A WWE 2K22 fan forced beloved characters from The Office to duke it out in the ring. Michael Scott's management style may not be perfect, but this seems like an even worse way to work through office conflict.
Perhaps the most well-loved part of the WWE 2K series is its wrestler creation options. Over the years, many content creators have produced work focused on this mechanic, throwing together hosts of wild characters to see who comes out on top. WWE 2K22 continues the tradition by offering a robust character creation mode allowing players to create everything from bizarre new creations (or monstrosities) to near-exact replicas of real-life wrestlers.
Now a fan has taken a cast of beloved characters and pitted them against each other in a brutal physical confrontation. TikTok user thedraftbust has made use of WWE 2K22's ability to download other players' custom characters to pit the cast of one of TV's most successful comedies, the American version of The Office, against each other. Featuring many favorites from the show like Jim, Michael, Pam, and more, the video starts off by showing off each character's entrance, then launches into the match itself. What follows is an AI-driven match where the cast are left to their own devices to duke it out in an office-wide battle royal.
Affecting a caster-style narration, thedraftbust provides a play-by-play of the action, which follows The Office characters as they whittle their own numbers down until just Pam, Jim and Stanley are in the ring. Pam then feeds Stanley a savage kick directly to his face, knocking him out of the ring and eliminating him. At which point, married couple Jim and Pam are forced to test their love and face off against each other to determine the champion. But Pam shows no mercy as she launches one last brutal kick at her visibly exhausted husband, sending him tumbling out of the ring.
Ridiculous as this all may seem, it speaks to the ongoing success and admiration The Office has garnered. On one hand, this is a silly little piece of internet humor. On the other, it is a meeting of overlapping fandoms and a literal mashing together of enduring pop-culture love. Among other things, The Office is loved for its likable cast of characters, so they will likely pop up in small pieces of content like this for a long time as fans continue to bond over them.
With WWE 2K22's versatile character creator and many user-made wrestlers available for download, there's no end to what battle royal might be next. One thing's for certain though: Dunder Mifflin HR would not approve.
WWE 2K22 is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S
