Earlier this year, we'd reported that Eminem was slated to participate in WWE 2K20, and now we've learned some details about that deal falling apart.
In the hours following the report, Pro Wrestling Sheet's Ryan Satin heard from Eminem rep Dennis Dennehy, who admitted there was a meeting between two unnamed third parties, but that it wouldn't be happening. Dennehy also reached out to Fightful to set up a call about the story, but didn't follow up. Weeks and months later, Fightful would follow up again, but got bounceback e-mails when reaching out to Dennehy via his Universal email.
As it turns out, Dennehy left his job as Executive VP and head of publicity at Interscope in May to accept a role at AEG. While still serving as a rep for Eminem, we heard several notes regarding the ill-fated Eminem/WWE 2K20 deal in the wake of Dennehy leaving.
Very few in WWE were aware of the situation as it was being brokered between Universal reps and 2K reps. Prior to this, the idea of Eminem contributing to other games had been broached, but 2K and Universal came to an agreement in the hours before Fightful reported the news. It was stressed to us at that point that "came to terms" and "agreed" did not mean "signed."
Upon the news breaking, both Universal and Eminem's reps were caught off guard and upset about the news. Eminem personally didn't even know of the agreement that was reached as of yet, and neither did most in WWE, which led to much finger pointing as it relates to the situation. The deal fell apart accordingly, despite efforts being made by many to calm the situation and the nature of the pro wrestling news cycle.
We should note that outside of Dennehy reaching out to Fightful originally to set up a phone call, nobody from Universal Media Group reached out to us in an official capacity despite an internal investigation on the news breaking, and WWE did not respond to our request for comment. 2K did respond, stating "Soundtracks and projects are constantly in development at 2K, but an agreement has not yet been finalized with any artist for our impending slate of games."
