Not in the 13-year history of the Smackdown/Smackdown vs. Raw/WWE/WWE 2K series has The Ultimate Warrior—one of professional wrestling's most intense, controversial, and just plain weird superstars—made an appearance. Apparently that will change with WWE 2K14.


The forums of SmackDown Hotel, a wrestling enthusiast site, last week published an image of the August edition of WWE magazine, carrying an ad for WWE 2K14 that lists Warrior (as he is now known, legally even) as a preorder bonus.


The Ultimate Warrior last appeared in 2009's Legends of Wrestlemania and 2011's WWE All-Stars, both of which were more arcade-style wrestling games, with cartooned player modeling and over-the-top moves. The WWE 2K line is (yes, non wrestling fans, I can hear you snickering) the simulation version, featuring storylines, more realistic moves and whatnot.

Warrior and the WWE have had an at-times strained relationship, but so did the WWE and the Macho Man, Randy Savage; those two managed to patch things up before Savage's death in 2011, and get him into All-Stars and WWE '12. (Savage also appears in WWE 2K14.)

I've pinged a 2K Sports representative to ask if they can go ahead and confirm this. You can see the image of the magazine page for yourself at the link. WWE 2K14 hits shelves on Oct. 29.

Ultimate Warrior CONFIRMED as Pre-Order Bonus! [SmackDown Hotel via Operation Sports. Image via WWE.com]