Vince McMahon Embarrassed Ex-NFL Star When He Appeared For WWE WrestleMania

WrestleMania has always been known as "The Grandest Stage of Them All," and the event was perhaps former WWE chairman Vince McMahon's greatest accomplishment in the professional wrestling industry. When fans were forced inside during the COVID pandemic, however, and WrestleMania 36 had to be held in an empty WWE Performance Center, McMahon had to take things up a notch. Rob Gronkowski, NFL tight end, who was retired from the game at that point, or so fans thought, was asked to host the event.

"Gronk" recently appeared on an episode of Stephanie McMahon's "What's Your Story?" and talked about some of his WrestleMania moments, including the pandemic era event, over the years. He told "The Billion Dollar Princess" that her father actually embarrassed him during rehearsals ahead of 'Mania 36. Gronkowski was meant to jump from a scaffold on top of the field of 24/7 Championship contenders, something he wasn't sure about doing.

"I already knew I was coming back to football, actually," he explained. "The football thing went down about a week before this, about two weeks before. So, in the back of my mind, it kind of mind f***** a little that I was going back to football. Because like, in the back of my mind, I thought, 'It's not good... I can't be too crazy. I can't get hurt or something.' So, I was kind of hesitating, and your dad came over and just jumped right off the [scaffolding,] I was like, 'Dude. Wow. That was impressive.' He did such a good job. I was like, to myself, 'I'm such a huge p****.'"

Gronkowski ended up successfully making the leap from the scaffold at the show. He pinned his friend Mojo Rawley to become 24/7 Champion. He would later be pinned by R-Truth during a segment from his home in Foxborough, Massachusetts.

The empty-arena WrestleMania 36 wasn't Gronkowski's first WWE appearance, however. He had a notable moment, almost for the wrong reasons, at WrestleMania 33 in Orlando, Florida. He was meant to jump the barricade at the event to help Rawley in the 2017 Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal, but was held up by security for a moment when he started to execute the spot.

"But my favorite was the security guy that didn't know I was part of the show," he said. "She came running over and she looked at me and grabbed me. I looked at her and I said, 'Oh s***. She don't know.' Like, I know when someone's playing the part, I knew she wasn't tipped off. I was like, 'Oh s***.' So I played back, I was like, 'Alright. This will be fixed.' But I was like, 'I ain't fighting this girl...' I was like, 'I'm part of the show. Part of the show!' ... She kind of like, put me back in my seat, and then a couple people radioed in to her, and then she looked at me, and she was like, 'Oh s***' back to me."

After the awkward moment, "Gronk" was able to get in the ring and hit a clothesline to Jinder Mahal, who started the chain of events when he threw a drink, in storyline, on the NFL star and got in his face at ringside. Gronkowski and Rawley, who won the battle royal, stood tall in the middle of the ring after Rawley threw Mahal out. Gronkowski joked with McMahon that he and the security guard became best friends after the mix-up.

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "What's Your Story?" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.