

In an attempt to increase the show's ratings, Raw General Manager Eric Bischoff decides to host a mini-tournament for the World Heavyweight Championship and the finals will be held at WrestleMania 21. One month before WrestleMania 21, Triple H loses the title in a controversial match with Chris Jericho and the title is now up for grabs.

However, the player's character has gained a love interest in WWE Diva Stacy Keibler.

Almost a year after WrestleMania XX, Evolution has disbanded and the player's character has lost the World Heavyweight Championship back to Triple H and has fallen down the ranks of WWE. The story continues from where the original Day of Reckoning left off, with the player's character at the top of the Raw roster. The game's Story Mode picks up from the story introduced in the first Day of Reckoning, but created wrestlers cannot be imported from the first game.

Each character can be assigned between one and nine finishing moves, one for each position an opponent is in. Players can again create wrestlers and customize each character's set of attacks. While applying a submission hold, players can choose from one of four submission types: a Taunt submission depletes the opponent's momentum meter, a Rest Hold submission allows the player's character to regain stamina, the Drain submission drains the opponent of stamina, while a regular submission move causes damage to a particular body part. The game also introduces four types of submission options. In addition, different levels of bleeding on the player's character also affect the character's ability to regain stamina. New to the game is the stamina meter, which slows wrestlers' movement over time and when completely depleted, temporarily leaves characters winded and open to attack. Day of Reckoning 2 features similar gameplay to the previous Day of Reckoning game with returning features such as Momentum shift and momentum lift.
