Rob Gronkowski to host two-night WrestleMania; not his first Show of Shows

Tom Gatto

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Rob Gronkowski to host two-night WrestleMania; not his first Show of Shows image

WWE has found a job for newly signed Rob Gronkowski: host of what is now a two-night WrestleMania 36.

The retired NFL star will front the promotion's premier event April 4 and 5 from WWE's Performance Center in Orlando, Fla., it was announced Wednesday.

Both presentations will be closed to the public because mass gatherings are banned amid the global coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. WrestleMania 36 was originally scheduled for April 5 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, home of the NFL's Buccaneers (and, soon, to Gronk's former Patriots teammate Tom Brady).

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Gronk is a novice to wrestling commentary and has minimal TV experience — he worked for Fox on its NFL studio shows. He officially joined WWE just last week. This assignment could go any number of ways, including sideways, but these are odd circumstances, so cringy/awkward Gronk might actually fit with the rest of the production. Fans who've watched recent episodes of "SmackDown" and "Raw" know how that might look.

And, hey, he's already a WrestleMania veteran: He interfered in support of Mojo Rawley at the Andre the Giant Battle Royal at WrestleMania 33 — in Orlando — in 2017.

There will be lots of hours to fill in a two-night production. That's a really good excuse for WWE to have Gronk to do some multitasking.

Tom Gatto

Tom Gatto Photo

Tom Gatto joined The Sporting News as a senior editor in 2000 after 12 years at The Herald-News in Passaic, N.J., where he served in a variety of roles including sports editor, and a brief spell at APBNews.com in New York, where he worked as a syndication editor. He is a 1986 graduate of the University of South Carolina.