If you want a time capsule of what WWE looked like at any point over the past few decades, a good way to do that is to see who is on the cover of the WWE video games. With at least one being released every year since 2000, it's a great way to see who the top stars are at any given time in WWE's history, based on who the team making the video games thought would be best to market its product.
It's a prestigious list with a few surprising names on it, so we're going through every WWE video game since 2000 and breaking down the cover stars.
WWF WrestleMania 2000 -- The Rock, Triple H, Mankind, Big Show and The Undertaker
Immediately, we hit a weird one, as wrestling historians will know that The Undertaker didn't wrestle at WrestleMania 2000 due to an injury. Despite 2000 being one of the best creative years in the company's history, WrestleMania 2000 was a pretty bad show, so it's no surprise that this associated game isn't remembered all that fondly. Undertaker aside, the cover stars make sense, as they were the four men who wrestled in the main event of that show.
WWF No Mercy -- The Rock, Triple H and Edge
Considered by many to be the best wrestling video game of all time, No Mercy makes the most of the arcade-style action of the wrestling games from this era. The Rock and Triple H are names we'll keep seeing come up on the list, but there is also a nod to the future, as Edge was still a relatively junior rising star at the time No Mercy released.
WWF Smackdown -- The Rock, Mankind and Chyna
It shouldn't be a surprise to see The Rock on so many of these covers. While Stone Cold Steve Austin was arguably a bigger star at this time, The Rock definitely had more crossover appeal to a mainstream audience -- as proved by his later Hollywood success. Mankind makes another appearance despite Mick Foley having dropped the persona by this point, but it's nice to see the first woman grace the game cover with Chyna.
WWF Smackdown 2: Know Your Role -- The Rock, Triple H, The Undertaker and Chris Jericho
Just in case it wasn't clear that The Rock was WWF's biggest star at this time, the second Smackdown game takes one of his catchphrases for the game's title. As one of Rock's most enduring rivals, it makes sense for Triple H to feature here too, with other popular stars like Chris Jericho and Undertaker rounding out the ensemble nicely.
WWF Smackdown: Just Bring It -- The Rock, Triple H and Kurt Angle
More of the same with the third Smackdown game as The Rock's face is now bigger than ever on the cover, with even big stars like Triple H and Kurt Angle having to settle for being background images on this cover.
WWF Raw -- The Undertaker, Kane, Jeff Hardy and Triple H
With the Smackdown series of games being such a hit with fans, it made sense to try the same thing for WWF's flagship weekly program, but these games never took off in quite the same way. This cover may have something to do with it, as it looks badly photoshopped together and makes some questionable choices of who to place on the cover. Kane's great, but he's not the best face to sell a video game.
WWE WrestleMania X-8 -- Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, Rob Van Dam and Hulk Hogan
Having crossed into 2002, we've finally "Got the 'F' out" and turned into WWE, with WrestleMania X-8 having two different cover variants - one with Stone Cold in the center, the other with The Rock. As both were still the company's biggest stars, it made sense, and with Hulk Hogan's return to the company, it was the first time WWE could plaster his face over everything since the mid '90s. RVD is a nice touch too, as he was one of the most popular new stars when all the former ECW stars made their way to WWE.
WWE Smackdown: Shut Your Mouth -- Triple H, Brock Lesnar, Chris Jericho, Kurt Angle and Booker T
Despite still co-opting his catchphrases, The Rock is nowhere to be seen on this cover, as at this time he's off filming The Scorpion King - the first of his blockbuster roles. In his absence, Triple H has taken center stage as he begins what many fans call his "reign of terror" in WWE. Alongside him is the fast-rising Brock Lesnar and established stars like Angle, Jericho and Booker T.
WWE WrestleMania 19 -- Kurt Angle, Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock
The last of the "WrestleMania" series of games, Kurt Angle finally gets to take center stage in this one as Undisputed Champion, as he faced Brock Lesnar in that show's main event. However, perhaps more historic is Stone Cold's retirement match against The Rock, which explains why they're backing Angle up on this cover.
WWE Raw 2 -- Goldberg, Triple H and Scott Steiner
Despite not being as big a success as the Smackdown games, WWF Raw did well enough to get one sequel and, once again, the choice of cover stars is baffling. The fact that Scott Steiner is on a WWE video game cover is absolutely hilarious in hindsight, as his career in WWE ended almost as soon as it began, and while Goldberg is great, his 2000s run in WWE never lived up to what he did in WCW. Also, Triple H is here and will continue to be for some time.
WWE Smackdown: Here Comes the Pain -- Brock Lesnar, The Undertaker and Rey Mysterio
With The Rock officially having gone Hollywood, it was time for the Smackdown games to move on, now using one of Brock Lesnar's catchphrases for the game's title and featuring as the main star on the cover. It was a smart move as Lesnar was wildly successful in WWE at the time, it's just unfortunate that he'd be leaving the company just six months after this game was released.
WWE Smackdown vs Raw -- Vince McMahon
Instead of carrying on with the separate Raw and Smackdown games, the two brands were merged in 2005 to instead create one annual series of games that would last for quite a while. The first cover isn't the best, though, as it's just Vince McMahon's sweaty face and intense stare -- not sure whether that convinced anyone to buy it when it was on store shelves.
WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2006 -- Batista and John Cena
By 2006 WWE has undergone dramatic changes at the top. The stars of the attitude era were almost all gone, so the Ruthless Aggression era had arrived, with John Cena and Batista positioned as the two new top stars. While both are now big Hollywood stars, they weren't able to bring the same mainstream appeal that Stone Cold and The Rock did years before. However, they were still firm in their positions as the top stars of the day.
WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2007 -- Triple H, John Cena, Rey Mysterio, Batista and Torrie Wilson
Triple H simply won't allow you to forget about him, so here he is dominating the cover of this year's game even over the likes of John Cena, who was arguably a bigger star at the time. Aside from that, it's always nice to see Rey Mysterio, and Batista is still going strong.
WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2008 -- The Undertaker, John Cena and Bobby Lashley
"Featuring ECW" is hilarious to see in hindsight, as WWE's half-hearted revival of ECW as a third brand was an absolute disaster. Still, it earned Bobby Lashley a solid payday as he got onto the cover of this game alongside two stars who massively outranked him at the time. John Cena was firmly the top star of the company at this time, but The Undertaker was still around regularly and definitely had more mainstream appeal.
WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2009 -- Triple H and Shawn Michaels
The "Featuring ECW" has got a lot smaller on this cover, in case you needed a clue as to how that was going. As for the cover stars, both Triple H and Shawn Michaels were still active at this time, but given they were the PG, kid-friendly, Hornswoggle-adding version of DX -- which is firmly the worst version of the iconic faction -- they don't feel all that worthy of this game's cover.
WWE Legends of WrestleMania -- Andre the Giant, Hulk Hogan, The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin
A quick spin-off to break up the run of SvR games here stands a pretty impressive pantheon of WWE legends. Andre and Hogan's WrestleMania 3 clash reminds one of the most iconic wrestling moments ever -- even if WWE continues to lie about how many people were in the building -- and The Rock's rivalry with Stone Cold defined WWE's most successful period. Plus, announcers Jimmy Hart and Bobby Heenan get to appear on this cover too, which is nice -- Michael Cole could never.
WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2010 -- John Cena, The Undertaker, Randy Orton, Edge and Rey Mysterio
Given how long John Cena has been the face of WWE by 2010, it's amazing that this is the first time he truly got to take center stage on a video game cover without being pushed to the side by a bigger star. Instead he's pushing other stars to the side like The Undertaker, Randy Orton, Edge, and Rey Mysterio -- the latter of whom seems to keep getting pushed out to the edges of these covers.
WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2011 -- John Cena, The Miz and Big Show
Big Show wasn't a big enough star to be on the video game cover in 2000 and by 2011 that hasn't changed. While the same could be said about The Miz in hindsight, he was having his WWE Championship run in 2011 and if nothing else, it's nice that WWE at least tried to push him as a new top star. They both still pale in comparison to John Cena, though.
WWE All Stars -- Hulk Hogan, Ultimate Warrior, The Rock, Randy Savage, John Cena, Randy Orton, Kofi Kingston and Rey Mysterio
Another spin-off game, this title pits the modern stars against the legends -- even though Rey Mysterio was an active competitor at the same time as all of the legends. This is a fun ensemble cover that gets the point of the game across, and it's nice to see Kofi Kingston get an unexpected spot on a cover.
WWE '12 -- Randy Orton
Now the Smackdown vs Raw series is over, this starts the modern tradition of just having one cover star for each game, and the first is Randy Orton. While Cena had been positioned as the face of the company for the past few years, Orton was just as big a star -- he was just a bad guy for most of his run, so didn't get to be on merchandise as much.
WWE '13 -- CM Punk
This is one of the best-looking covers to any WWE game, which makes the behind-the-scenes story about it all the funnier. According to CM Punk, THQ -- the developers of the game -- wanted Punk as the cover star, but for some reason, WWE was insistent on it being Sheamus instead. Thankfully, THQ got its way and we got this great cover -- it's just a shame this would be the last WWE game THQ would make.
WWE 2K14 -- The Rock
With 2K taking the reins, it played it safe with the first cover, taking things back to old reliable, also known as The Rock. 2K did get a sense of what the fans wanted though, which is why this game had a reversible cover, and on the other side was the world-beatingly popular underdog, Daniel Bryan.
WWE 2K15 -- John Cena
Continuing to play things relatively safe, John Cena finally got to stand alone as the cover star for 2K15, in what turned out to be his last year as a full-time competitor in WWE, as his Hollywood career would start to gain steam in 2016.
WWE 2K16 -- Stone Cold Steve Austin
One thing that was odd about the early 2000s games is how few of them used Stone Cold on the cover, so it was nice of 2K to put that right with 2K16. This also gave plenty of opportunities to play with Stone Cold's iconic "Austin 3:16" catchphrase, which is an easy way to please any wrestling fan.
WWE 2K17 -- Brock Lesnar
Whether fans liked it or not, Brock Lesnar's run on dominance in the mid to late 2010s made him into a much bigger star than he was in the 2000s and this spot on the cover was just one part of that -- plus, having Goldberg as the preorder bonus created the perfect storm for the pair's legendary clash at Survivor Series 2016.
WWE 2K18 -- Seth Rollins
If you were to ask who has been WWE's most reliable hand over the past decade, it's hard to make a case for anyone other than Seth Rollins. Whether he's been a super-wrestler babyface or a sniveling heel, Rollins has been able to make just about anything work and do great stuff in the ring while doing it -- as long as he stays off Twitter. Putting him on the cover was the right choice for 2K18 as Rollins was riding his biggest wave of babyface popularity to date, and this was a fitting reward.
WWE 2K19 -- AJ Styles
AJ Styles was someone that many never expected to be a huge success in WWE, but after a 2016 debut, he proved all the doubters wrong and quickly became a top star there, enjoying a 371-day reign as WWE Champion that made him the obvious choice for the 2K19 cover.
WWE 2K20 -- Roman Reigns and Becky Lynch
WWE 2K20 was a disaster of a game but this is a cool-looking cover. Roman Reigns still wasn't all that popular with fans at the time, but he was undeniably one of the biggest stars WWE had. Becky Lynch, meanwhile, had become insanely popular in almost no time at all, breaking all sorts of barriers, making her a fitting choice to be the first woman to feature on a WWE video game cover since Torrie Wilson in 2007.
WWE 2K22 -- Rey Mysterio
After being pushed into the corners of so many other covers, Mysterio finally got a chance to stand out on his own for the 2K22 cover -- a game that served as the soft relaunch of the series after 2K20 flopped. It's a fun, if simple, cover that captures the colorful joy of Mysterio and his Lucha Libre style.
WWE 2K23 -- John Cena
While Cena wasn't an active wrestler by 2023, he did still appear a few times a year for big matches, and will always be tied to WWE no matter how many Hollywood successes he has. As this also coincided with Cena's 20-year anniversary as a WWE wrestler, he was the easy choice for the 2K23 cover.
WWE 2K24 -- Cody Rhodes
The story of Cody Rhodes is one of the most complex yet most compelling in wrestling history. Leaving WWE as a nobody in 2016, he revolutionized the industry before returning in 2022 as a huge star who would eventually claim his throne at the top of WWE. When it came to picking the 2K24 cover star, there was simply no other option -- it had to be the American Nightmare.
WWE 2K25 -- Roman Reigns
While Reigns' relationship with the fans was still strained when 2K20 launched, by 2K25 it had completely transformed. After almost four years dominating as the world champion, the Tribal Chief finally became a babyface once more and he now gets huge reactions every time he enters an arena. It took WWE far too long to work out how to make people love Roman Reigns, but now that it's done it, 2K has taken full advantage.
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