Nikki Cross isn’t on the list of playable characters (not even as a DLC). That means it’s up to downloading a WWE Creations version of Nikki Cross to replicate her current feud with Bianca Belair (overall rating: 77) or even take it back to NXT TakeOver: New Orleans, where Nikki Cross challenged Shayna Baszler (overall rating: 81) for the NXT Women’s Championship.
But despite the lack of Nikki Cross, 2K and WWE have still managed included a truly stacked female roster this year on top of the impressive male roster and highly-addicting modes which come with MyPlayer (like the new MyCareer story mode and MyPlayer Towers). This is why any actual disappointment on this front mostly comes in the form of the lack of a comparable MyPlayer scenario (and of course, MyCareer) for the female Superstars. Because, at this point, it’s very clear how much they could easily sustain one all of their own—even if the MyCareer is just a slightly reworked version of the current male version of the story. It’s certainly not for a lack of female talent in the game now, especially with the acknowledgment that even more women could be added in the future games.
In RondaRousey.com’s interview with 2K developers Jason Vandiver and Shane MacPherson, they acknowledged that they’ve heard the fan demand for a women’s career mode “loud and clear.” Until then, WWE Universe will have to fill those urges at having anything close to a women’s career mode, but at least it’s something the player can control completely.
There’s still so much to do in WWE 2K19, and it’s honestly the most fun I’ve had playing a WWE game in years. So while it’s not quite perfect, it’s definitely going in the right direction. It could just stand to go for more in the future, which only seems like the natural progression for this game series.
