WWE 2K24’s GM Mode is the best it’s been since SmackDown vs Raw

The rivalry grows! Almost two decades since the first GM Mode in SmackDown vs Raw 2006, the beloved sim experience has been restored to its former glory with WWE 2K24’s brilliant iteration. It’s endlessly addicting, feature-rich, and put simply, the best the mode has been in quite some time.

19 years ago, then WWE game developer Yuke’s introduced something brand new to the mega-popular SmackDown vs Raw series. As the likes of Football Manager began piquing interest, the devs saw a good opportunity to mirror the sim-heavy experience in the ever-turbulent world of sports entertainment.

Operating either the SmackDown or Raw brand at the time, players drafted a roster, picked their champions, and then stepped into the shoes of a General Manager for a year. Booking all the matches, boosting the morale of your biggest stars, avoiding injuries, appealing to new fans, and maintaining healthy profit margins were all essential.

The mode appealed to a niche crowd and was iterated upon over the next two years before being left behind. It wasn’t until 2022 that we saw the mode come back – largely thanks to a push from Xavier Woods and Tyler Breeze – but the returning version was vastly limited. Only now, almost two decades on from the first outing, does GM Mode truly feel whole again.

WWE 2K24’s upgraded GM Mode has hooked me in for more than a dozen hours already, with no signs of letting up anytime soon. It’s a marvelous return to form of a cherished mode that can finally strike a chord with a bigger audience.

“I’m back, and better than ever”

There was nothing sweeter than booking the perfect show in the original GM Mode. Fans loved you, wrestlers praised your booking, and the money came flowing in. When all goes well and your careful planning pays off, it can be immensely satisfying to watch the payoff at a big PPV.

That feeling has been restored in WWE 2K24. Where in previous years the potential for heated feuds and heart-pounding matchups was limited, the number of variables in play this time around ensures you’re always kept on your toes.

Booking rivalries is the name of the game, but it’s far more intricate than just matching one wrestler against another and hoping the fans care. First comes the roles, are you matching babyfaces against villains for the biggest appeal? If so, then you have to consider classes. Matching a cruiserweight against another cruiserweight might not lead to the most intriguing storyline, but if you throw a giant in the mix? Now we’re cooking.

Where should their match be on the card? What type of match should it even be in the first place? Is their stamina low and the risk of injury high? Where do promos fit into it all? There’s a great deal to keep in mind as every little decision has numerous factors to weigh up. Though chief among them all is your timing.

If you’re nailing all of the above with each passing week, the rivalry will grow, as Woods loves to say. Max out a rivalry just in time for a PPV blowoff and you’ll be laughing on your way to the bank. But fumble in the month-long lead up even once and you risk a feud growing stale, a wrestler having to sit out the big show, or worse still, a contract expiring.

It’s a thrilling juggling act that even a dozen hours in still presents new obstacles to overcome. It’s deeper than any other 2K GM Mode offering to date and that, in large part, is due to the real draw. The aspiration of a Hall of Fame-worthy career.

GM Mode has more than one royal family

Beyond the week-to-week hustle and bustle, your main goal is to complete 10 Hall of Fame objectives. Do so, and you guessed it, a Hall of Fame induction is in the cards. It’s this long-term draw that keeps me saying ‘I’ll just book one more week’ before signing off. And of course, one week quickly turns into a month.

Broken up into different seasons, each run sees you booking 25 straight weeks of action. At the end, almost everything resets. If you’re leading the way, you only get to keep three of your signed superstars in the next season. The rest of your roster has to be drafted from scratch, regardless of any feuds you may have in the books or even if any wrestlers were holding onto a title.

While you do keep progress made in regard to production, social media, and venue upgrades alike, as well as the fact fans follow you over, everything else goes back to zero. So over the course of multiple seasons, you’re not only working on the immediate goal of putting on the best shows, but the long-term build of your own career. Accruing millions of fans through consistent booking, generating millions in revenue with the biggest shows, all while meeting seasonal challenges too.

It can be easy to get lost in the weekly chaos of being a WWE GM, let alone keeping this lofty goal in mind. But the chase is every bit as engaging as you can imagine, and one I can’t wait to start over again and again.

WWE 2K24’s GM Mode has had me hooked for the better part of 15 hours already and it’s still early days yet. I’ve only just reached the Hall of Fame on my first run, but I’m eager to do it all over for many reasons.

Not only on a higher difficulty, with more matches to book each week, but as a new GM with a different brand. Mixing up the variables opens the door to near-endless replay value, and that’s before you even so much as take the experience up a notch with local coop. It’s a shame there’s no online support for it yet, but perhaps in due time.

We’ve seen 2K treat the mode with more respect than ever, so here’s hoping devs only continue to build on this excellent foundation in the years to come.