Rob Gronkowski is done with WWE after just two months.
Gronkowski lost the WWE 24/7 Title to R-Truth on Monday, and is now set to return to the NFL after coming out of retirement to join Tom Brady on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. According to a new report from Wrestling Inc., Gronkowski is leaving the company for now.
The report states that "Gronk" exercised a release clause that frees him of any future obligations with WWE. However, there is a no-compete involved in the clause in which prevents him from working for any other wrestling companies during a period of time not determined in the report.
Rob Gronkowski's immaculate, ten-week run in WWE included a very awkward entrance on the March 20. He hosted WrestleMania, and won the 24/7 Title in a segment in which held up the taping for hours and Vince McMahon had to personally recreate to ease Gronk's concerns. He performed in front of 0 fans total during his run.
Fightful Select posted the following about Gronk's heat within the company
Rob Gronkowski asked out of his WWE deal, per the terms of it, which led to his departure from the company. Wrestling Inc reported he exercised the release clause in his contract, and Fightful has learned that most on the Raw side of things didn't even have to deal with Gronk at all, and weren't really in the loop on his status with the company. One told us "he was still considered a Smackdown guy."
Those that we've spoken too -- even those with a reputation of being easy, helpful, and good to work with, all had negative things to say about working with Gronk after his WrestleMania fiasco. There was heat on Gronkowski after his hesitation to do his scheduled spot put the WrestleMania filming two hours behind schedule. One top name on the roster called Gronk "A Fuckin' clown who we are so much better off without."
In recent weeks, few had to deal with Gronkowski, but his WrestleMania appearance seems to have made an impression.
It should be noted despite the report, WWE still provided media with video links of Gronk's performance to promote his title loss.
You can see Gronk losing his WWE 24/7 Title at the top of the page. Fightful has reached out to WWE for comment.