WWE 2K20: 5 Most Surprising Roster Omissions

WWE 2K20 dropped their full roster reveal on Smosh Games’ YouTube channel, with a little help from everyone’s favourite horror-goofball, Bray Wyatt. Where 2K delivered on providing a star-studded roster for 2K20, there were quite a few names missing from the game’s line-up, leaving us all wondering why they didn’t make the cut for the base game.

2K’s usual MO is to keep fans invested in the product until the end of its lifespan, typically WWE’s biggest rising stars are kept out of the game until when the last few DLC packs hit the market. Last year saw the likes of Ricochet, EC3 and Lars Sullivan all shoe-horned in to 2K19 at the last minute, despite them being ready-to-go for release date.

There’s a few names that have popped up in the game’s roster that have made us question whether or not we’ll actually see them show up in the game, or whether we’ll have to scour community creations to find the most life-like CAWs. Let’s take a look at the 5 most surprising roster omissions of WWE 2K20.

Make sure you drop your own disappointments in the comments section below.

 

1. WALTER

The current WWE United Kingdom Champion could have easily made the cut for this year’s roster. He first appeared in NXT UK around the start of January, considering 2K complete the majority of their facial scans and such around WrestleMania, this gave them plenty of time to get the big Austrian prepared for his 2K debut.

Nevertheless, WALTER and the entirety of the Imperium tandem have been left off the list. There’s a very high chance that the UK champ could be seen in this year’s DLC packs, especially now that NXT UK have the potential to be given the spotlight as part of the 2K Originals Towers.

WALTER has been one of the most highly requested superstars to make it into the game, so if I were 2K, I’d get cracking on scanning him in.

 

2. Steve Cutler & Wesley Blake

Jaxson Ryker was a surprising name included as part of this year’s base roster. Considering Ryker has been the least active of the NXT trio, you’d think he would have been brushed over when 2K were looking for new roster additions. Nevertheless, I’m happy to see The Forgotten Sons getting some love. Yet only the one of them made it in.

Steve Cutler and Wesley Blake aren’t going to be the first names out of the fan’s mouths when asked who they’d want to see revealed for the game, but it is strange that they were left out when Ryker was scanned in for the base roster. The Forgotten Sons have been an intergral part of the NXT roster for the past year or so, they should get their moment as part of the game.

It wouldn’t shock me if Cutler and Blake ended up being two of the lowest rated superstars on the roster, down their with the likes of The Ascension and The Colons, but still, it’d be nice to see them debut alongside Ryker.

 

3. Killian Dain

Another very odd name to not be included this year was SAnitY’s former powerhouse, Killian Dain. The big Irishman broke out on his own as part of NXT’s reboot, showing up and entering a pretty fun feud with Matt Riddle. Dain has been utilised pretty well since leaving the doomed stable, so it’s strange that it won’t be reflected as part of WWE 2K20.

Dain has been a regular of 2K games for two years now, so it’s not like the developers didn’t have the model ready to go. Some simple tweaks to his attire could have made him an easy inclusion as part of the NXT roster.

It seems that Killian Dain wasn’t the only SAnitY member to find himself left out of this year’s game. Alexander Wolfe also won’t be found on the base roster, despite making a re-emergence on NXT UK around WrestleMania season.

Fans of SAnitY will be happy to know that both Eric Young and Nikki Cross have both been confirmed to appear. So at least we’ll get to relive a couple of happy memories with the two of them representing NXT’s former nuthouse crew.

 

4. Lio Rush

The new Cruiserweight Champion has only recently returned from a self-imposed hiatus after WrestleMania. The former hype-man for Bobby Lashley was becoming quite the star in WWE before being forced out of the locker room by the ever-growing amount of heat. All seemed to point towards Rush breaking out on his own once again, but lo’ and behold ‘The Man of the Hour’ returned to NXT to get back in touch with his high-flying roots.

With this in mind, it’s weird that 2K weren’t able to keep him in as part of 2K20’s roster. Perhaps WWE were less clued-in to Rush’s intentions at the time and wanted to keep him out of the game just in case he were to split from the company.

Rush debuted as part of 2K19’s DLC, with a really fun move-set for players to pick up and dominate with. It’s a shame that we won’t be able to play a more modern version of Lio and have him climb up the ranks of the Cruiserweight division on Universe Mode.

 

5. Danny Burch

‘The Governor’ has been a staple in bringing British Strong Style to NXT before anyone even knew it was a thing. Danny Burch has won over the fans as a singles competitor and a tag-team performer alongside Oney Lorcan. He has been heavily featured on NXT TV and even had a few cracks at the NXT Tag Titles on TakeOver events. There’s no reason he shouldn’t be in 2K20.

Oney Lorcan has made it onto the base roster for the second year in a row, yet will be forced to compete as a singles wrestler seeing as Burch has been left on the sidelines. It surprises me that Burch hasn’t been thrown into one of the DLC packs from previous games, let alone not even considered for the roster in 2K20.

Again, this could be one long road to us finally getting the full NXT UK roster as part of an upcoming DLC pack but my expectations for more than just two or three additions are pretty low at this point. Either way, we should get Danny Burch in the game at some point, he’s put in some amazing matches recently and fans want to get behind the driving wheel and take him to the next step.