Bengaluru, March 12: Rob Gronkowski heading to the WWE is perhaps the biggest news from the pro-wrestling universe, for now. It establishes the fact again that WWE is willing to sign mainstream athletes who could serve as special attractions apart from the active roster members.

Heading into WrestleMania 36, surprise one-off show-ups are often expected, but this latest signing seems to have happened on a long-term basis.

According to reports from The Wrap, Former NFL player and one of the celebrity guests that WWE invited in the recent past, Rob Gronkowski has signed with WWE. He is said to be making an appearance at WrestleMania 36 next month through a storyline on SmackDown. He is soon expected to show up on Friday night before the show of shows happens on April 5th.

The former New England Patriots tight end has reportedly inked a multi-year deal with WWE. He is set to make an official debut during the March 20th episode of SmackDown on FOX that takes place at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans, Louisiana. No update has been provided by the WWE regarding this matter, to date.

The source continued saying the WrestleMania 36 appearance will lead Rob Gronkowski to his first wrestling contest in the WWE. At this point, the three-time NFL champion is not scheduled to compete in a match at the show of shows. But an angle should be created around him either on SmackDown or at WrestleMania to make way for him for in-ring competition.



For those who don't know, Rob Gronkowski is a self-proclaimed wrestling fan since childhood who is also a good friend of WWE Superstar Mojo Rawley. He made his WWE TV debut back at WrestleMania 33 in 2017, to help Mojo win the 4th Annual Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal. This led to a couple of more appearances on SmackDown in due course but that did not help much to Mojo's career.

The 30-year-old star has retired from the NFL, a year ago and signed with FOX Sports as an analyst back in October. The Wrap reached out to FOX to know whether this upcoming WWE tenure can affect his NFL gig or not, but no confirmation was received. It was in last August when Gronk openly admitted that he wants "one crazy match" in WWE.

"With wrestling, I don't feel like I would be a full-time wrestler, but there is one thing I'm down for," Rob Gronkowski said. "And that's to do one crazy match. Practice it for a little bit, go out there, like in a Royal Rumble, go out there, I got my friend in WWE, practice it and do a full-on WWE match. I'm not saying when. Maybe five years.

I got the rest of my life to do that. I've always dreamed about doing that, just one time, going in there and going full out. That may be a possibility, one time, down the road."



Ryan Satin also talked about Rob Gronkowski closing in for a WWE deal on this week's episode of WWE Backstage on FOX. Since it is a show directly affiliated to the WWE, it appeared to be an indirect confirmation that the company has grabbed another celebrity athlete to feature on their programming. This, in turn, are likely to pull SmackDown viewership to an ascending direction.