WWE 2k18 Cover Revealed: Is It The Right Choice? What Does It Mean?
The WWE Superstar to grace this year’s cover is none other than The Architect, The Kingslayer, The Man, Seth Freakin’ Rollins! Steven Mitchell breaks it down!
The WWE video games series switched to Take-Two Interactive’s 2K Sports back in 2013 after having been with THQ for over a decade. As with any sports or sports entertainment video game, the person (or persons) on the cover are traditionally the biggest names, the most successful athletes that previous year, or in WWE’s case, those they have big plans for.
WWE 2k14 had The People’s Champion, The Rock, as the main cover — with alternate editions like the Daniel Bryan cover and the Undertaker’s “Phenom” signature TX symbol edition — in relation to his “electrifying” return. Those who know their WWE history know that on Monday Night Raw episode 1000, July 23rd of 2012, The Rock announced he would challenge the WWE Champion, whoever he may be, at the 2013 Royal Rumble Pay-Per-View. Fast-forward to January 7, 2013, The Rock returned to find that the man he would face was the Straight-Edge Superstar, CM Punk. The Rock would win the title off CM Punk to end Punk’s historic reign, even after the interference of a trio known as The Shield (Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose, and Seth Rollins). The Rock would then redesign the WWE World title belt into what we know it to be today, and then move on to face John Cena once more at Wrestlemania 29. Cena would win that belt and The Rock would have to deal with a real injury, his abdominal and adductor tendons tore from his pelvis, but The Great One had already added to his legendary career, making him worthy of the cover.
John Cena graced the cover of WWE 2k15, for the year 2014 was about John Cena defending not a title at Wrestlemania, but his “legacy” against the New Face of Fear, Bray Wyatt. Cena would overcome not just Bray but the whole Wyatt Family (that is, Luke Harper and Erick Rowan) to maintain that Cena was indeed the Face the Runs the Place.
WWE 2k16 had “Stone Cold” Steve Austin on the cover, not because he was planned for a return to the ring and a final title reign but because he was another of the biggest names in WWE and professional wrestling; WWE 2k16 did however feature a Showcase mode where players would play through Stone Cold’s legendary career for fans both familiar and unfamiliar to the Rattlesnake’s legacy alike.
Last year’s edition, WWE 2k17, then featured the Beast Incarnate, the man who put Suplex City on the map, Brock Lesnar. Again, those who know WWE history know that Lesnar would appear sporadically but dominate like no one had before, checking off names like John Cena, Triple H, and at Wrestlemania 30, The Undertaker in the match that would “Conquer the Streak”. Lesnar graced old covers of WWE games like THQ’s Here Comes the Pain, but this 2k17 cover commemorated the triumphant return of the only NCAA, UFC and WWE world heavyweight champion, as Heyman would constantly remind us. Of course, 2k17 also had a special pre-order bonus: Goldberg. This was to hype the real-life exchange of the icon of WCW and the WWE’s Beast, in which Goldberg would conquer the conqueror in a 1v1 Survivor Series squash, then do similar in the 2017 Royal Rumble, to ultimately lose the brand new WWE Universal Championship to Lesnar at Wrestlemania 33. Lesnar is still on a dominate though part-time reign, and is set to face Samoa Joe at the next Raw exclusive PPV, “Great Balls of Fire”, which could be yet another trophy upon Lesnar’s proverbial mantle.
Therefore, it would seem rather fit that this year’s cover be of Seth Rollins. Rollins started his WWE career in NXT to become its inaugural NXT Champion, and then as mentioned earlier, would be one of the three men in the incredibly dominant trio of The Shield. At the same time, he was the man to break up The Shield to join Triple H’s “Authority” to play the part of cowardly Heel but then have one of the best Money in the Bank cash-ins when he used his chance at Wrestlemania 31 during the WWE World title match between former friend Roman Reigns, and then-champion Brock Lesnar. At Summerslam, Rollins would win a Winner Takes All match over John Cena to become a dual WWE World and United States champion, with a bit of help from comedian Jon Stewart. Rollins would lose the US Title back to Cena at Night of Champions, and Rollins would only lose the world title because of a real-life injury: November 4, during a match against Kane at a WWE live event in Dublin, Ireland, Rollins tore the ACL, MCL, and medial meniscus in his knee while attempting to execute a sunset flip powerbomb. Since the injury required surgery and it was estimated it would take Rollins out of action for approximately six to nine months, Rollins was forced to vacate the title, but then comes the redemption story that is Rollins’ “Redesign, Rebuild, Reclaim”.
Rollins would return at Extreme Rules 2016 to Pedigree Roman Reigns, the champion at the time. There would be real-life reasons for why Roman Reigns would lose the title, but in kayfabe, it was the heroic return of The Man to overthrow The Guy at Money in the Bank 2016, only for The Lunatic and other Shield member, Dean Ambrose, to use his freshly won MITB contract on Rollins and lead us into the WWE Brand Expansion Draft. Fast-forward a bit more, and Rollins is one of two men to compete for the brand-new Universal Champion, the other being Finn Balor. Rollins would lose the Summerslam match that in turn injures Finn Balor and forces a title vacating, and Rollins would always be just outside of the title picture even now. Seth Rollins would confront Triple H, the Game who manipulated and used Rollins, and have a great storied match at Wrestlemania 33. To summarize, Seth Rollins has had a storybook year of ups and downs and is a great choice for the cover. The release trailer, SPOILERS for those who didn’t watch it, even plays on his vow to Triple H that he’d “burn it all down”, where we see a masked individual deface, defame and destroy iconic artifacts of WWE history, only to find it is
“Seth Freakin’ Rollins”. The cover commemorates Rollins’ already great career, and perhaps foreshadows his impeding rise back to the top.
However, to play Devil’s Advocate, I ask: is it the right choice? Seth Rollins cannot be denied as a great wrestler, a top tier talent within WWE and perhaps in all of wrestling, BUT was there someone else they could’ve put on there instead? Not Roman Reigns, I doubt even Vince McMahon would risk tanking sales to put him on the cover when Vince clearly favors Roman enough in kayfabe anyway. And sadly not AJ Styles, because Vince still seems to stubbornly put WWE homegrown products over “outsiders” (though “The Club” edition would be phenomenal, pun intended). I’m thinking of something the WWE has been pushing steadily for the last year or so, the Women’s Wrestling Revolution. That movement sprang up from the outrage of fans who despised the Bella Twins squashing Emma and Paige in a tag team match, and then grew into a jumbled but exciting war of trios, where Paige would join forces with Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair and Sasha Banks would debut to join the athletic Naomi and Tamina Snuka, while the Bella Twins recruited Alicia Fox to represent the previous generation of “Diva” Wrestlers. In the end, the previous did give way to the new, as now Charlotte, Becky, Sasha and other new women wrestlers are in the spotlight, such as Bayley, Alexa Bliss and even most recently (and controversially) Carmella becoming the F A B U L O U S first Ms. Money in the Bank. Therefore, why did WWE not take one of their homegrown women talents and put them on the cover? Charlotte Flair herself had an incredible run in 2016, where she would win 16 straight Pay Per View title matches until Fastlane 2017 back in March. Of course, there is criticism of the “hot potato” for that now Raw Women’s Championship between Charlotte, Sasha and now Bayley, but a streak like Charlotte’s speaks to her lineage as the Nature Boy’s daughter and her physical ability, as displayed by her several moonsaults.
However, I can also see why WWE is still waiting: there is a woman with a streak even more historic than Charlotte’s 16–1 PPV record, and that woman is still in NXT. Yes, I mean the still Undefeated Empress, the NXT Women’s Champion, Asuka. Asuka has a win streak of 176, which WWE claims is “the longest undefeated streak in WWE history.” Granted she’s still down in NXT, with many women targeting her, her title and her streak, but the second she gets on the main roster, Asuka will undoubtedly shoot straight to the top and even become champion of whichever brand she chooses. At the same time, WWE is gearing up for the new wave in the Women’s Wrestling Revolution as they are going to hold the inaugural Mae Young Classic tournament of 32 women wrestlers from around the world. This tournament could bolster division rosters from NXT to main, or even branch out into an all-women-wrestling WWE product if the company signs that many women to contracts. 2k18 may belong to The Man, but perhaps in one year’s time, we’ll be talking about 2k19 featuring “The Woman”.
