Right around the turn of the century—that would be the 20th Century, not the 19th Century—a new professional sport honorific entered the public consciousness. That was about the time that the long running Madden NFL pro football video game franchise started the trend of selecting a new featured athlete for the game’s cover every year. John Madden Football was originally released in 1988 as a computer based game for MS DOS, Apple II, and the Commodore 64/128. Two years later, it started to take over the world of platform gaming adding support for the Sega Genesis and the Super Nintendo System (SNES). As the game’s popularity continued to grow it gained the official sanction of the National Football League starting with Madden NFL ‘94. In the late 1990’s the game added the now ubiquitous ‘franchise mode’ and over the next two decades would become one of the most successful sports games in history. As of late 2018, the Madden franchise reached an all time sales figure of 130 million copies which puts it in some rarefied company with video game franchises like Grand Theft Auto, Final Fantasy, The Sims and Call of Duty. It was the second sports game to reach the 100 million plateau after EA Sports’ FIFA Soccer franchise in 2010.
The Madden franchise had become a very successful franchise well before it became a big deal to be featured on the cover. The first eight editions of the game had the man himself on the cover—venerable Oakland Raiders’ head coach turned NFL announcer John Madden. Madden was solo until the release of Madden NFL ’95 of the when for the first time he shared the cover with current NFL stars Erik Williams and Karl Wilson. Coach Madden was still in the spotlight, however, as the players were shown in the background. The game would keep this cover format of Madden solo or with NFL stars in the background until Madden NFL 2001 when for the first time the pro football player had the cover all to himself. Eddie George of the Tennessee Titans was the first player selected for the cover and the franchise’s eponymous namesake hasn’t been seen since with the exception of the ‘Hall of Fame Edition’ of Madden NFL 07.
This practice has crossed over from the NFL to other sports including NCAA football, soccer, basketball, baseball and NHL hockey where Nashville Predators’ defenseman PK Subban is the reigning EA Sports NHL 19 cover athlete. It’s also started to catch on in pro wrestling and more specifically the many WWE branded video games that have come out over the years. The WWE 2K franchise has started the practice of selecting a current star to grace the cover with the most recent editions highlighting Stone Cold Steve Austin, Brock Lesnar, Seth Rollins and AJ Styles. The development cycle for WWE 2K20 (or WWE 2020 or whatever they’re going to call it) and it won’t be long until the cover wrestler for the forthcoming edition will be announced.
Until a few months ago the most likely female wrestler to grace the cover would have been former UFC champion Ronda Rousey. That is no longer the case. Despite the predetermined nature of pro wrestling storylines sometimes things happen that are beyond the control of the promotion. Wrestlers that are booked as ‘fan favorites’ will be hated. Conversely, some wrestlers are booked to be ‘heels’ despised by fans yet become very popular. Such is the case with the favorite in the following odds market—Becky Lynch aka ‘The Man’. Lynch was initially booked to be a ‘heel’ challenger for Ronda Rousey. It didn’t quite work out that way—thanks to Lynch’s own charisma and promo ability combined with fan reaction after a legit broken nose caused by a Nia Jax punch she has become the most popular wrestler in the WWE.
The WWE has a long history of making inexplicable booking moves. This one is hard for even the most obstinate or out of touch promoter to screw up. Logic suggests that everyone concerned will benefit from having the current most popular wrestler on the cover of the next WWE 2K20 game and it’s impossible to make a good case that this is anyone but ‘The Man’ Becky Lynch.
WWE 2K20 VIDEO GAME FEATURED COVER WRESTLER BETTING ODDS
Becky Lynch: -210
The Undertaker: +500
Braun Stroman: +750
Ronda Rousey: +1500
Daniel Bryan: +1500
Alexa Bliss :+2500
John Cena: +2500
The Rock: +3500
AJ Styles: +3500
Kevin Owens: +5000
Samoa Joe: +5000
The Miz: +5000
Brock Lesnar: +5000
Triple H: +5000
Asuka: +7500
Charlotte Flair: +7500
Shinsuke Nakamura: +7500
KUSHIDA: +10000
Hulk Hogan: +25000
Chris Jericho: +25000
Vince McMahon: +25000
The Ultimate Warrior: +50000
Kazuchika Okada: +50000
Tetsuya Naito: +50000
Hiroshi Tanahashi: +50000
CM Punk: +75000
In the event of multiple listed winners dead heat rules will apply. Any cover featuring an unlisted wrestler or no wrestler (eg: a WWE logo) will be graded ‘No Action’. All bets are action regardless of wrestler name or gimmick change.
