The physical toll of his NFL career with the New England Patriots didn’t stop former tight end Rob Gronkowski from making a brief move into WWE. However, after coming out of retirement to reunite with Tom Brady and play for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, one question has continued to follow him: Will Gronkowski ever return to wrestling?

The 37-year-old NFL legend has faced the question multiple times and even jokingly set a condition for his WWE return in 2025. While he has stayed away from the ring, his relationship with the wrestling promotion hasn’t completely faded. During a recent appearance on TODAY, Gronkowski admitted that he would consider returning if there were a sense of urgency.

“Not really,” said Gronk when asked about ever getting back into wrestling. “I’ve talked. I’ve done stuff. I’ve done Stephanie McMahon’s podcast, wonderful podcast, wonderful conversations, and I’ve run into the guys plenty of times. They said, whenever you want to come back, but I’ve had plenty of things I’ve done in my life and fulfilled them, and I’ve done a lot.

“But I’m very happy and satisfied with everything I got on my plate now. And I would only do it if there was a true sense of urgency. I’m not gonna just do anything to do anything anymore. I love WWE, but to go out in the ring and everything, you gotta wanna do that and have the urgency. If that ever comes to me, well, then yes, I’m in.”

Since retiring from the NFL, Rob Gronkowski has established a career outside professional football and wrestling. He has worked as an NFL analyst for FOX since 2022 and has also remained involved in commercial partnerships, brand appearances, and other business activities. But at the same time, the 37-year-old has entertained the idea of returning to WWE.

Just last year, Gronkowski put up a special condition to return to wrestling during an appearance on Stephanie McMahon’s podcast, saying:

“I’ll come back to WWE if I can do suck it in the middle of the ring.”

This time, however, his comments are more serious than the last time he addressed his return. Gronkowski’s WWE journey began before his official involvement in 2020. His association with WWE dates back to WrestleMania 33 in April 2017.

At the time, he was still an active NFL player with the Patriots. He attended the event at Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Florida, and got involved in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal.

But it was in 2020 when Gronkowski had his most significant WWE involvement following his initial retirement from the NFL. He signed a multi-event agreement with WWE and became the host of WrestleMania 36, which took place over two nights on April 4 and 5, 2020.

Gronkowski appeared during the second night of the event and captured the WWE 24/7 Championship.

Mojo Rawley was the reigning 24/7 Champion. But as several wrestlers surrounded him and attempted to pin him and capture the title, Gronkowski jumped from an elevated platform onto the group and subsequently pinned Rawley to win the championship. However, despite becoming the 24/7 Champion, Gronkowski decided to return to the NFL.

After Tom Brady announced his return to the Buccaneers in 2020, the team also acquired Gronkowski from New England. Subsequently, Brady and Gronk went on to win the Super Bowl that season. However, it was later revealed that Rob Gronkowski was actually supposed to wrestle more than once in 2020, per Mojo Rawley.

“What we wanted to do was set up multiple pay-per-view matches,” said Mojo. “SummerSlam was going to be in Boston. We would have some fun at Mania, we had a few plans for that, and it was going to lead to a tag match at SummerSlam and then probably set something up for me and him after. I think the plan was to do one in Saudi Arabia. I told him, ‘Dude, you’re going to get the bug. You’ll do one and you’ll want to do another. Let’s do a tag match, get your feet wet, we’ll bring you in for the fireworks and I’ll do the leg work. After you get your feet wet, we’ll get you in for a big one-on-one.’ That was the original plan.

“From there, who knows what it goes into. I knew he wasn’t going to be full-time, but I also knew he wasn’t going to come in and be like ‘I’ll give you one Raw before a pay-per-view and that’s it.’ He wanted to do more than that and he said, ‘If I’m going to do this, I want to do it right. I’ll fly to Orlando for a month and train every day.’ That got my respect. I know his rates and how much he gets paid for an hourly rate. I’ve seen him turn down deals in one hour that 90% of our roster makes in a year. For him to do it, it wasn’t for the money, it was because he wanted to.”

But since becoming the 24/7 Champion, Rob Gronkowski has yet to return to wrestling. While he certainly returned to play in the NFL after initially retiring, it remains to be seen whether he will follow the same script with his WWE stint.

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