WWE Fans Predict Rob Gronkowski's Wrestling Debut After Retirement Announcement

Three-time Super Bowl Champion and five-time Pro Bowl tight end Rob Gronkowski announced on Sunday [...]

By Connor Casey

Three-time Super Bowl Champion and five-time Pro Bowl tight end Rob Gronkowski announced on Sunday that he was retiring after nine seasons in the NFL. But within hours of his announcement, wrestling fans online had already begun to speculate about his potential second career as a professional wrestler. Billed at 6-foot-6, 265 pounds with a personality to match his size, "Gronk" would be a great candidate to make the jump to Vince McMahon's company. He previously appeared in WWE during the Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal at WrestleMania 33, where he jumped the guardrail and helped his real-life friend Mojo Rawley win the match by attacking Jinder Mahal.

The flood of tweets picked up shortly after Rawley hinted at Gronkowski's future on Twitter.

"Congrats to my brother (Rob Gronkowski) on retirement," Rawley wrote. "Best to ever play the position in (NFL) history. Proud of your career and even more proud to be your friend. It's about to get really wild now. The best is yet to come!"

From there the speculation ran wild.

"Next stop for Rob Gronkowski: The WWE Performance Center???" Chris Walder wrote.

"When you hear Rob Gronkowski is retiring from the Patriots and then hear that #WWE is in Boston tomorrow," one fan wrote, pointing out that Monday Night Raw will be at the TD Garden in Boston this week.

"When the WWE hears that Gronk retired," the ESPN SportsNation Twitter account wrote, posting a gif of McMahon strutting towards the ring.

"Gronk will be a WWE regular within the next 2 years," one fan wrote.

Were Gronkowski to join the WWE, even for just one match, he would join a long list of former NFL players who have stepped into the squared circle, including Lawrence Taylor, William "The Refrigerator" Perry, Bill Goldberg, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, Ron Simmons, Ernie Ladd, Marquis Cor Von, Vader, Wahoo McDaniel and Roman Reigns.

Tripe H said in an interview with Sports Illustrated back in February that the "door is open" for Gronkowski to join the company if he wants.

"Gronk has mentioned WWE before, that he loves it and said had so much fun doing it," he said. "I don't know if it's something he'd be seriously interested in, but that's how the conversation started with Ronda Rousey, too. Certainly the door is open for him at WWE."

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