A couple weeks ago, I bought WWE 2K23, which is my first wrestling game since probably Smackdown vs. Raw? It's been a good complement to watching the WWE again because it's helping me learn who all of the wrestlers are that I'm not familiar with.
The biggest surprise to me is how deep this game is. There are several game modes, all of which are fairly unique. Each of them takes quite a bit of time to learn the mechanics too, although once you figure it out, it's not too convoluted.
Maybe the coolest mode is MyGM, where you get to compete against 1-3 CPUs or humans in running a brand. You book a card, create rivalries, sign legends, and do all sorts of other things. I found this to be a lot of fun, even though I didn't do any actual wrestling. It does feel a little formulaic the more you play it, but there's a lot of replayability because you can always sign new wrestlers or try different strategies. The only issue I had with those mode is that wrestlers just don't have enough stamina and get hurt all the time. It's actually pretty frustrating because if you have people wrestle every week, they'll certainly get injured soon enough. You basically have to carry a roster that is double the size of the weekly card, but doing that can be pricy, so it's tough to balance.
The other mode I liked a lot is MyFaction. This is the equivalent of Madden Ultimate Team, which is admittedly the biggest reason why people hate sports games these days, but this still feels different. For one thing, unlike MUT, I don't think it's designed to be PvP at all. There is a section where you can compete online against people, but it's such a small focus that I really think they intend for you to fight against the CPU. There are several different ways to fight - live events, towers, 4-person tag matches, etc. It is SUPER grindy though. One thing I prefer about MUT is that because you have to fill out an entire football team, you're constantly getting new cards. In this mode, cards and packs are fewer and further between, and there's no auction/secondary market, so there's really no way to get top tier cards other than to just grind it out. Still, if I were younger, this game mode would probably take months of my life because I find it so fun.
For trophy hunters, the mode also has one downside - you have to win 100 4v4 tag matches. This isn't inherently a problem, but tag matches in this game feel totally broken. You have to knock every opposing teammate off of the apron or else they'll break up any pinfall or submission attempt immediately. In 2v2, it's not so bad, but in 4v4, it's brutal. Most of the exploits to easily win these matches have been patched; supposedly the easiest way is to force a quick submission, but I think my cards are not good enough to pull that off. I've won about 15 of them, so it's not impossible, but this is going to be a huge grind.
Amazingly, there are several other modes that I didn't cover, and I'm still working through the base story mode, but I was pretty surprised that a game that comes out annually has this much content. It even has tons of classic WWE guys from the era when I used to watch 20 years ago. Overall, I'm really happy with this purchase (especially since I used points/wallet funds I already had, so it cost me nothing), but I'm not sure if I would actually need one of these games every year.