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Friday nights feel a little different these days —but that didn't stop Rob Gronkowski from bringing his patented energy to the squared circle.
The former New England Patriots tight end delivered all of the hype as he made his SmackDown debut. He danced his way to the ring, danced all over the steps leading up to the ring, then danced in the ring, because, you know, he's Gronk:
And thanks for that introduction, Mojo Rawley! Gronk shouted out his bona fides as a wrestling fan, including a mention of supporting his boy Mojo down in FCW:
Gronk and Mojo were inevitably interrupted by King Corbin, who got his comeuppance via Elias — with Gronk proposing a little head-to-head between Corbin and the Bard of Friday nights at WrestleMania.
Check out the highlights of the entire segment here:
It was a heck of a way to kick off another Friday Night SmackDown from the Performance Center.
And things only heated up from there, as a virtual confrontation between Paige and WWE SmackDown Women's Champion Bayley, accompanied by Sasha Banks, flipped the script on the two best friends.
Paige announced Bayley will defend her title in a 6-Pack Challenge at WrestleMania — and that Banks would be one of her opponents.
As if that weren't enough for Bayley, she didn't do herself any favors when she questioned whether Tamina even still works at WWE:
And just in case WWE wants to make it a 7-Pack (???) Challenge, we have an idea on another potential competitor...
The night also featured an incredible wrestling clinic of a tag team match, as Daniel Bryan and Drew Gulak (who have been doing OUTSTANDING work on social media this week) defeated Cesaro and Shinsuke Nakamura:
And The Miz and John Morrison crushed impersonations of fans of all of their prospective WrestleMania opponents in a must-see segment:
Seriously, watch this GIF:
That led to a match between the SmackDown tag team champions and Heavy Machinery, which took a left turn when Dolph Ziggler got involved, teasing Otis about the time the Show Off has been spending with Mandy Rose — and leading to our favorite beefcake wreaking havoc:
In the end, though, we came full circle on the gridiron, as Roman Reigns and Goldberg squared off in a contract signing and talked a little more Georgia football-based trash.
They also sent the poor, poor chairs in the ring for their signing flying in opposite directions. THOSE CHAIRS HAD FAMILIES (maybe?)!
Reigns also brought up Goldberg's infamous concussion before his match vs. The Undertaker — and the Universal Champion had a response ready, telling Roman he'd be the next victim of that very same headbutt.
We assume a spear and Jackhammer is next on Goldberg's plan after that; we'll have to wait until the two-night extravaganza of WrestleMania on April 4 and 5 to know for sure.
Yet a two-hour SmackDown couldn't contain all of the hype that is Gronk. After the show, he showed off in front of the camera:
Then talked about the honor of hosting WrestleMania, all while staying true to Hype Bro form with Mojo: "It's just unbelievable. it's an honor to be a part of it."They ... they also joked about whether Mojo has six or nine suits because ... well. Yeah. It's Gronk.
So, just for good measure on the way out, let's relive that moment Gronk talks about above, when he laid out "Ginger, or Jinder Mahal, whatever," at WrestleMania. For our man, it was just the start:
