Will the Ultimate Warrior's Inclusion in WWE 2K14 Lead to Legends Deal?

A week removed from the announcement that WWE approved 2K Sports signing The Ultimate Warrior for inclusion in the upcoming WWE 2K14 video game, speculation about the ramifications of the deal has been rampant.  Will this lead to an ongoing relationship that includes a WWE Legends' contract, a Hall of Fame induction and/or even one more match? Or is it just a business arrangement to push pre-orders of the game?

Dave Meltzer covered the topic extensively in a feature story in the newest issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter (subscribers only).  Between what's addressed there and what we can speculate about, right now it's hard to tell exactly what's going on.

First and foremost, the deal is between Warrior (that's his real name) and 2K Sports.  WWE has to sign off on all outside names included in the games (and had to do the same for Classic Superstars and Legends action figure lines), but they have no direct involvement with Warrior.

In that sense, the licensing deal alone isn't a big deal. As in the past, WWE had signed off on licensees working with Warrior on both video games (THQ's Legends of WrestleMania and WWE All-Stars) and actions figures.  What makes this deal different is the fanfare surrounding it with the big press event in New York, the promotional video Warrior did, and so on.  He hadn't actually appeared at anything resembling a WWE event since his acrimonious 1996 departure from the company, which led to him filing a lawsuit (PDF).

Still, even though this was a bigger step than previous deals, there were immediately signs that WWE and Warrior directly working together may be a long way away.  The 2K Sports press event was in New York City.  Monday Night Raw that night was also in New York City.  Warrior was not at Raw, either on-screen or back-stage.

In addition, while the announcement got plenty of attention on wrestling and video game news sites, WWE's own site covered it less than you'd expect and it wasn't mentioned at all on Raw.  With the video Warrior shot being fairly well-received and becoming a hit online, you'd think they'd air it to build up more buzz for the game.

The best answer is probably the one that Warrior gave when talking to Sam Roberts of the Opie and Anthony Show while doing the media rounds: "We're not fighting...but I can't tell you anything about the future."  

This could mean nothing more than that 2K Sports made a better deal with him than previous licensees did, convincing him to shoot that video and do a media day.  For now, the strange lack of direct promotion by WWE makes me lean in that direction.

Check back on Wednesday for an Ultimate Warrior career retrospective, where we'll discuss how his relationship with Vince McMahon and WWE got so bad in the first place.

David Bixenspan has been Bleacher Report's WWE Team Leader and a contracted columnist since 2011.  You can follow him on Twitter @davidbix and check out his wrestling podcasts at LLTPod.com. 

David Bixenspan has been Bleacher Report's WWE Team Leader and a contracted columnist since 2011.  You can follow him on Twitter @davidbix and check out his wrestling podcasts at LLTPod.com.

Follow @davidbix