Several weeks ago, Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick was revealed as one of the playable wrestlers in WWE 2K26, complete with a new entrance animation along with Frank Sinatra’s My Way as theme song which was totally exclusive for his character and can’t be used for any custom wrestler in the game. While it was definitely surprising and entertaining to see him show up in WWE 2K26, the reason for his inclusion was never disclosed by either the devs or the publishers so far.
But now, the CEO himself has opened up on how his cameo in the newest entry of the popular sports entertainment franchise had came to be as he revealed during a recent interview with IGN.
“How it came about? I asked,” he said. “I wish I could say that there was huge popular demand internally and externally, but that would be a lie. I asked, and then I went on the soundstage, and I did motion capture, and we all had fun with it. But no, this was a rare moment where I said, ‘I think this would be fun. Let’s do this.’ And everyone’s like, ‘Okay.’”
“I love the title, and I loved WWE, and I thought it would be funny for insiders and maybe fun for some consumers,” Zelnick said.
He also commented on the response that his character got from players of WWE 2K26:
“And I think it got exactly the expected response. And by the way, a lot of people played it, as it turns out, it did very well. But the online response was sort of like, ‘Huh?’ Which I think I deserved.”
However, Zelnick also made it absolutely clear that we won’t be seeing him in Rockstar’s upcoming Grand Theft Auto 6 in any way, shape or form.
WWE 2K26 came out on March 13 for all platforms and was met with mostly positive reviews from critics and players alike for it’s new additions over last year’s title. It’s got a rating of 7 from IGN, 8 from Gamespot and 3.5 out of 5 from GamesRadar+ among other review sites which indicate the game to be a worthwhile entry in the popular wrestling game franchise.
