wrestling / News

Mojo Rawley: ‘Gronk’s Got WWE Superstar Written All Over Him’

April 21, 2017 | Posted by Joseph Lee

In an interview with FOX Sports, Mojo Rawley spoke about Rob Gronkowski’s potential as a WWE superstar, Zack Ryder’s injury and more. Here are highlights:

On Zack Ryder’s injury after winning a #1 contender battle royal: “I came flying out to celebrate with him, and I kind of like bear-hugged him and dove on him, and I saw the look on his face afterwards and I was like ‘man, I think something bad just happened. Something’s off here.’

He was in a tremendous amount of pain, and I don’t want to get graphic or anything, but sitting there with him… he was a mess. And the docs come out and they pulled his kneepad down, his knee cover, and his kneecap was off to the side of his leg. The second I saw that I was just like ‘oh no.’ I didn’t think anything about the future at that moment, I was just hoping my buddy would be alright. We carried him to the back and he sat there in the trainer’s room and he was just in so much pain. He had a patella rupture. I know a lot about knee injuries, but I don’t know much about the patella, so there’s so much doubt and uncertainty associated with it.

It was crazy, man. Yeah, we just became No. 1 contenders and yeah I knew he was probably going to be out for a while, but I just wanted to focus on making sure my friend was going to be alright. Because he had been so good to me, coming back to NXT to try and make this team work. Spending his off days on the road coming back. The guy was… he had no life the entire time as a team. He had to take care of both his Raw and SmackDown commitments in addition to NXT. Absolutely brutal.

So to kind of get chopped down right at the height of our tag team, the biggest moment of our team’s career was just really unfortunate.”

On if he’s talked to Ryder: “Well Zack and I live in the same city, now, so I get to see him a lot more than I normally would have. When guys are injured, they have the option to go rehab wherever they really want to. Being in Orlando is convenient because the WWE Performance Center’s there. I’ve seen Zack in rehab before, you know, we were just kind of joking around and having a little fun with the fact that we were both in the weight room at the same time.

Granted, we’re doing completely different workouts, and he was still focusing on his rehab as opposed to me going through one of my typical workouts. It was just good to see him in there and kind of be back on the grind and get in the gym together, one way or another. It’s good to see the progress he’s made, and he’s getting close to coming back. I can’t wait for that to happen.”

On Rob Gronkowski’s potential as a WWE superstar: “Well let’s call him a blue chipper, baby. The guy’s done his homework. That’s my best friend and he’s been supporting me, coming to the shows since we were down in FCW in Tampa and there were seven people in the arena and my buddies were like five of them.

He’s done his homework, he’s been to these matches. He’s progressed through the ranks, he’s very familiar with the process works. He’s very familiar with the lifestyle because he’s been there every step of the way with me as a fan.

And to have him be able to get in the ring and deliver a big shoulder tackle and be front row at a lot of these shows… the guys all cued up. Not to mention all the fun that we have outside of both of our jobs. Practicing moves on each other and watching it together and having a blast. The guy’s cued up for a career, man. You look at everything he’s done with his life outside of the gridiron, he’s got WWE superstar written all over him.”

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