Former NFL superstar Rob Gronkowski is headed to the WWE. He is reportedly set to make his professional wrestling debut on the March 20 episode of SmackDown on Fox.
Gronkowski will also appear at WrestleMania 36 in Florida, but an insider told TheWrap that he will not compete at the event. Instead, his appearance will build hype towards a matchup set to take place sometime in the future.
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The former New England Patriots tight end won three Super Bowls with the Pats before retiring nearly a year ago. After his retirement, Gronk served as an analyst on FOX NFL Sunday throughout the 2019 NFL season. Gronkowski will reportedly keep his role as a football analyst even after his professional wrestling career begins.
Rumblings of Gronkowski’s deal with the WWE first came out on Tuesday night’s episode of WWE Backstage, where Ryan Satin said that Gronkowski was “close” to finalizing a deal with the league. The WWE is apparently hoping that Gronkowski’s mainstream appeal will translate into more interest and revenue.
For more on the WWE, check out IGN’s recap of last year’s WrestleMania 35. On the video game side, check out every IGN WWE game review, including our WWE 2K20 review, which we called “a mess.”
For football fans, NFL 2K is returning in 2021, but the new games will be “non-simulation football game experiences,” leaving Madden NFL unchallenged in the high-end simulation market.
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Logan Plant is a news writer for IGN, and the Production Assistant for Nintendo Voice Chat, IGN’s weekly Nintendo show. You can find him on Twitter at @LoganJPlant.
Source: IGN.com WWE Signs Former Patriot Rob Gronkowski, Will Debut on SmackDown