The Four Horsewomen are leading the charge in the so-called ‘Divas Revolution,’ a movement that humanizes female performers (a thing that shouldn’t ever be in question, realistically) and tries to equalize them as talented, legitimate wrestlers. Though the attempts on WWE’s part are stumbling, but ultimately well-meaning (you would hope), 2K apparently didn’t get the memo.
A few weeks ago, 2K confirmed that while it would have two iterations of The Terminator, it had no plans to put Bayley, Sasha Banks, Becky Lynch, or Charlotte into the game, nor would they be released as DLCs. These women have been LYNCHPINS [get it? Because Becky… pins… wrestling… jokes… shut up] of NXT, yet the Vaudevillains get a fully animated entrance, and the women who helped put NXT on the map and establish its women’s division as a place with unparalleled character work and great wrestling in WWE get… weak excuses and shrug emojis.
To wit: Here’s a developer with 2K helpfully explaining why it’s just not possible for them to be in the game, despite them all having previously been scanned for gameplay:
When we travel to do scanning sessions we scan everyone that we can get into our scan booth. WWE Superstars and Divas are very busy so we take every opportunity to scan them regardless of whether or not we are using the scans for the upcoming game. We want to have as many scanned as possible because the scan is the starting point for us adding someone to the game.
It is true that it only takes around 5-10 minutes to scan the SS and Divas but that is step 1 in a long process. After they are scanned it takes our team about 2 months to complete modeling work from start to finish. The kicker is that the model is only part of the work required to add a SS or Diva into the game. Entrances, moves, taunts, attire, entrance attire, music and roster images all need to get developed. In addition, we need to record commentary for each SS and Diva which is a large undertaking all on its own. So, as you can see, scanning a SS or Diva is the least amount of work involved in getting someone into the game.
Oh man, this is almost as weak as when Disney executives insisted that women were just too hard to animate because of their emotions. I’m sorry, I super don’t but it. You’re going to tell me that every male NXT wrestler created for the game was more vitally important than anyone in the women’s division at the time, and now it’s just too much work to make up for their mistake?
Alright, well, remember that when you’re busy entering your new “Stone Cold, but this time he has a hat” DLC into a Royal Rumble with three Undertakers, Zack Ryder, and a naked Arnold Schwarzenegger.
