Every year before the WWE 2K video game comes out, wrestling fans love to speculate about who will be the cover star, as it is the equivalent of the prestigious honor of being on the Madden cover, minus any sort of a curse associated with it.
Wrestlers like John Cena, Roman Reigns, Becky Lynch, AJ Styles, CM Punk, Cody Rhodes, and Stone Cold Steve Austin have graced the cover over the years, just to name a few.
But when it comes to the WWE 2K26 cover this year, there are a number of options fans are mulling over, and everyone likes to debate their favorites. Could Cody do it again? How about Jey Uso after how over he got in 2025?
To be honest, though, the clear answer for the cover star is a repeat winner, albeit someone who has not made it on the cover long enough for it to actually be interesting – and potentially worth some fans buying the cover just to have him back on it.
Yes, that wrestler would be current world champion CM Punk, who returned to WWE in 2023 and has shown that he has not lost a step in terms of the quality of his matches in the ring and the engagement level of his promos.
In so many ways, Punk is operating on an entirely different plane of existence from the rest of the wrestling world, and it is no coincidence that WWE’s best programs involve him.
From Drew McIntyre and John Cena to Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns, Punk has struck gold with every storyline he has been involved in, and the mix of nostalgia and current relevancy of having the Chicago superstar on the cover is too good to pass up on. The choice should be obvious for WWE and 2K in 2026: CM Punk is the one for the cover.
Joe helped manage the pro wrestling site Daily DDT from 2017 to 2019. He has appeared in many wrestling podcasts and has had his work featured by mainstream media sites and professional wrestlers themselves. Joe also covers soccer, writing about Tottenham for Hotspur HQ, Real Madrid for A Trip to Cibeles, and general world football for The Trivela Effect.