


Don’t mess with George Kittle.
The 49ers’ star tight end, a noted wrestling fan, was sitting ringside Saturday for the first night of WWE’s WrestleMania 39 in Los Angeles and got in on the action after The Miz shoved him back into his seat.
Kittle, 29, promptly took off his jacket, hopped over the guardrail, pounded his chest and flattened The Miz with a clothesline outside the ring.
This was a welcome sight for fellow Pro Bowler Pat McAfee, the punter-turned-sports media star who faced The Miz in an impromptu match made official by Snoop Dogg.
McAfee defeated The Miz with a punt kick to the face to pick up a win at WrestleMania for the second year in a row after defeating Austin Theory — and then losing to Vince McMahon — last year in Arlington, Texas.
Kittle and McAfee then hugged and celebrated in the ring.
“Still dreaming!” Kittle wrote on Twitter Saturday night in response to McAfee sharing a video of Kittle’s takedown.
Kittle’s wife Claire, who was sitting next to her husband during the event, shared a clip on her Instagram story of Kittle’s and Miz’s interaction and wrote, “They missed me yelling at him lol.”
Kittle is not the first tight end to get physical at WrestleMania.
During WrestleMania 36, which took place without fans at WWE’s Performance Center at the start of the COVID pandemic, Rob Gronkowski was the host and at one point dove off of a podium onto a group of wrestlers and pinned his friend Mojo Rawley to win the 24/7 championship.
Three years earlier at WrestleMania 33 in Orlando, Gronkowski got in the ring during the Andre the Giants battle royal after Jinder Mihal tossed a drink at him while he was sitting ringside.
Gronkowski shoulder tackled Mahal to help Rawley win the battle royal.
Legendary Giants linebacker Lawrence Taylor famously defeated Bam Bam Bigelow in the main event of WrestleMania XI in Hartford.