What’s the greatest accolade a WWE performer can be given during the course of his or her career?
A Royal Rumble win? Pfft, no thank you.
The opportunity to main event WrestleMania? A pittance, reserved for losers and morons.
Induction into the WWE Hall of Fame? Maybe if you’re a tiny little baby with absolutely no ambition whatsoever.
No, the real ones know that there’s only one ultimate prize in sports entertainment: being featured as the cover star of a WWE video game.
With rumors swirling that the next WWE 2K game could be announced in just a few weeks time at this month’s Royal Rumble, it’s worth asking the question: who will WWE choose to act as its version of Sonic the Hedgehog in 2023?
Here are a few stars we could see grace the cover of the next WWE video game:
Bianca Belair
There haven’t been a ton of women on the cover of WWE 2K games; to be fair, after the 2K20 debacle it’s possible that we never will again, lest we invoke the same terrible curse.
In all seriousness though, has there been anybody (who hasn’t already been on a 2K cover) who’s had as stellar a year in WWE as Bianca Belair has?
After a relatively short time on the main roster, Belair has quickly established herself as a main event level talent and a first ballot WWE Hall of Famer.
She’s also become a fan favorite, selling huge amounts of merchandise to children and adults alike through sheer charisma alone.
While she isn’t quite a mainstream star at the moment, really, which wrestlers are?
What she is, though, is a top WWE star who oozes charisma and appeals to a wide range of demographics, which makes her a more-than-worthy candidate for the 2K cover.
Cody Rhodes
Adrenaline, in my soul, motion capture Cody Rhodes! Do it all to buy the DLC (that’s as good as that joke’s ever going to get, lads).
If they put Cody on the cover of this video game I’m going to invest all my time and effort into time travel technology so that one day I can mail a copy back in time to 2020 and cause absolute havoc.
I’m kind of torn on whether or not we’ll see Cody as the 2K23 cover star. When he joined the company in 2022 I would have said he was a shoo in, but there’s something about being absent from TV for six months that really undermines a wrestler’s push, you know?
There’s also the issue of whether or not they want to put Rhodes on the cover of a WWE video game when all signs point to him still being included in AEW: Fight Forever.
Though to be fair, WWE probably isn’t too worried about that, since Fight Forever has been delayed so many times at this point that Cody will probably already be in the Hall of Fame by the time it’s actually released.
If they do put him on there I only have one request: a limited edition steelbook in the shape of that dumb tattoo on his neck.
The Bloodline
Please allow me, if I may, to paint you a word picture – WWE 2K23: Ucey Edition.
I know that technically Roman Reigns has been on the cover of a 2K game before, but to that I say a) the Tribal Chief hasn’t, b) the Bloodline as a collective haven’t and c) Roman Reigns can do whatever he wants as long as he keeps wrestling with his shirt off.
Really, after the year that’s been in it, the Bloodline are probably the most worthy candidates for a special edition cover.
Not only are they some of the company’s biggest stars, but from a purely aesthetic perspective they’re the most interesting-looking group on the roster.
Even if you didn’t watch wrestling, they’re the kind of group that would catch your eye if you were shopping in Gamestop or something and looking to try something a bit different (wait, do physical video game stores even exist anymore? Do kids do all their shopping in the Metaverse now?).
And what does the Ucey Edition come with, I hear you ask? Honorary membership to the Bloodline, a fake ginger beard, and the looming knowledge that one day your Tribal Chief’s mounting paranoia will cause him to inevitably turn on you.
Triple H
You’d think that it would be easy to come up with a pithy little joke about the fact that Triple H’s nickname is “The Game”, and we’re talking about a literal video game, but the fact is that when the pieces fit together that well it can sometimes give you the writer’s equivalent of pee shyness.
Here’s what I do know, though: if the WWE 2K cover star is determined by which person has rendered the biggest service to the company in any given year, then Triple H should be on the cover until at least WWE 2K28.
I’m only sort of joking here; regardless of what happens to WWE going forward, the King of Kings has been the company’s MVP ever since he took over creative duties from Vince McMahon in 2022.
Hell, he’s been hailed as the company’s savior ever since he took the lame reality TV show NXT concept and transformed it into the best wrestling product in North America (before they fired everybody who made it good and a clown threw up on the logo).
Sentimentality aside, putting the Cerebral Assassin on the cover of 2K is also just good business sense, since he’s an Attitude Era star who casual fans are likely to recognise.
Short of Stone Cold or the Rock, Triple H is one of the few mugshots in wrestling that can convince somebody who hasn’t watched WWE since 2002 to take a chance on dropping $100 on a slightly updated roster and a broken GM mode.
Actually maybe “broken” isn’t a fair assessment (no matter what Luke Owens wakes up in the night screaming). It just takes some skill to master. I guess you could say it’s all about the game, and how you play it, it’s all about control and if you can take it…
Logan Paul
They hated Ryan because he told them the truth.
Look, here’s the thing: WWE wants to sell as many copies of this video game as possible, and there’s no better way to get people to buy what you’re selling than by saying right on the cover “you can use this product to simulate the experience of punching Logan Paul in the mouth”.
I’m half-kidding, but what I do know for sure is that Logan Paul specifically appeals to the exact video game-playing demographic that these games are targeted at.
While the die hard fans are probably going to be pretty mad, as with anything Paul does with WWE there’s real potential to tap into a very different, much larger market.
Has he done enough to justify the honor of adorning the 2K23 cover? Maybe not in the world of wrestling (he’s no Shawn Michaels, or Undertaker, or Otis), but he’s such a big star in the wider world of entertainment that I’m not even sure that really matters.
Though I still maintain his match against Roman at Crown Jewel last year was a six-star classic, so maybe he’s already done enough in the world of wrestling too.
Drew McIntyre
There was a point in 2021 where I was convinced that the cover stars of WWE 2K22 would be Drew McIntyre and Sasha Banks due to the work they put in during the pandemic era.
While the latter doesn’t seem like it’s going to be happening any time soon, Drew is still in with a pretty good shot.
He’s not currently receiving the kind of push he was two years ago, but he’s still very much a fixture of the company, and an established top guy.
Maybe I’m just biased because I love Drew McIntyre more than I could ever love a child or spouse of my own, but he really feels like a logical candidate for a position usually occupied by the likes of your Seths, your Romans and your Beckys.
It would also be a great way for WWE to show it still has faith in the man who carried the company on his back during one of the most difficult periods in its history (and, you know, world history).
Or if they wanted to be really crazy, they could just let him WIN THE WWE CHAMPIONSHIP IN FRONT OF A CROWD, PLEASE, YOU MONSTERS, HAS THE MAN NOT SUFFERED ENOUGH?!
Bray Wyatt
If there was one bright spot to the disastrous release of WWE 2K20, it was the inclusion of the Bray Wyatt-themed DLC.
Spooky swamps, Halloween themed missions, and most importantly, the Fiend as a playable character – Wyatt is a wrestler whose gimmick is tailor-made for stupid video game shenanigans.
Since he returned to WWE at Extreme Rules last year, Wyatt has reminded us of why we were so captivated by him originally, immediately jumping right back into compelling storylines centered on his mysterious, complex characters.
Because the 2K games have a bit of a reputation for being a bit same old, same old, it wouldn’t be a terrible idea to try theming the entire game about Wyatt’s spooky-weird aesthetic.
With the new release schedule, which will see the game come out towards the latter half of the year, you could even make this feel like a proper Halloween release.
There are about a million different Wyatt or Wyatt-related characters to draw from – hell, you could probably make a half-decent roster from his gimmicks alone.
Edge
The Rated-R Su-uuuu-uperstar is a pretty obvious candidate for the next 2K cover, to the point that there were a lot of people who were convinced he’d be the poster boy for the company’s prior outing.
It makes sense – ever since he came back from retirement at the 2020 men’s Royal Rumble, Edge has felt like an absolutely enormous deal.
It also wouldn’t hurt that he brings the same Attitude Era nostalgia to the table that Triple H does, with the added bonus of actually still being an active wrestler.
One of the biggest things Edge brings to the table (and ladders, and chairs) is the possibility of a showcase mode centered on one of the most impressive and storied careers in wrestling.
If there’s a drawback to that idea it’s that – unless Tony Khan gets really cool really quickly – that showcase mode is going to be missing a pretty major component in current AEW signee Christian Cage, who was Edge’s tag team partner during some of the biggest matches of both men’s careers.
That being said, Edge himself has a more-than-worthy singles record to justify a playable retrospective, so while it would probably end up feeling like it’s missing something, it would still be a more satisfying showcase mode than most wrestlers would be able to offer.
New Day
Considering how closely tied the group’s gimmick is to video games, and nerd culture in general, it’s actually kind of shocking that the New Day haven’t already been featured on the cover of a 2K game.
Everything else aside, they’re just a colorful and interesting-looking group, who seem tailor made to sell games to kids via the power of positivity (and savvy brand management).
Honestly, while it would be great seeing the whole group on the cover for a 2K game, this entry was almost just about Xavier Woods, who has done more for WWE video games via his YouTube channel UpUpDownDown than most other people in the company (Vince still calls every games console a “Nintendo”).
I know the point of selecting the right cover star is to make sure the game makes money, but let’s be honest, if 2K20 didn’t kill the series then you’re probably going to make money regardless.
Sticking Woods on the cover would be a great way to thank somebody who does so much for the company that he doesn’t even need to, by going out of his way to keep WWE relevant to a generation raised on YouTube and Call of Duty (Vince calls it “the YouTubes” and “Medal of Honor”).
My only wish is that 2K could somehow sneak a secret Uno minigame in there. It’s what we people deserve.
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