Rob Gronkowski no longer under WWE contract

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cero2k
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Rob Gronkowski no longer under WWE contract

Post by cero2k » Jun 2nd, '20, 08:43

Source: https://www.f4wonline.com/wwe-news/rob- ... act-312381

Rob Gronkowski is no longer under WWE contract.

Dave Meltzer has confirmed a Wrestling Inc report tonight that Gronkowski has exercised a release clause in his contract. As part of that release clause, he will reportedly not be able to join another wrestling company for “a set period of time”.

The report also said while there was an expectation that Gronkowski would wrestle at SummerSlam, any match with Gronkowski will no longer be happening.

Gronkowski signed with the WWE in March and hosted both nights of WrestleMania 36. He won the WWE 24/7 championship during those tapings, pinning Mojo Rawley after doing a dive off a platform and onto several NXT developmental wrestlers.

On tonight’s episode of Raw, Gronkowski lost the WWE 24/7 championship to R-Truth. Disguised as a gardener, Truth rolled up Gronkowski while Gronkowski was outside filming a TikTok video and pinned him to win the championship for the 36th time.

Gronkowski, who retired from the NFL in March 2019, was traded to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers back in April.
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Big Red Machine
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Re: Rob Gronkowski no longer under WWE contract

Post by Big Red Machine » Jun 2nd, '20, 09:02

Dammit Gronk! Why couldn't you have refused to do the job and just killed this stupid title?
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Re: Rob Gronkowski no longer under WWE contract

Post by XIV » Jun 2nd, '20, 09:33

The fact that anyone has won this title 36 times is a joke.

It was fresh and funny when Crash Holly did it with the Hardcore title in the early 2000's and fit what they were trying to do.

So far this has been used to get precisely nobody over and is just whored out to the occasional visiting celebrity. (If memory serves me right a couple of Fox Sports goons won it.)
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Re: Rob Gronkowski no longer under WWE contract

Post by cero2k » Jun 2nd, '20, 10:52

XIV wrote: Jun 2nd, '20, 09:33 The fact that anyone has won this title 36 times is a joke.

It was fresh and funny when Crash Holly did it with the Hardcore title in the early 2000's and fit what they were trying to do.

So far this has been used to get precisely nobody over and is just whored out to the occasional visiting celebrity. (If memory serves me right a couple of Fox Sports goons won it.)
Raven had 27 reigns and it was considered a joke 20 years ago
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Re: Rob Gronkowski no longer under WWE contract

Post by Big Red Machine » Jun 2nd, '20, 11:56

XIV wrote: Jun 2nd, '20, 09:33 The fact that anyone has won this title 36 times is a joke.

It was fresh and funny when Crash Holly did it with the Hardcore title in the early 2000's and fit what they were trying to do.

So far this has been used to get precisely nobody over and is just whored out to the occasional visiting celebrity. (If memory serves me right a couple of Fox Sports goons won it.)
It's not even that, though. A comedy title isn't my cup of tea, but I don't even think the people who would enjoy a comedy title could enjoy the 24/ Title because they only ever had three ideas with it (title change somewhere odd, gaggle of guys chases the champion around the building, and celebrity wins the title). If I might toot my own horn a bit:
BRM from his June 3, 2019 Raw review wrote:RECAP OF R-TRUTH LOSING THE 24/7 TITLE TO JINDER MAHAL ON A GOLF COURSE, THEN IMMEDIATELY WINNING IT BACK- bad
1. Why was Carmella so angry at Jinder for doing this? That’s how the title works!
2. If Truth always gains the belt back right after losing it then where is the fun in this?
3. This wasn’t magic WWE “it’s part of the show, just pretend they’re not there” camera-work. This was on YouTube, which means someone was filming it. Who was filming it, and why was he/she filming Truth and Carmella golfing?

We’ve had this title for a few weeks now, and while this is a matter of personal taste, I really think that WWE is failing to understand where the humor in this title comes from. It’s not “This title changed hands in a funny place! HA!” or “LOL all the jobbers are chasing this other jobber around.” The humor comes from the set-up, not the title change itself.
For example, what we got here was Truth golfing, then Jinder and a referee run up behind him and Jinder rolls him up to win the title, then Truth rolls Jinder up and knocks him out, and Truth and Carmella escape in the golf cart.
What I want to see is more like this:
Jinder is out golfing. He’s got Sunil as his caddy and Samir filming him so he can show everyone how great at golf he is, because he’s an arrogant heel. He hits the ball way off course because he’s a bumbling heel and we’re supposed to laugh at him. He sends Sunil to get the ball, while he rants to the camera about how his bad shot was all Sunil’s fault for distracting him or giving him the wrong club or whatever. Just something clearly false.
Sunil soon returns and excitedly tells Jinder that just on the other side of those trees that Jinder hit the ball into (“I ONLY DID THAT BECAUSE YOU DISTRACTED ME!”), are R-Truth, and Carmella... and the referee who is taking his shift following the 24/7 Champion around. Now Jinder is all excited and he orders Samir to keep filming what will surely be a great victory for him, and they all start to tip-toe through the trees to try to sneak up on Truth. Once they break the tree cover Jinder breaks into a dead sprint and runs up behind Truth and school boys him, and referee (who had been practicing his swing or being Truth’s caddy or whatever) springs into action and counts the pinfall, then hands the belt to Jinder. Jinder and the Singhs run off, with the referee right behind them, and Truth a few steps behind the referee, having realized what has just happened. They run back through the trees and Jinder runs towards his golf cart but trips over the golf club that he himself had dropped, allowing Truth to catch up to him and dive on top for a pin, with Sunil coming in just a moment too late to break it up so now Sunil has landed on Jinder. Then Carmella shows up in a golf cart and Truth, Carmella and the referee all drive away.
Now that’s f*cking funny. And it also:
1. Explains why there is a camera here and uses that premise to add an additional comedic element.
2. Gives us a better reason for why there is a referee there than the challenger dragging one around with him wherever he goes (does every single wrestler get a referee assigned to him/her just in case they bump into the 24/7 Champion? It makes much more sense to have one assigned to follow the champion around) which is rife with its own comedic potential (imagine the referee who doesn’t like hiking but has to go along just in case some other wrestler should bump into the 24/7 Champion in the middle of the woods).
3. Establishes that the champion and challenger being in the same place at the same time is an actual coincidence, which makes it feel less staged at the beginning and thus allows there to be humor in the ridiculousness of the coincidence... and, as time goes on, of the recurring nature of these coincidences. Imagine a champion driven so paranoid by these coincidences that he rents a cabin half way up some isolated mountain to go to for vacation... and as he’s headed up the mountain he bumps into JBL and his film crew completing one of their charity expeditions, Clothesline From Hell, new champion.
And then, a few hours later we get a live-streamed video of JBL and his crew at the local watering hole and they’ve all been drinking copiously (that’s why they decided to live-stream this) and then JBL passes out and who should wander into the bar but Kim Chee, who sneaks over pins Bradshaw and he and the referee walk out the door. And then you can show the previous champion walking in just moments later, seeing JBL and running over to pin him but then noticing that there is no referee to make the count and realizing what must have happened.
Because the humor isn’t in the concept of a title being defended 24/7; it’s in the set-up of the individual segments. And this fact is perfectly illustrated by perhaps the most famous Hardcore Title 24/7 change in history. Crash Holly falling asleep and then getting pinned is meh at best. Crash Holly having to be alert at all times because of the 24/7 rule and thus hasn’t slept in days so he hires the APA to guard him while he takes a one-hour nap is funny. Him then oversleeping so they leave when the time he hired them for is up and Gerald Brisco comes along and pins him... but first he has to figure out how to pin the guy without waking him up is f*cking hilarious!
There are ways to use a title like this to tell a story, or to create humor via more than one or two basic jokes. WWE never bothered to put the effort in to think of any. it's similar to their problems with MITB, where they only have one or two simple ideas that are almost always tethered to the idea of a cash-in when the champ is tired or beaten-down, even though there are so many different ways you can use MITB (including two or three that let a babyface act like a real babyface and fight fair).
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Re: Rob Gronkowski no longer under WWE contract

Post by Big Red Machine » Jun 2nd, '20, 12:13

cero2k wrote: Jun 2nd, '20, 10:52
XIV wrote: Jun 2nd, '20, 09:33 The fact that anyone has won this title 36 times is a joke.

It was fresh and funny when Crash Holly did it with the Hardcore title in the early 2000's and fit what they were trying to do.

So far this has been used to get precisely nobody over and is just whored out to the occasional visiting celebrity. (If memory serves me right a couple of Fox Sports goons won it.)
Raven had 27 reigns and it was considered a joke 20 years ago
For the record, the thing with the belt changing hands ninety-six times per show had some brief spurts in 2000 (in the few months after they introduced the 24/7 Rule, to get the rule over) and in spring 2001, but really didn't become this big problem until the last few months of the title's existence.
There were 225 title reigns during the existence of the 24/7 Rule (late Feb. 2000 to August 19, 2002, the week before the title was unified with the IC Title). 146 of them (ALMOST TWO THIRDS) were in the five-month period between the March 17 and August 19, 2002.
(and ten of those were during the Hardcore Battle Royale at WM 2000, where the gimmick was that the belt would change hands a bunch of times during the match).

Also, other than the first few months and the last few months, a lot of the spurts of the belt changing hands multiple times per day were a weekend or two of house shows (and this even happens a lot during that last five months, too, but it was also changing hands on TV a lot). I'm not saying twenty-seven reigns isn't a joke, but I am saying that the concept could conceivably be done without making it quite so much of a joke.
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Re: Rob Gronkowski no longer under WWE contract

Post by KILLdozer » Jun 2nd, '20, 12:22

I think a major difference between this and the Hardcore shit is actually: Competitive challenging matches and NOT "AWHAHAHHA HE JUST ROLLED HIM UP OUTTA NOWHERE! AWH SHIT! NEW CHAMPION! NEW CHAMPION! AWH SHIT HAHAHAHA!"

Except for a few occurences...can this title only be won via rollup or sneak pin? Yes. Evidently...
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Re: Rob Gronkowski no longer under WWE contract

Post by Big Red Machine » Jun 2nd, '20, 13:15

KILLdozer wrote: Jun 2nd, '20, 12:22 I think a major difference between this and the Hardcore shit is actually: Competitive challenging matches and NOT "AWHAHAHHA HE JUST ROLLED HIM UP OUTTA NOWHERE! AWH SHIT! NEW CHAMPION! NEW CHAMPION! AWH SHIT HAHAHAHA!"

Except for a few occurences...can this title only be won via rollup or sneak pin? Yes. Evidently...
It could be won other ways. WWE just hasn't been creative enough to have someone beat the sh*t out of the champion before pinning him/her. Or just grabbing the champ from behind and choking him/her out. Or any other number of things that would take about five seconds to think of, but Creative somehow hasn't come up with yet (or Vince/Heyman wouldn't let on the air).
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Re: Rob Gronkowski no longer under WWE contract

Post by KILLdozer » Jun 2nd, '20, 13:33

Big Red Machine wrote: Jun 2nd, '20, 13:15
KILLdozer wrote: Jun 2nd, '20, 12:22 I think a major difference between this and the Hardcore shit is actually: Competitive challenging matches and NOT "AWHAHAHHA HE JUST ROLLED HIM UP OUTTA NOWHERE! AWH SHIT! NEW CHAMPION! NEW CHAMPION! AWH SHIT HAHAHAHA!"

Except for a few occurences...can this title only be won via rollup or sneak pin? Yes. Evidently...
It could be won other ways. WWE just hasn't been creative enough to have someone beat the sh*t out of the champion before pinning him/her. Or just grabbing the champ from behind and choking him/her out. Or any other number of things that would take about five seconds to think of, but Creative somehow hasn't come up with yet (or Vince/Heyman wouldn't let on the air).
Wouldn't a cage match be perfect to handle all the running nonsense? Can't do that kinda thing in WWE though...
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Re: Rob Gronkowski no longer under WWE contract

Post by cero2k » Jun 2nd, '20, 14:46

Big Red Machine wrote: Jun 2nd, '20, 13:15
KILLdozer wrote: Jun 2nd, '20, 12:22 I think a major difference between this and the Hardcore shit is actually: Competitive challenging matches and NOT "AWHAHAHHA HE JUST ROLLED HIM UP OUTTA NOWHERE! AWH SHIT! NEW CHAMPION! NEW CHAMPION! AWH SHIT HAHAHAHA!"

Except for a few occurences...can this title only be won via rollup or sneak pin? Yes. Evidently...
It could be won other ways. WWE just hasn't been creative enough to have someone beat the sh*t out of the champion before pinning him/her. Or just grabbing the champ from behind and choking him/her out. Or any other number of things that would take about five seconds to think of, but Creative somehow hasn't come up with yet (or Vince/Heyman wouldn't let on the air).
there is something to what Dozer said tho, the Hardcore title, from all those title reigns, a lot of them happen on the same match, because WWE was still booking harcore title matches that broke into chaos, almost like scramble matches. I don't think there has been more than 5 legit 24/7 title matches, has there?
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Re: Rob Gronkowski no longer under WWE contract

Post by Big Red Machine » Jun 2nd, '20, 16:01

cero2k wrote: Jun 2nd, '20, 14:46
Big Red Machine wrote: Jun 2nd, '20, 13:15
KILLdozer wrote: Jun 2nd, '20, 12:22 I think a major difference between this and the Hardcore shit is actually: Competitive challenging matches and NOT "AWHAHAHHA HE JUST ROLLED HIM UP OUTTA NOWHERE! AWH SHIT! NEW CHAMPION! NEW CHAMPION! AWH SHIT HAHAHAHA!"

Except for a few occurences...can this title only be won via rollup or sneak pin? Yes. Evidently...
It could be won other ways. WWE just hasn't been creative enough to have someone beat the sh*t out of the champion before pinning him/her. Or just grabbing the champ from behind and choking him/her out. Or any other number of things that would take about five seconds to think of, but Creative somehow hasn't come up with yet (or Vince/Heyman wouldn't let on the air).
there is something to what Dozer said tho, the Hardcore title, from all those title reigns, a lot of them happen on the same match, because WWE was still booking harcore title matches that broke into chaos, almost like scramble matches. I don't think there has been more than 5 legit 24/7 title matches, has there?
I don't think there have been ANY actual 24/7 Title matches, because every time I remember them telling us that the rule was suspended for the duration of the match.

And with the Hardcore Title, you're forgetting a lot of the backstage "hit someone from behind with a weapon, get the pin, and then run off" title changes.
(And, at least in my opinion, if you've got an official Hardcore Title match going on and a third person runs in under the 24/7 Rule and pins the champion, then the result of the initial match is a no contest because one of the contractual stipulations of the match is no longer in effect, and this is signed off on by the referee when he orders the bell rung to signify that the interloper has won the title).
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Re: Rob Gronkowski no longer under WWE contract

Post by KILLdozer » Jun 2nd, '20, 17:40

The one I remember the most is the WM with Raven, Kane, and Big Show. Never seen an actual 247 booked on PPV in advance in an actual promoted match like that...
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Re: Rob Gronkowski no longer under WWE contract

Post by Big Red Machine » Jun 2nd, '20, 21:12

KILLdozer wrote: Jun 2nd, '20, 17:40 The one I remember the most is the WM with Raven, Kane, and Big Show. Never seen an actual 247 booked on PPV in advance in an actual promoted match like that...
Right. There were also a lot of times where they they would just have the title change bands because someone hit someone in the head with an object backstage.

You're right about the 24/7 Title not being booked in actual matches, but that's because doing so would be pointless because it's just a regular match that someone could get right up after being pinned and keep going after the champion. Or get DQed and then just keep going after the champion... which was why the belt was a stupid idea in the first place.
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