UPDATE
Here’s a look at Ali in the game!
ORIGINAL STORY
Plenty of things are going on in the wrestling world right now, and not a lot of it is good. You might think we’re talking about in-ring storylines, and we’re honestly not. Within the last ten days, serious shifts in the wrestling world could make or break key companies going forward. The one we’ll focus on right now is WWE. The longtime industry leader should be on their “biggest roll” right now as they’re on the “Road To Wrestlemania,” but actions both inside the ring and out are affecting them heavily, including with WWE 2K24, their upcoming video game title.
Let’s start with the positive. A new gameplay trailer for WWE 2K24 dropped, and soon after, it went private. As VGC notes, the gameplay trailer ended with the legendary Muhammed Ali getting into the ring and throwing punches. Now, technically, Ali never wrestled in the WWE. He WAS a referee in the original Wrestlemania event, which helped add prestige to the events. Hopefully, that gameplay trailer will return soon so we can infer more from it.
On the darker side of the news, the special “40 Years of Wrestlemania” cover has had a serious change. Wrestling insider Sean Ross Sapp has revealed that Brock Lesnar, who has been very involved with WWE programming over the last decade, has been removed from the cover and that John Cena has been given a “bigger role” in it. You can see the two versions of the cover below:
The reason for the change is allegations that have hit WWE on all levels, including with their now former chairman of the board, Vince McMahon. He and others under him have been accused of trafficking women and abusing them in many ways. Brock Lesnar is a part of this because he was specifically singled out by the defendant in the lawsuit against the company, who said that a human being was a part of his ‘contract’ to bring him back to WWE several years ago. The woman “assigned” to him was to do anything he wanted.
This lawsuit is slowly building up, with more victims coming forward, and many are wondering if other WWE names will be brought into the mix, and if so, that won’t just affect the video game; it’ll affect everything within the company.
The situation is so bad that many feel that WWE’s new owner, TKO, is using a wrestling storyline to try and “distract people” from the brewing real-life situation. And that’s not a bad theory, given the events of the last several days.
