Rising superstar Joe Hendry officially signed with WWE in November, and already appears in mobile card battler WWE Supercard. At this point, he seems like a shoo-in to appear in WWE 2K26. The only question is whether he makes the cut at launch or is reserved for DLC.
It wouldn't surprise me to him appear later in the year, as his name recognition could almost singlehandedly sell a DLC pack at this point. There's every reason to expect he could be even more popular by the middle of 2026.
It's not uncommon for new signees to miss the game's launch window, which Take-Two has confirmed will be a Q4 FY 2026 release title. That puts it somewhere around March, which would be right in line with the release schedule in recent years.
While Hendry only officially signed in November, he has been a fixture on WWE programming for a long time as the company has partnered with TNA. That increases WWE's reach, as does its recent purchase of AAA. The potential roster for WWE 2K26 may be the biggest in history.
That's also giving Take-Two some ideas beyond the traditional season pass. We saw Goldberg and Nikki Bella appear in The Island, WWE 2K's answer to NBA 2K's The City. Brock Lesnar appeared in surprise DLC with the John Cena Farewell Tour Edition of WWE 2K.
There have been rumors that WWE wants to start doing a better job with retirement angles, no doubt influenced by how well AEW did Sting's sendoff. The comparison was even more stark since WWE tried to do a Sting retirement and failed pretty badly. If the rumors are true, we could see some more retirement editions of WWE 2K down the line.