'Stone Cold' Steve Austin to grace cover of WWE 2K16
WWE Hall of Famer "Stone Cold" Steve Austin will grace the cover of WWE 2K16, 2K announced Monday.
"I've had the privilege of working with 2K to support the WWE 2K franchise, and now I'm absolutely honored to serve as the WWE 2K16 cover superstar," Austin said in a press release. "No disrespect to the previous and extremely deserving WWE 2K cover superstars — Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson and John Cena — but it's about time the franchise raised some hell with yours truly on the cover. I look forward to injecting a dose of 'Texas Rattlesnake' into this year's game and overall campaign."
To promote the announcement, 2K also released a video of Austin digging a hole in the middle of nowhere. Austin then kneels down into the hole and unearths his custom smoking skull title belt.
Austin was and still is one of the most popular superstars in WWE history, as he captivated fans with his brash attitude and propensity to drink beer and use four-letter words.
Austin won the WWE Championship six times and helped the company surge in popularity during the late 1990s.
"Stone Cold Steve Austin's iconic style, unmistakable personality and worldwide reverence from the WWE Universe make him the ideal fit for WWE 2K16," said 2K vice president of marketing Chris Snyder. "Not only will Austin grace the video game's cover, but he's involved in shaping its creative direction. Through his numerous contributions, inclusion on the largest roster in franchise history and the game's to-be-announced features, WWE 2K16 is certain to put everyone on notice."
Since retiring from in-ring competition in 2003, Austin has sustained his popularity by appearing in movies and hosting reality television shows and podcasts.
"It caught me completely off guard," Austin said of the honor to WWE.com. "I figured I'd been gone for such a long time; it's been a while. To get that phone call and be on the cover of what is going to be the biggest, baddest video game that there's ever been, with the roster and all the technology, and to be out of the ring for so many years meant a whole lot to me."
When Austin says the biggest, he means it, as 2K has been touting that WWE 2K16 will boast the largest roster in the game's history with more than 100 playable characters.
"It'll be interesting to see who's going to be in the game," Austin said. "I'm looking forward to see who they dig out in WWE history and bring up. For all the different matchups, with 120 playable characters, that's almost insane. From what I know about the game, this one is going to be the coolest one ever."
WWE 2K16 is scheduled to be released Oct. 27 in North America and Oct. 30 internationally.
[Video courtesy of WWE 2K]