Once and future football star and current WWE 24/7 Champion Rob Gronkowski didn’t make much of a splash during WrestleMania this year, but he did perform one big one. Diving off the balcony at the Performance Center, The Gronk got into the action and wiped out an entire collection of would-be title contenders. However, as with many of the celebrities that partake in wrestling action, Gronk needed some training to perform such a maneuver. Who better to show him the ropes than the man who often marveled at maneuvers during the early days of RAW?
Fightful is reporting that none other than 74-year-old Vince McMahon demonstrated the balcony dive to Gronkowski during WrestleMania rehearsals. It’s long been known that Vince is willing to do anything he asks his performers to do, and that seems to be true even at his advanced age. When reports were going around about Vince jumping off a building at Money in the Bank, they all seemingly stemmed from this incident, which Vince performed in order to alleviate Rob’s nerves at performing such a dive. Fightful states that they’ve confirmed the story with “a half dozen people within WWE, as well as some that have since left.”
Even after seeing Vince perform the move, Gronk was still reportedly “terrified” to perform the spot. The move was eventually filmed at a low angle to make things look better since Rob jumped off the platform after bending his knees “like a toddler jumping into the pool for the first time.” Considering that, maybe it’s not the worst thing in the world that Gronk is retreating back to the world of pro football.
RELATED: Otis: ‘If I Get The Briefcase, We’re Challenging For The Tag Team Titles’