WWE 2K19: 10 Entrances They Must Get Right
6. Tommaso Ciampa
This is comfortably the most simplistic ring entrance in WWE today, but that's why it's so brilliant. Tommaso Ciampa needs no music. For him, the jeers and calls of the baying masses are the perfect soundtrack. Marching slowly down the ramp, he reflects the crowd's bile and venom right back at them, and replicating this human energy in a video game looks a Herculean task for the 2K19 development team.
That Ciampa's entrance works so well is testament to his strength as a heel. Going music-free was a bold move. If he wasn't as over as he is, it would've been an outright embarrassment, as the walk-out requires an extreme level of crowd investment. There's no window dressing, no flashy production, and no gimmicks: just Ciampa, the audience, and pure, unbridled hatred.
How this will come across in 2K is anyone's guess. They can fill the building with canned jeers, but crowd noise always sounds artificial in this series. That doesn't bode well for Ciampa. Accurately recreating his entrance will require a ground-up re-programming of the way 2K generates atmosphere: it'd benefit the game as a whole, but would they really go this far for the sake of nailing one specific entrance?