You Can Now Body-Slam the GTA 6 Publisher in WWE 2K26

Somewhere in the bowels of Visual Concepts, somebody decided the man who publishes GTA 6 should also be a playable wrestler. Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick was quietly added to WWE 2K26's roster as part of the game's Season 3 update on June 3, and he wasn't even mentioned in the official patch notes or the Ringside Report blog post. Players discovered him on their own.

His entrance is something else. Zelnick strolls to the ring to Frank Sinatra's "My Way," a track that is reportedly exclusive to his character and can't be applied to anyone else in the Create-an-Entrance suite. The commentary team references his career in the video game industry as he walks out. A surprising amount of production went into making a CEO's wrestling debut feel legitimate.

Here's where it gets interesting: Zelnick carries a 77 overall rating. That's low by main event standards, but it puts him above real-life wrestlers like WCW-era Eddie Guerrero, Bobby Newton, and William Regal, and slots him just behind Triple H. If you're keeping score, the guy who runs the company that laid off hundreds of employees across Take-Two's studios over the past few years is rated higher than one of the most beloved performers in wrestling history. I don't know who signed off on that.

The Quiet Part Out Loud

The official Ringside Pass Season 3 content includes Matt Cardona, La Parka, Torrie Wilson, and Brian Pillman, along with new Personas for Kane '01 and Rey Mysterio '01. Those are the names 2K wanted in the marketing materials. Zelnick was slipped in through the side door, a bonus for people paying attention.

And players noticed immediately. Community reaction ranged from confused to irritated, with fans on social media pointing out that a DLC slot went to the CEO of the parent company instead of actual wrestlers who've been requested for years. One widely shared post called out the absurdity of Zelnick choosing "My Way" as his entrance theme.

I think there's a version of this that could have been funny. A self-aware Easter egg, a low-rated joke character buried in the menus. But the bespoke entrance animation, the licensed Sinatra track that nobody else can use, the commentary lines referencing his career; this wasn't a throwaway gag. Someone spent real development time on it. That time could have gone toward another wrestler, another match type, or fixing one of the bugs that Patch 1.12 is still cleaning up, like Superstars freezing during run-in grapples or weapons floating during victory celebrations.

It also lands in a specific context. Take-Two has overseen significant layoffs across its studios in recent years, and Zelnick himself recently told IGN that WWE 2K has room to improve and could "double or triple" its audience. Telling your audience the game needs to be better while simultaneously using dev resources to put yourself in it as a playable character I wouldn't have made.

Patch 1.12 itself addresses a decent list of issues across MyFACTION, Universe mode, cutscenes, and audio. Universe mode fixes include tag-team names displaying correctly in Rivalry Action News and general managers finally using their entrance attire during draft scenes. The audio additions are solid for creators: Kane's 2000 theme, AJ Styles' Lone Wolf theme, Slow Chemical for Kane '01, and Borders for Rey Mysterio Jr. '01 all hit the Create-an-Entrance library. WWE 2K26 is available on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC.