During Monday’s RAW, the first trailer aired for this year’s WWE 2K17 video game and it was revealed that Big Goldberg is this year’s special pre-order bonus character. This was the culmination of WWE’s #Hatch social media campaign.
Goldberg will appear in the game as two playable characters representing his WCW and WWE personas. The playable characters, along with two playable arenas (WCW Monday Nitro and Halloween Havoc) will be available as bonus content for those who pre-order the game.
As was the case when The Ultimate Warrior signed on to appear in WWE 2K14, Goldberg’s deal is with 2K, not WWE directly. Despite Goldberg being very outspoken about WWE since his final match for the company at WrestleMania XX, bringing Goldberg back in the fold in some capacity has been many years in the making.
“After 12 years away from the business, I’m incredibly honored to work with WWE and 2K while following in the footsteps of such greats as Ultimate Warrior, Sting and Arnold Schwarzenegger,” Goldberg said in a press release. “My son was a big part of this coming together, and I can’t wait for him to see his dad kicking ass in a WWE ring through the magic of video games. I encountered the likes of The Rock, Triple H, Brock Lesnar and Ric Flair during my WWE career, and now through WWE 2K17, I’ll be taking on the biggest and baddest Superstars of today – showing them once and for all that I am still ‘Da Man!’”
As recently as last year, Goldberg is on the record saying that he would consider getting back in a WWE ring if the terms were right. Back in January 2015, Goldberg told Scott Fishman of the Miami Herald that he’s in the best shape of his life and would wrestle for WWE if his son Gage wanted him to.
“We know it was a kind of a disgruntled marriage between myself and WWE. I don’t really sit down and watch the product with my son,” Goldberg said. “If it was something he came up to me and asked me to do I would do it. He has yet to do it.”
Dave Meltzer noted on Wrestling Observer Radio that WWE’s Goldberg DVD sold very well, far better than anybody expected, which likely led to this deal being made. Sting’s involvement in last year’s WWE 2K game led to him wrestling several matches for the company (including a high-profile WrestleMania match) and a Hall of Fame induction.
Meanwhile, there was an “easter egg” at the end of the WWE 2K17 Goldberg trailer that a lot of fans might have missed on first viewing. As Goldberg was being hauled away in the back of a police car, a Suplex City highway sign is reflected on the car window. Of course, Goldberg’s final WWE match was against Brock Lesnar, so 2K is already tapping into that feud to build interest in WWE 2K17.
Visit WWE.2K.com now to pre-order WWE 2K17 and receive Goldberg as a playable character. WWE 2K17 will be released this October for PlayStation 4, XBox One, PS3 and XBox 360.
