On last night’s episode of WWE RAW, the current, and best champion we’ve had in a while, CM Punk, officially announced WWE ’13 and the he would be the poster boy for the cover. A trailer for the game was leaked a few days ago and showed current Superstars like Punk, Jericho and Sheamus, along with legends like Stone Cold Steve Austin and Mankind. The trailer below is the “official” trailer for the game which was revealed by IGN today. It’s exactly the same as the leaked trailer. But the biggest news is the WWE Attitude sticker adorning the games cover, a sticker which has gotten many fans excited over the prospect that it could signify a return to what many, including myself, class as the best days of the company.

Of course, speculating that the TV show will return to the Attitude era is almost pointless, because the current PG era that the show is in makes good business sense for the WWE as it lets them sell a lot of merchandise and attract a larger audience. It may sound harsh, but the WWE is a business, and the goal of a business is to make money, even if it does leave us core fans feeling disappointed. So, since that seems highly unlikely, the big question now is exactly how will the game incorporate the Attitude Era? It seems mostly likely that the sticker is a marketing ploy designed to try to attract more fans to the game who are hoping to see an Attitude Era themed game, while the sticker actually signifies that the game includes Attitude era legends. But that is just speculation on my behalf.

But anyway, back to the announcement of the game. On last nights RAW, John “Please shut the hell up” Laurinaitis came down the ring the announce that since “beating” John Cena at Over the Limit he has become the most popular Superstar in WWE history, and as such would be on the cover for WWE ’13, which is due for release on October 30th of this year. After he had finished unveiling the cover featuring his hideous visage, CM Punk’s music (which is a song by Living Color called Cult of Personality, for anyone interested, and you should be, because it’s fantastic) hit and the champion sauntered down to the ring to take the piss out of John ” I’ve got no testicles” Laurinaitis and inform the happy crowd that it wouldn’t be Big Johnny on the cover of WWE ’13, but CM Punk himself, at which point the fireworks hit and a massive poster unfurled revealing the cover you can see at the top of this screen. Now, for some baffling reason you can’t actually see Punk’s eyes, but apart from that it looks rather nifty, don’t ya think?

As for the trailer, it was decidely….average? And while gameplay is obviously far more important, it’s disappointing to see that the graphics are still lagging behind everyone else, although it’s important to remember that the game still has plenty of development time yet. Alongside the announcement trailer, IGN also did an interview with Punk, which you can see below.

You can probably expect more information to be revealed at E3 which starts on Monday, but until then, what do you think about this Attitude era sticker?