Sorry Pat McAfee, Your WWE 2K24 DLC Is The Worst Ever

WWE 2K24 is playing to rave reviews, and they are well-deserved. It is perhaps the best wrestling game in a series that was on life support after the WWE 2K20 disaster. These are the first negative words I've written about it all year, but that's how bad this situation has gotten. When 2K announced the DLCs for WWE 2K24, fans rejoiced at the depth of this game's roster. By the end of its life cycle, we'll be able to play a triple threat match pitting Andre The Giant, Terry Funk, and Lex Luger against each other. But one DLC stood out like Santino Marella when he pretended to be his sister and worked women's matches.

The Pat McAfee Pack features the ESPN host and WWE commentator/occasional wrestler as its main draw. I can't speak for anyone else, but I have no beef with McAfee's appearance. WWE games have always added commentators, executives, and other personalities who don't wrestle full-time. Wrestling storylines have seen Michael Cole and Andy Kaufman defeat the legendary Jerry "The King" Lawler. Vince Russo and David Arquette have been WCW champions. Wrestling fans know how this stuff works.

The problem arose because McAfee asked for his co-hosts to be included. Now AJ Hawk, Darius Butler, Ty Schmit, and Boston Conner will all appear in the game. McAfee said 2K Sports assured him they wouldn't be taking anyone else's spots, but that can't logically be true.

What if McAfee had declined the offer to be in the game? Was 2K just going to skip one of its planned DLCs? Of course not. They would find six or seven other wrestlers, a combination of active superstars and legends, and perhaps one other wrestling-adjacent celebrity. It would look like every pack they have sold us over the past several years. As I said, McAfee makes perfect sense. He's a great athlete and great on the mic. In a world in which he didn't become a talk show host, he could have been a full-time WWE superstar. But the other hosts are surely taking four spots that would have gone to wrestlers, or celebrities with a WWE connection. I'd have rather had 2001 Royal Rumble participant Drew Carey if we're going to have joke characters.

Now it has gotten ridiculous. You could perhaps argue AJ Hawk is a well-enough known football player, and WWE has always loved its celebrity cameos. But to put an entire talk show's on-camera ensemble in the game and then act surprised nobody wants to pay $9.99? Come on, guys. Thank God McAfee and his crew weighed in on their show. You know who always has a reasonable take on delicate situations? Sports talk show hosts, that's who.

Schmit poured gasoline on the blaze by suggesting fans wanted to play as "some other losers no one's ever heard of from NXT." Imagine the indignity of wrestling fans wanting to play as their favorite wrestlers. Nope, they'd rather play with some guy who insults them. Those of us who love pro wrestling get enough flak for doing so. We don't need to pay $9.99 for someone to insult us, we get it for free.

Schmit looks down on wrestling fans for enjoying wrestling, yet happily jumped at the chance to be in a wrestling game. The irony is that he, of all people, should understand the passion viewers have. He exists as a quasi-celebrity because of people who love sports so much that they watch a game and then go watch five or six guys talk about the game for three freakin' hours.

This DLC was already questionable before the Pat McAfee Show openly expressed its disdain for the folks it's asking to celebrate their product. Now it is beyond a shadow of a doubt, the worst DLC ever.

2K Sports has announced the Pat McAfee DLC, originally planned for a July 24 release, is delayed until July 31.