
And, of course, the leader of the Cenation who has faced some of the baddest people to ever set foot in a WWE ring. And a Doctor of Thugonomics who is trying to find the right prescription to becoming a giant star. That means getting a version of Cena where he’s brand new to WWE. Doing so allows us to emphasize the importance of early-career moments, as well, long before championships were in the picture. To show that “NEVER GIVE UP” has truly been a way of life for him, long before he was using it in his raps. While we want to get those big matches against the big opponents in there, we also wanted to try and capture each portion of Cena’s career in this Showcase, too. It’s also a match that slips under the radar when thinking of the epic rivalry between Cena and Orton, so we were happy to spotlight it in the Showcase. Cold, calculating, taking pleasure in the pain he dishes out to Cena. We liked the Hell in a Cell 2009 match for Orton because it’s the purest presentation of who “The Viper” really was. Then you have guys like Randy Orton and AJ Styles, who have earned numerous victories over Cena, and that’s when it gets a little more difficult to decide. RVD set the perfect trap for Cena at ECW One Night Stand 2006 and he earned a spot on this list. So, for someone like Rob Van Dam who really only has the one high-profile victory over Cena, he makes the list because of the circumstances surrounding the match, the absolute frenzied state of the crowd, and what an important win it was for both RVD and ECW as a whole.

We wanted to skew this as the “greatest” or the “toughest” opponents that Cena had to deal with in his career. We see this year's Showcase as an unofficial “countdown.” This isn’t simply “People who beat John Cena,” though. Once we had decided on the direction of Showcase being one where you’d play as the opponents of John Cena, then we had to choose the way we wanted to frame it. Any WWE fan knows that a win over John Cena is an important moment - now we’re providing that thrill directly to players! It’s direct, and works as a wonderful challenge to players. We also loved the idea of turning “YOU CAN’T SEE ME” into “YOU CAN’T BEAT ME,” which frames John Cena as the big boss of the mode, and acts as a perfect subtitle to the Showcase itself. He was excited to bring “NEVER GIVE UP!” to life, and knew that, no matter how you feel about Cena as a fan, you’d enjoy this Showcase either way. We were really excited that John himself loved the idea.
#WWE 2K22 SHOWCASE FULL#
We felt like it would be a great way to show the full story of John Cena’s journey, as many fans tend to think of him as someone who maybe didn’t have it as difficult as others that he didn’t have to fight for what he wanted, didn’t have to learn difficult lessons.

And we thought that it would be a really cool story to tell, of John Cena’s struggles and failures, of his lowest moments, and how important falling short in those instances was to his greater career. RESPECT” are certainly two of his better-known phrases, so too is “NEVER GIVE UP.” So we started thinking about what that means - both generally, and to John Cena himself.

And while “YOU CAN’T SEE ME” and “HUSTLE. Are these still going to be matches where John Cena is victorious? Will there be a mix of wins and losses, and we just go for the more standard “great match” presentation of Showcase? Obviously it’s more fun to win matches than it is to lose, so we started thinking about “What if we pick matches where Cena lost?” while keeping in mind how this would look for our players.Īs long-time John Cena fans, we thought of all the things he’s known for. The tricky part was deciding how we’d make this work. This way, each match would feel fresh, with new movesets and new strategies. So we started playing with the idea that instead of playing as John Cena, you’d play as his opponents. One thing that fans have mentioned over the years in regards to the mode is that playing as the same person for 12, 15, 20 matches can start to feel a little repetitive.
#WWE 2K22 SHOWCASE HOW TO#
Once it was decided that we’d be doing a second John Cena Showcase, the first thing we started thinking about was how to differentiate it from past Showcases, like our 2K15 Showcase that also focused on John Cena. Players had a brief taste of what is to be expected with our Even Stronger announce trailer and now we’re ready to dive in a bit more with some new, key details. In a franchise first, fans will get to step into the shoes of some of his key rivals in an attempt to take down Mr.

Many people thought the SuperCharger would unlock everything, but this just bypasses VC content.Those three phrases exemplify what players will be tasked to do in WWE 2K23’s Showcase, the interactive sports documentary that covers pivotal moments in John Cena’s 20-year WWE career.
