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WWE 2K26 'Monday Night Wars' Edition Revealed On Saturday Night's Main Event

The new edition follows the unveil of the 'Attitude Era' version of the game
Joe Baiamonte|
WWE 2K26 | 2K Games
WWE 2K26 | 2K Games | WWE 2K26 | 2K Games

Another special edition of the upcoming WWE 2K26 video game was unveiled during Saturday Night's Main Event at the Bell Center in Montreal, Quebec.

Following on from the unveiling of the 'Attitude Era' edition of the upcoming release, 2K Games dropped a tease for the second new edition tonight, this time focused on the 'Monday Night Wars' of the late '90s between WWE and WCW.

Raw vs Nitro: Revisited

WWE's Monday Night Raw and WCW's Monday Nitro went head-to-head for ratings dominance for the best part of six years, between September 1995 and March 2001, when WCW folded and was purchased by Vince McMahon and promptly absorbed by WWE.

However, while WWE eventually reigned supreme in the Monday Night Wars, things were not always straightforward for the old New York territory. Eric Bischoff, bankrolled by Ted Turner's billions, put together an almighty roster of talent down in Atlanta, including an era-defining New World Order, featuring Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, and a freshly turned heel 'Hollywood' Hulk Hogan.

The NWO would catapult WCW to ratings dominance, defeating WWE for 83 straight weeks on Monday night.

And now, 2K Games is going to allow us to revisit this golden era once again, through the upcoming special edition of WWE 2K26.

WCW almost put WWE out of business during the Monday Night Wars

Given how disastrously everything ended for WCW, it feels almost absurd to think about how Bischoff and co almost put WWE out of business around 1996-1997. Top stars departed Titan for Turner, with the likes of Hall, Nash, Roddy Piper, 'Macho Man' Randy Savage, Ted DiBiase, Rick Rude, Lex Luger and Bret Hart all becoming part of the WCW roster in the mid-late '90s.

However, even with so much starpower departing WWE, the ascension of 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin and Vince McMahon's 'Mr. McMahon' character began a series of storylines that set WWE on fire.

Coupled with a tonal shift towards edgier and more controversial content involving the likes of The Rock, D-Generation-X, Mick Foley and Sable, WWE turned a corner and never looked back in 1998, eventually leaving WCW in the dust.

As the NWO arc petered out, several huge opportunities were missed by WCW, such as wasting Bret Hart's momentum after he arrived following the Montreal Screwjob and ending Goldberg's undefeated streak to utilise the 'Fingerpoke of Doom' to herald in a new, unwanted era of the NWO.

The lack of new stars and the freshness of WWE's roster and creative meant WCW went the last two-and-a-half years of their existence without ever winning another Monday Night War.

Thanks to 2K Games, perhaps there will be opportunities to (virtually) rewrite a little bit of history?

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Joe Baiamonte
JOE BAIAMONTE

Joe Baiamonte is a contributing writer for The Takedown On SI, joining the team in April, 2025. Joe has been covering professional wrestling, sports and entertainment for over a decade, serving as editor at SPORTbible between 2014 and 2018 - where he helped the team to three consecutive Football Blogging Awards - and as head of sport at Unilad. Joe has written for numerous outlets in the United Kingdom and United States, including The Sportsman, Sporf, Pubity, GiveMeSport and The Sportster, interviewing the likes of Neymar, Harry Kane, Ruud Gullit, Triple H, Ric Flair, Cody Rhodes, Becky Lynch, Rey Mysterio, Aaron Boone, Alex Cora, Chris Sale and Chase Uttley. He has a BA (Hons) degree in Journalism and Broadcasting from the University of Salford and currently resides in Manchester, England, having been raised just down the road in Burnley. He briefly moved to Croatia with his family after the birth of his son, where he spent an entire summer writing on the beach and eating squid.

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