Although 2K brought out another WWE title this year that was fun to play, the addition of the Ringside Pass left a bad taste in many in the mouths of many gamers, myself included. Lots of fans complained, and believe it or not, 2K actually listened and made some changes. Let’s talk about these.
The Update
In late March 2026, 2K released version 1.07 of WWE 2K26 on all platforms. This brought a number of beneficial changes, such as adjustments to the stamina meter, reversals using less stamina when fighting multiple opponents, the addition of several new moves, updates to the creation suite and more. Of course, the Ringside Pass has seen and will continue to see a few updates as well. Per the patch notes, here is what’s changed:
- All current and future players will be granted enough RXP for Ringside Pass Season 1 to unlock 20 tiers.
- All players who have installed, linked a 2K account, and played the game prior to April 14, 2026 at 11:59 PM PDT will also receive enough RXP for Ringside Pass Season 2 to unlock 20 tiers when Season 2 launches
- Required RXP per tier will be reduced from 800 to 625 RXP for Season 2, and required RXP per tier will not increase for future Seasons. The values of consumable RXP Boosts will also be increased
- Starting with Season 2, all four DLC characters in future Ringside Pass Premium Seasons will be available in Tier 1, and automatically available to unlock in the Ringside Pass Menu for Premium Pass players when those respective Seasons launch.
Thoughts on Update
It’s great that 2K actually listened to fans and made some changes with the Ringside Pass. Having the RXP boosts offer more is also a great thing and lowering the requirements for RXP per tier from Season 2 is a good idea. Giving players an additional 20 tiers worth of stuff for Season 1 is also great considering how much of a grind it could be. Still, locking non-DLC superstars behind these tiers feel arbitrary is just annoying. If 2K are going to implement something like this, another option would be to try giving the players a choice at what they can unlock by themselves as opposed to this predetermined order. Sure, there’s probably some reason to unlock certain stars/items at certain points on the tier list (probably?), but it just sucks. Maybe it’s just baked into the game this year and they can’t completely remove it without some kind of ridiculous fixes to the game. Even if that’s not the case, I remain shocked that 2K was even willing to take any action on this. Maybe another miracle will happen with 2K27 and they just throw this aspect of the game in the trash. The gameplay, modes and customization in 2K26 are awesome, but the Ringside Pass (and some of the VC related stuff, in my opinion) hold the game back from being a must have. All we can do at this point is hope that 2K listens to the fans and scraps this Ringside Pass for future installments.
Online Connectivity Requirements
This is something I didn’t expect to change, but just in case you didn’t know, an online connection is required to make progress in the pass. It makes sense, but this can be frustrating at times, especially if the 2K servers act up. Just playing the game after this update to grab some footage and after completing matches, I would find that the game had numerous disconnects from the 2K servers. My Switch 2 was still online, but for some reason, the game decided to just drop. This makes it so that any progress that I could have made on the Ringside Pass just didn’t register. At all. Again, I kind of understand this, but surely 2K could come up with some kind of way to add the RXP after the fact, especially on a system like the Switch 2. Given the portable nature, you might find yourself in situations where you just can’t connect online. I still find it baffling that so many companies tie these kind of progression systems with their online infrastructure with no other solutions. Sure, what happened to me in this particular case was a bit random, however this is something that you will likely run into at some point during your time with the game.
Additional Impressions - Community Creations
Since I played quite a bit of the game in the early access period, I didn’t get to check out as many of the created superstars or try out custom arenas crafted by the community. And let me just say, there are some really great ones out there! I’ll be perfectly honest, I don’t watch a lot of WWE mainly because access here in Japan (as far as I know) is limited to Japanese commentary only, I can’t watch live, and the on-demand shows leave after a week or so. That makes it a bit tough to keep up. I do, however, watch quite a bit of AEW. With that being said, it was great to see some of the awesome creations that people have made for the game. Unlike 2K25 on the Switch 2, fans on Nintendo’s platform have access to these this time. Things aren’t quite as flexible as the PC version of the game (seriously, last year seeing custom music also thrown into the mix blew me away), but for AEW fans, this might be as close as things are going to be for a new game for the foreseeable future.
Conclusion
This update to WWE 2K26 does make things a bit more bearable, but it doesn’t completely fix the problem. Still, it’s good to see 2K listening to fans and this could lead to a better future for the series. Like I said in my review, I think 2K26 is a great game, but the Ringside Pass, VC and constant online requirements are irritating. I don’t think the VC powered modes are going anywhere any time soon, but maybe the voices of the fans will be heard in terms of the Ringside Pass.
But let’s turn things over to you guys. What do you think of this update? Is it enough to save the game for you? if you have the game, have you tried any of the awesome custom superstars from the community? Sound off in the comments down below. We’d love to hear from you.
by Danny Bivens
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