Gable Steveson joined WWE after his 2021 gold medal triumph with the declared aim of becoming the new Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. Now the engagement ended in a fiasco
He was possibly the highest-profile athlete ever to sign with WWE. He joined with the self-proclaimed ambition of becoming a megastar like Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson or Conor McGregor. Instead, he has now turned out to be an expensive flop.
As the well-known US journalist Dave Meltzer reports in his Wrestling Observer, the wrestling market leader has fired Gable Steveson – the 2021 Olympic heavyweight wrestling champion who was presented with great fanfare at the WrestleMania mega-show two years ago. Now he has been quietly and secretly released from his contract. It seems that the early leaked impression that Steveson has failed to make the transition from top athlete to sports entertainer has been confirmed
Steveson, an exceptional wrestler in college and winner of the prestigious Dan Hodge Trophy, had defeated Geno Petriashvili of Georgia in the Tokyo Olympic final and was the second Olympic wrestling champion after Kurt Angle in 1996 to start a second career as a WWE show wrestler.
The 23-year-old wanted to go even higher than Angle, who had a Hall of Fame career as a wrestler: even before signing with WWE, he boasted that he was in contact with The Rock and McGregor via Instagram and had written to them “that I want to be where they are and that I’ll see them up there soon.”
WWE debut turned into a fiasco
Steveson was supposed to make it big and fast in WWE: He was introduced as a member of the main roster RAW shortly after signing in 2021 – unusual for a rookie with no wrestling experience who was also still active as a wrestler and became undefeated collegiate champion again in 2022
Meltzer said WWE had originally planned to prepare Steveson for a wrestling debut at WrestleMania 2022 alongside his final college season. The plan was canceled because Steveson was deemed “not ready” internally. Instead of a full-fledged match, there was instead a segment in which Steveson gave Chad Gable – also an ex-OIympian wrestler – a suplex.
The ring debut instead followed in July 2023 at the NXT developmental squad and turned into a fiasco: Steveson, who was noticeably alienated on the WWE stage during his match against Baron Corbin, was booed by the fans and met with chants of “You’re not Angle!” (“You’re not Kurt Angle!”) – even though he was staged as a “babyface”, a “good guy.”
oh man the NXT Great American Bash 2023 crowd were not buying Gable Steveson pic.twitter.com/oSjzzPIpV3
– forever botchamania (@Maffewgregg) July 31, 2023
By February 2024, Steveson had played a number of matches on NXT and in the run-up to SmackDown tapings, all off camera. They were obviously not convincing
The brother is more successful in WWE
As Meltzer reports, behind the scenes at WWE it was clear early on that Steveson had not taken to wrestling as he had hoped – unlike his older brother Bobby (Damon Kemp), far less successful as a wrestler but already established as a TV character in NXT.
While WWE training was at a standstill, Steveson was given permission to compete as a wrestler again at the 2023 US Open Championships. He clearly won his weight class and, according to experts, presented himself in a form that would have made him the favorite again at the Olympics in Paris.
A bitter pill for Steveson: WWE’s decision to terminate his contract came just a few weeks after the US Olympic qualifiers, in which he can no longer take part. Instead, Mason Parris, clearly defeated by Steveson at the US Championships, earned his place in the team.
It is uncertain what Steveson will do next: he is young enough to still have his sights set on the 2028 Olympics, but he could earn more money as an MMA fighter with the UFC – another career option he had publicly flirted with before his WWE deal. A move to WWE rival AEW is possible, but whether there is interest is uncertain – both from Steveson’s and AEW’s side after Steveson failed so spectacularly at WWE.
In addition to Steveson, according to consistent media reports, WWE has fired a number of other talents who failed to make it in the undercard, most of whom had also failed to make it on TV in NXT or had remained inconspicuous there. The second most prominent firing victim behind Steveson is former Cruiserweight Champion Drew Gulak, who was apparently under at WWE after former star Ronda Rousey revealed last month that he had behaved inappropriately towards her