Ahhh ok. So AI can be used. CoolLol depends what you mean by play.
Let me be more specific.
Unless you and the person you are faceing both have WWE 2K18 on the same platform, then the matches are all AI based, meaning i pick the matches and create them, but its the AI that fights. Everyone at first will be the same ranking/level/overal, but as your characters win matches (And you here on the site do promos for your character) they will go up in rank and such (The exact numbers you can see in the main post.)