At the start of the year, WWE and TNA shocked the wrestling world when they announced they had entered a multi-year partnership. Originally launched by Acclaim’s Jeff Jarrett under the name NWA: Total Nonstop Action, TNA was formed for the purpose of giving WWE competition for pro wrestling on broadcast US TV. As many fans have opined, this new partnership may ultimately end badly for TNA, as they may even get acquired by the bigger wrestling promotion.
But for now, WWE and TNA are enjoying mutual benefits, having their stars wrestle each other on WWE and TNA programming. With WWE NXT Champion Oba Femi set to face TNA X-Division Champion Moose at WWE NXT Roadblock, things are looking up for their wrestlers, and the companies’ wallets. And now, TNA is getting a little bit more from WWE for a change.
As reported by Video Games Chronicle, 2K Games and Visual Concepts added some of TNA’s biggest stars to WWE 2K25, as part of their upcoming DLC roadmap. Most of these stars are performers who have formally transferred into WWE programs, such as Mrs. Big Momma Pump herself, Jordynne Grace, and the infamous Motor City Machine Guns, Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley.
But also added to the roadmap is a wrestler who never actually wrestled for WWE, Abyss, real name Christopher Joseph Park. Abyss’ gimmick was conceived of as a mashup between Mick Foley’s Mankind and Mayor Glen Jacob’s Kane characters. Through the years, TNA fleshed out Abyss’ character to give him a narrative arc and personality all of his own.
Video Games Chronicle reports this as the first time a wrestler debuts for WWE on one of their video games (which isn’t correct), but what’s really going on here? When Abyss joined the WWE in January 2019, he also chose to retire from performing as a wrestler himself.
After spending most of his career with thumbtacks puncturing his back, it stands to reason that Park would no longer want to keep wrestling. He also entered WWE after having as full a career as any wrestler could have had in TNA, including earning Triple Crown and Grand Slam accolades there.
But of course, Park would have loved to have been in WWE’s video games, and this partnership between his two current and former employers opened the door to make that happen. For the record, this is not the first time the WWE video games have added wrestlers who never performed in the promotion, and the late ECW star New Jack, who did work for TNA but never WWE, is also part of this year’s roadmap.
So this is another banner year for those old school wrestling fans, who are getting more and more legends and superstars from other wrestling promotions in WWE video games. It would certainly be something if this partnership also ended up with TNA getting their own video game under 2K Games, but that may be getting too far ahead of where they are now.
