CM Punk is ready for clobberin' time as the new cover star for WWE 2K26.
The former WrestleMania main eventer and UFC fighter was announced Friday as the headliner for the standard edition of the video game that will be released March 13.
The WWE world heavyweight champion, Punk is just one of a record 400 playable characters on a roster that included everyone from John Cena and Cody Rhodes to Andre the Giant and "Rowdy'' Roddy Piper.
Punk won't have to look far to find fans of the video game franchise developed by Visual Concepts.
''There is a video game console set up in every single locker room I walk into now,'' Punk said. ''I'm one of those old guys that looks at that and I'm like, this is crazy. This would never happen back in my day. But I also don't care. I'd much rather have them hooting and hollering and playing Xbox than smoking crack or doing drugs or something wild. They play a lot of Madden, they play a lot of 2K and they play a lot of Tekken."
The 47-year-old Punk is soaring in his second stop with WWE after he left the company following a bitter split in 2014. Punk returned in 2023 — after two winless fights in UFC — and last year was in the triple threat main event at WrestleMania against Seth Rollin and Roman Reigns.
Punk also headlines WWE's 2K26's 2K Showcase.
''It not only highlights some of my better matches and moments, there's a big ‘what if?' aspect to it,'' Punk said. ''We delve into kind of what would have happened if I didn't leave in 2014. I think that's super interesting.''
