WWE 2K MyCareer could learn a lot from Here Comes The Pain Season Mode

Logical Career Progression & Experience

MyCareer… on NXT

• Before debuting in the NXT TV Shows, you could first start out at a few NXT Live Events / House Shows (more on Live Events in a bit).
• As mentioned earlier, NXT Cards only feature 4-5 matches in the card. That means you might not appear every week in the show, especially when you’re just starting out. That’s perfectly fine. You don’t necessarily have to wrestle in every card (more on this later as well).
• In addition to the main NXT Title, you should also be able to go after the NXT Tag Team Titles and the NXT Women’s Title (in case of Women).

MyCareer… on the Main Roster

• After a while that you’ve been in NXT and you managed to win and defend the NXT Title, you would get the call to the Main Roster. Whether it’s on Raw or SmackDown could be random or could depend on various factors.
• You could try to make a shocking debut going after a top star (but it would be very difficult to beat them, if you try to go up against Cena, chances of burial are very high…) or start small and work your way up.
  Once promoted to the main roster, your own Superstar should gradually evolve his own “Status” himself, as you win more matches and put on great performances. This could be represented as a meter that can fill up until you reach the next status or fill back down (think of a display similar to rarity tiers in SuperCard).
   
• You might start out in the Undercard (and often appear on minor-shows), but after you climbed up the ranks, won titles, after you established yourself as a Midcarder and then a Top Star, you should stop appearing on minor shows. It makes no sense that you have to have to keep wrestling there while you’re a main eventer. But if you then get on a huge losing path, you could then end up reverting back to the Undercard and go back to minor show hell!
   
• You should NOT need to wrestle in every show. You should only wrestle ONCE per week on televised shows, so either on Raw or Superstars, not both (same goes for SmackDown or Main Event). Especially while you’re in the Undercard, it’s perfectly fine to sit out one episode of the main show if you don’t have a rivalry or nothing much going on, and wrestle on the minor show instead that week.
   
• WWE Pay Per Views could also include a Pre-Show match. When you’re just starting out in the main roster, or when you don’t have a rivalry or you’re not going after a title, you might end up wrestling in the pre-show match of the Pay Per View.

WWE Live Events

During your days off (the days outside of when the shows of your brand take place), you should be able to wrestle in WWE Live Events/House Shows, which would take place in a dedicated WWE Live Event arena.  It’s completely optional and it would simply be a mean to earn more SP and VC (although a lower amount of VC compared to the TV shows), and there is no penalty for skipping them.
As mentioned earlier, if you choose to not wrestle in Live Events, you would only wrestle ONCE a week (not including PPVs obviously), either on the main show or the minor show.

Titles & Rankings

Getting a Title Shot takes way longer than it should, and the Title Rankings don’t exactly respond consistently with your results. You can win a big match, win a rivalry, or beat the champion in a non-title match and don’t even move up in the rankings at all, or you can lose a random match and somehow move up. There are many improvements this aspect of the game could receive.

• If you get the opportunity to face the Champion in a non-title match and you manage to beat him, you should jump up several positions in the ranking, or immediately become the #1 contender if you were already around the 4th or 3rd spot.
   
• Title shots shouldn’t just entirely rely on Rankings, either. There should be more varied ways to determine the challenger to a title: every once in a while there should be #1 Contenderhip Tournaments, Triple Threats, Battle Royals, or a Beat The Clock challenge, or other ways to become #1 contender to the Title, like attacking the champion or sucking up to the GM asking for a shot (and maybe the GM can make you go through certain challenges before giving it to you). Spice things up.
   
• As mentioned before, if you’re a Champion and you lose a title, the new champion has to be who just beat you, and you should be right back in the position of #1 contender to exercise your Rematch Clause.
   
• If you’re a Champion and you decide to vacate a title, to keep with consistency, the title shouldn’t then just magically go in the hands of somebody else, but it should actually be vacant and put on the line by the A. I. at the next PPV before it gets assigned.
   
• You should be able to compete for the Tag Team Titles of your brand at the same time as being a Single Champion, without first losing/vacating the Single Title if you’re owning one.
   
• Also, in a semi-unrelated note, there should be “official” ways to enter special matches like the Royal Rumble, Money In The Bank, Elimination Chamber etc, like qualifying matches taking place during the month leading up to the PPV. For example, in your early years you should have to go through a qualifying match to get in the Rumble, but when you became an established main eventer, you should be able to simply “announce that you’re entering the Royal Rumble”.
   
• The King of The Ring tournament could be implemented as a periodic competition

Rivalry Booking & Promos

(NB: this section was written before WWE 2K17 came out)

You should not keep wrestling every week in single matches the same rival that you will be facing at the PPV, ruining the payoff of the feud. The Pay Per View match should be a meaningful climax, and for that to happen there needs to be more variety in the weeks leading up to it (with several “patterns” so that the same pattern doesn’t repeat for every feud).

• The game should have a smarter booking logic for the weekly shows, at least for the rivalries of your own Superstar. In addition to Run-ins, have the two rivals in Tag Team Matches against each other, interfere/distract each other during matches against other opponents, participate as a guest commentator in your rival's match, or even not having a match and instead taking part in a Promo/Segment (since we know Promos are in WWE 2K17).
• Promos should also be another new option to start rivalries. We could ask for a Promo slot during a show to talk trash about someone, call out someone, issue an open challenge and so on.
• As mentioned earlier, your rival would also cut promos/backstage interviews and we would be able to interrupt and respond to them or attack them, setting up a backstage brawl.
• Another way to trigger a rivalry could be by turning on your Tag Team Partner.
• Again, promos and interviews could easily be text-based if needed, nothing wrong with that.

(The same concept could be applied for WWE Universe Mode booking of all rivalries)