Two years after winning gold in Tokyo, exceptional athlete Gable Steveson makes his debut for WWE – where he initially has a hard time with the fans.
Every beginning is difficult – even for an exceptional athlete with a high profile.
Gable Steveson, reigning Olympic champion in freestyle wrestling (super heavyweight) made his WWE debut as a wrestler on Monday night – and was met with a critical audience.
Steveson competed in his first match for the rebuilding NXT squad two years after his gold win in Tokyo and earned plenty of adverse reactions. And in his case, none that he was aiming for.
WWE: Gable Steveson collects boos and “bullshit” shouts
Steveson faced off against star Baron Corbin, who is also established on the main shows RAW and SmackDown, at the Great American Bash event in Cedar Park, Texas.
The match lasted around six and a half minutes and ended in a draw as both were counted out outside the ring. From the start, Steveson had a tough time of it, with an audible portion of the fans cheering on Baron Corbin, who was actually defined as a villain, and booing Steveson at almost every action.
When it became clear to the audience that there would be no winner, there were more boos and shouts of “bullshit”. Steveson had the last word according to the script, giving Corbin a suplex through the ring barricade at the end. However, when he then re-entered the ring to be celebrated for it, there were loud expressions of displeasure again.
Gold at the Olympics, not the only achievement
What’s behind the unfriendly reception? The prevailing impression is that the 23-year-old Steveson is perceived as a privileged upstart who has not earned his place on the WWE stage.
Rejecting reactions of this nature have been faced by many stars who have received preferential treatment in WWE from a fan perspective,
Steveson is not helped by the fact that he has earned athletic merit outside the ring like few WWE wrestlers before him: Steveson has also won the NCAA college championship twice each and the Danny Hodge Trophy, the wrestling equivalent of the Heisman Trophy for football players.
Steveson’s athletic accomplishments surpass those of his WWE role model Brock Lesnar, who like him hails from the University of Minnesota. For the WWE fans, however, that counts for little at first, as the past has shown time and again that they can only be convinced by good performances on the wrestling stage.
“You are not Kurt Angle “
After a similarly difficult start, Kurt Angle, who had a Hall-of-Fame career in WWE after his Olympic wrestling victory in Atlanta in 1996, succeeded in the past.
He was helped by his great entertainment talent and he took the wind out of the sails of initial rejection by giving himself a character as an “Olympic Hero” drunk on himself.
Steveson, who has the same goal, was initially told: “You’re not Angle.” Steveson – whose brother Bobby is also active in NXT as “Damon Kemp” – has a lot of work ahead of him to disprove the prejudice.
