Brock Lesnar is on the cover of WWE 2K17

Turns out the “Suplex City” road sign was more than just a cool Easter egg.

Brock Lesnar is the coverboy for the next edition of WWE’s licensed video game series, WWE 2K17, his kayfabe advocate and real-life business partner Paul Heyman revealed.

It’s a logical move - the Beast Incarnate is probably the most recognizable star on WWE’s current roster aside from John Cena, who graced the box back in the 2015 version. But it’s a somewhat risky one all of a sudden because Brock is in a high-profile bout Vince McMahon doesn’t control the outcome of in a couple of weeks at UFC 200.

The decision to put Lesnar front and center in the marketing of the game was likely made before his return to mixed martial arts was finalized, but it’s going to be scrutinized a great deal more now that he’s stepping into a cage with Mark Hunt on July 9.

A loss - even a spectacular one - probably doesn’t greatly influence game sales.

But it will lead to a lot of online jokes about the UFC game cover curse (Jon Jones, Alexander Gustafsson - more recently and famously - Ronda Rousey & Conor McGregor didn’t have great years after gracing the front of that EA game) being contagious.

WWE doesn’t seem terribly concerned about his return to the Octagon damaging Brock’s value for them. And an impressive win is possible, and means they control someone who’s suddenly a hot property in two organizations.

We’ll find out if Vince’s latest big gamble pays off in a couple weeks.

And how bout that cover?