GTA 6 Boss is Now Playable in WWE 2K26 for Some Reason

If fans have ever wanted to play as the CEO of a multibillion-dollar company in charge of publishing Grand Theft Auto 6, now they can, because Take-Two Interactive head Strauss Zelnick has been added as a playable character in WWE 2K26. While the WWE 2K series is no stranger to including offbeat guest characters in its DLC packs, few could imagine that the guy in charge of talking about Grand Theft Auto 6 to shareholders would be the next person in the squared circle.

It seems like in the lead-up to launch, GTA 6 has started to creep its way and influence all corners of gaming. The recent Sony State of Play for June 2026 surely made it clear that September will be packed with releases just to steer clear of the GTA sales bomb coming in November, while a rogue ad for the game in Bangladesh made the rounds online in May. GTA fever isn't even close to reaching its apex yet, as Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick states that the true marketing begins later this summer. Speaking of Strauss Zelnick, however, it appears that the fitness-enthusiast CEO of Take-Two has found himself as the unlikely bridge between WWE 2K26 and GTA 6.

Take-Two CEO says GTA 6 marketing starting soon

GTA 6 Marketing is Starting Soon, Says Take-Two CEO

One of the most anticipated sequels in history moves closer to its reveal as the beginning of a huge GTA 6 promotional wave is imminent.

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By Ashley Turner

GTA 6 Parent Company CEO Is Now Playable in WWE 2K26 For Reasons Unknown

Added as a secret free addition to Season 3 of WWE 2K26, Take-Two Interactive CEO, Strauss Zelnick, is now officially on the game's roster as a playable character inside the squared circle. And it looks like Zelnick received the full guest character package, complete with a 77 overall rating, a custom entrance to Frank Sinatra's "My Way," and new voice lines from Wade Barrett and Michael Cole. At this time, there has been no word from the WWE 2K26 team regarding why it decided to quietly add Strauss Zelnick to the game's roster, but fans could reasonably assume that it is a neat gag to keep things fresh inside the ring as he joins the likes of Matt Cardona and Torrie Wilson in the WWE 2K26 Ringside Pass.

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For fans who don't own or don't keep up with WWE 2K26, this means that Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick is officially a higher overall rating than Eddie Guerrero '97 and CM Punk Retro. Perhaps a distressing bit of information for fans of those two legends of the ring. As a whole, WWE 2K26 fans on Reddit and Twitter are pretty confused as to why the head of Take-Two has been added to the game when there are plenty of wrestlers that fans have been waiting to be added, like Paige who just came back to the WWE ring this year. In some regards, it makes sense to add WWE 2K26's parent company CEO to the game when he is a self-proclaimed fitness enthusiast, but again, it's probably all just in good fun.

Strauss Zelnick could definitely get inside a WWE ring if he wanted to. After all, he is in pretty good shape. The 68-year-old executive has published a whole wellness book titled, "Becoming Ageless: The Four Secrets To Looking and Feeling Younger Than Ever" and claims to workout ten to twelve times per week. If Ric Flair was still lacing his boots up at the age of 73, then perhaps it's not out of the realm of possibility that Zelnick could step into the ring right now and do alright, maybe. Most recently, Zelnick has stated that he believes the WWE 2K franchise has ample room to grow, by even a factor of three, as long as the quality of the yearly games continue to improve, which has been a sore spot in this year's WWE 2K release.

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However, Strauss Zelnick is not a gamer, and he has made that known. Even as the CEO of the company publishing one of the biggest games of all time, Zelnick has stated that he will not be playing GTA 6 at all. In a rather hilarious bit of irony, Strauss Zelnick does not play games, but fans can certainly play games as Strauss Zelnick and go one-on-one with Undertaker inside Hell in a Cell if they want to. And that's just the kind of strange fun that WWE 2K26 is delivering, for some reason.