2 May 2023
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Ding, ding, ding?
After watching his fellow friend San Francisco tight end George Kittle make an appearance in this year’s Wrestlemania 39, Chiefs TE Travis Kelce wants to join in on the action.
In an interview with TMZ, Kelce said he’s been connecting with Mike Mizanin, who goes by “The MIZ” in WWE. Both Kelce and Mizanin are from the Cleveland, Ohio area. The thought came from watching Mizanin lose to Pat McAfee when Kittle clotheslined and speared Mizanin after the match.
“My guy George Kittle was at WrestleMania throwing clotheslines left and right, man,” Kelce told TMZ. “It was awesome to see him go nuts.”
WWE has a great relationship with different athletes from different sports and celebrities to have them join in the action for a promo or quick match with a superstar.
Kelce does have excellent mic skills to prove it. After defeating the Cincinnati Bengals in the AFC Championship game, he fired back at Cincinnati’s mayor Aftab Pureval, calling him a ‘Jabroni’ repeating one of the famous wrestling catchphrases from Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. This was after Pureval said city officials asked Burrow to take a paternity test to see if he was Patrick Mahomes’ father after three previous wins.
Few athletes try out with WWE after their careers. Sometimes it works out well.
In recent years, former NFL tight end Rob Gronkowski also appeared at Wrestlemania 33 in 2017 to help a close friend and former WWE superstar Mojo Rawley win the Andre the Giant Battle Royal.
Former punter and currently contracted commentator McAfee has had matches and done commentary. He made his debut against current United States Champion Austin Theory at Wrestlemania 38, and had additional matches against Baron Corbin at SummerSlam last summer and former WWE wrestler Adam Cole at NXT Takeover in 2020.
Current WWE superstars Roman Reigns, Corbin, and Brock Lesnar previously had experience playing football, both in college and professionally. Former superstars The Rock and Bill Goldberg made a long run in the WWE/WCW after their college and NFL careers.
This year, Kelce hosted “Saturday Night Live,” threw the ceremonial first pitch at a Cleveland Guardians game for his hometown team, and showed up at the NFL Draft surprising fans.
WWE still needs to be checked off his list, and hopefully he’ll be involved soon.