With all its bells and whistles, it fails in its fundamentals and immersion, as the WWE 2K22 roster is disappointing.

The base game came out with a mediocre roster of just above 180 superstars – and this already includes the General Managers from MyGM and the managers you can bring to ringside. With the DLCs, the roster size increases to just above 220, but still not as plump WWE 2K20's (bloated) 266-strong roster, or the spectacular WWE 2K19's 252-strong roster.

But the main disappointment on WWE 2K22's roster isn't just on the size. It's on the quality, accuracy, and depth.

One of my biggest gripes in WWE 2K22's roster is its shallow Legends Pool. This feels like the shallowest Legends roster in recent memory, with notable absences from the likes of Mr. Perfect, Brutus Beefcake, Paul Bearer, The Honky Tonk Man, Alundra Blayze, and Lita, among many others. It's very difficult to wrap our heads around this – but we imagine that there are a lot of complications happening in the background. Whatever the reason may be, it doesn't change the fact that WWE 2K22 is less enjoyable because of these absences. Many fans continue to play WWE 2K games even if they no longer follow the current product, but only because they have the Legends to fall back to. That's no longer there in WWE 2K22, and I have at least one friend who told me they'd skip this game simply because of this reason.

Similarly, we are missing a lot of alternate versions of wrestlers for the likes of Triple H, Kane, and Shawn Michaels. They're already Legends of their own regard already today, but they still appear in their current appearances. But we still want to have Masked Kane, Long-haired Triple H, and Attitude Era Shawn Michaels in our rosters. Their absence is an odd thing, as this has always been a feature in previous WWE 2K games. They already have the resources for this and yet they removed them for no good reason.

Finally, we have to talk about how this roster is very outdated. Granted, 2K Sports and Visual Concepts took two and a half years to create the game, and a lot has happened since they started doing their motion and likeness capture. But we have versions of Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode that are years old. We still have a King Nakamura (without a Rick Boogs!) but no King Woods. Not only that, the roster doesn't include any of the new blood that WWE is promoting – the likes of Bronn Breaker, Aliyah, and Zelina Vega, nor a majority of NXT 2.0 and NXT UK main eventers.

Much worse, WWE 2K22 is inconsistent in who makes the cut and who doesn't for their recent releases. We have recent releases like Keith Lee, Adam Cole, Daniel Bryan, and Bray Wyatt not making the cut – but we have older releases like Braun Strowman, Alexander Wolfe, Oney Lorcan, and Danny Burch. Granted, WWE may have not wanted to give exposure to their released superstars that went over to AEW, but we can't understand why Bray Wyatt, The Fiend, isn't here.

Perhaps the worst part of all of this is the fact that the WWE 2K22 DLC wrestlers have some very weird selection in them. We're thankful that we're getting Yokozuna, Umaga, The Boogeyman, and Hurricane Helms as post-launch content. But do we really need the likes of Machine Gun Kelly and Logan Paul in the DLC? What kind of wrestling fan would want to play as them? Their slots could have been used for anyone else – literally Bad Bunny would have been a better bet but instead, we're getting MGK and Logan Paul.

That being said, WWE 2K22's roster is the weakest link in the entire package of the new game. It's very bittersweet that we have such a great improvement in terms of controls, graphics, and game mechanics, only to fall short in the game's roster.

For more WWE 2K22 content, click here. You can check out our WWE 2K22 review for the PS5 here.