2019 has been a year of upheaval for WWE. The company has been stuck in a rut, producing the same mostly-predictable content for years, but recently they’ve been forced to make behind-the-scenes changes to their creative process in the face of declining ratings, new competition, and Smackdown’s move to Fox Sports. It remains to be seen whether WWE will be able to successfully face down their current challenges, but at the moment, the situation doesn’t seem terribly promising (anybody who watched Hell in a Cell this year knows what I’m talking about).

It seems 2019 is also a year of change for WWE video games. The WWE 2K franchise has been stuck in its own comfortable rut for years, but this year longtime developer Yuke’s (they’ve been making WWE games for 20 years) departed, leaving Visual Concepts in sole control of the series. So, was Yuke’s holding the series back all along? Or will 2K Games ultimately regret the breakup of the Visual Concepts/Yuke’s tag team? Lace up your boots, it’s time to find out…