As any long time fan will tell you, pro-wrestling is so much more than just wrestling. An intricate display of moves with slowly building violence is fun to watch, but it would be so much less without the story, pageantry, and spectacle surrounding it as a wrestling legend comes to the ring. Nowhere is that clearer than during a wrestler’s entrance. Entrances are the very first thing you’ll see of a wrestler. The aura they exude when they walk to the ring gets fans pumped to see what they’re going to do.
The best entrances perfectly encapsulate that wrestler’s personality and character, without any need for words. The music, the way they walk, even the colour of the arena lights can immerse you in these larger-than-life characters. WWE 2K22 captures these moments of marvel better than any game before, and we’ve collected the very best that you need to check out and use on your own Create-A-Wrestler.
Rhea Ripley
All told, this is a relatively simple entrance, but Ripley does so much with so little. Her music, ‘Brutality’, is the perfect type of heavy rock. It blazes through at a pace guaranteed to get you in the mood for some wrestling.
On top of that, Ripley walks with a confident swagger that works no matter what role she’s playing. When she’s a heel, it feels cocky, but when she’s a face it gives off cool confidence. ‘Cool’ is the best word to describe how this entrance feels, it embodies her rebellious spirit without going overboard.
Roman Reigns
Once upon a time, Roman Reigns was the opposite of cool. When those behind the scenes at WWE desperately wanted him to be the next John Cena, he was painfully lame in just about every way. However, eventually, things changed. After some time off in 2020, Roman Reigns returned with a new attitude, a new look, and a new entrance.
Gone was the awful ‘Big Dog’ character, and here was ‘The Tribal Chief’. He replaced his old music with something that makes him sound more like a Dark Souls boss than a wrestler, and in an instant, he became the megastar that management had wanted him to be for so many years. Having Paul Heyman and The Usos surrounding him like worshippers is just the icing on the cake.
Kyle O’Reilly (Champion)
One of the biggest losses in WWE 2K22 is the Undisputed Era’s packaging. After Adam Cole and Bobby Fish left for AEW, it left Kyle O’Reilly to struggle as a singles wrestler with an extremely forgettable entrance.
Not every shred of his old character is gone, though, as he still has a ‘Champion’ entrance, which is only seen when he is made a champion in-game. Here, O’Reilly (or any character you apply it to) has that trademark swagger as he cockily plays air guitar on the championship belt. It truly never gets old, and hopefully never goes away.
Batista
Much like The Rock before him, no matter how great of an actor he is, wrestling fans will never let Batista forget where came from. Although his career ultimately went in a different direction, Batista has the potential to sit atop the industry for decades alongside John Cena, and he was packaged to perfection.
His entrance music ‘I Walk Alone’ is a banger of a rock track. It’s super memorable and fits Batista’s grizzly edges really well. The main thing you’ll remember about his entrance are the pyrotechnics, as he squats down and motions like he’s firing a machine gun whilst fireworks rattle off in the background. It’s kind of silly, but in the way wrestling should be silly, where you can’t help but love it.
Shotzi
A woman whose emerald green hair makes her stand out in any crowd, Shotzi is another like Rhea Ripley, who used her ‘alternate’ style to her advantage in wrestling. Women’s wrestling has thankfully moved away from the era of being a sideshow, but characters like Shotzi still feel like they’re going against the grain in some way.
In Shotzi’s case, riding a mini tank to the ring is a great way to be memorable. It could’ve made her look like an overgrown child playing a real-life RPG if it was done wrong, but thankfully it came out perfectly. As a result, she feels like an eccentric but endearing wrestler who isn’t afraid to get her hands dirty.
Goldberg
If entrances are designed to build the biggest hype around a wrestler, perhaps none are better than Goldberg. A man who went from unknown to megastar in no time at all, everything surrounding Goldberg’s image makes him feel invincible.
Rather than coming straight out to the ramp, he has to be escorted by security from his locker room. All the time you watch him walk through the backstage area, as the slow music builds and builds, and the crowd gets more excited. When he finally appears on the ramp, it gets even better, as he stands in the middle of blazing sparks, becoming enveloped in the sparks before bursting forth with intensity like no other.
Io Shirai
When Io Shirai first debuted in NXT, she didn’t seem like much of a big deal. She was a great wrestler, but so was everyone in that era of NXT. She felt like just another Kairi Sane or Candice LeRae. That was until she turned heel.
Like so many before her, becoming a bad guy allowed her to find her cool factor and dial it up to the max. Now she comes to the ring bathed in strobe lighting and dubstep that gives her the aura of a supermodel, one that would tear your head off and snap your spine in half if you looked at her the wrong way.
Shinsuke Nakamura
When Nakamura joined NXT, it was the first time a new signing had felt like such a huge deal. It happened right at the time when western interest in Japanese wrestling started to pick up again, and NXT was flourishing in its first golden era. To top it all off, Nakamura was something genuinely new to western audiences, someone like him had never regularly been on a mainstream program before.
As if he didn’t feel like a big enough deal already, they gave him the entrance of a king. His music ‘The Rising Sun’ was both unique and catchy, so much so that fans will continue singing it even after it’s stopped. Although his star in 2022 isn’t as bright as it once was, seeing that entrance still makes him feel like the Nakamura of old.
Edge
Edge recently turned heel on WWE TV, and part of that meant his old entrance has gone away, which is a true shame because WWE 2K22 proves that it’s still one of the best. Edge has always had a bit of a rockstar feel about him, and his old entrance is largely responsible for it.
‘Metallingus’ is one of, if not the very best pieces of entrance music in WWE history. It is simultaneously triumphant and cocky, it goes unapologetically hard for as long as it wants. Edge’s actions are the perfect complement, he emerges from the smoke before standing on the ramp, posing as fireworks cascade behind him. It’s no wonder people wanted him back in the ring for so many years.
The Undertaker
Perhaps the most well-defined and memorable character in WWE history, The Undertaker’s entrance is something that will probably never be done that well ever again. In an era where everyone knows wrestling isn’t real, no one feels more real than The Undertaker. No matter how much you tell yourself he’s just a character when you see him walk to the ring, you can’t help but believe him.
The slow funeral procession music is truly epic, as the arena is bathed in purple light. Then when The Undertaker finally appears, amidst fire and smoke, he walks slowly, calmly, like someone who truly isn’t human. After 30 long years, the man may have finally hung up his boots, but the character of The Undertaker will never truly die, living on in one of the best games of 2022 so far.
Written by Ryan Woodrow on behalf of GLHF.
