Tag: Gable Steveson

Gable Steveson, WWE’s first NIL signing, seemingly had his WWE timeline impacted when he registered for USA Wrestling’s U.S. Open with the goal of competing at the 2024 Olympics. However, he said WWE has yet to confirm whether he can participate in the games, which are set to take place in about 14 months.

Steve’s eyes are firmly fixed on the Paris games, hoping to compete in front of an audience unaffected by the COVID-19 pandemic, he told the AP, unlike the 2020 games.

“I need to have that Paris experience in front of a packed house,” he said. “I need to have them see what it’s like to see Gable Steveson in person. Having been in Tokyo and having no fans was — it was okay because I still won an Olympic gold. But I want to have that experience of having my family in the front row. They need to see it live.”

Steveson, it seems, has unfinished business to accomplish at the amateur wrestling level by 2024 before pursuing anything else. Although he teased that his time with WWE is coming sooner than later.

“I am still doing my thing,” he said. “I have changed my diet, my body appearance. I wanted to be the best thing ever so when I did go on TV, it was going to be a sight that nobody has seen before. My time is coming and it’s coming sooner than a lot of people think.”

Without a specified date for this, it’s unknown when Steveson will appear on WWE screens consistently besides the sporadic appearances he has made in the past few years.

Either way, the spotlight will be on him if he ever becomes a full-time WWE wrestler, to see if he takes his international wrestling pedigree and level of charisma to a different audience — who will be waiting to see what he can do.

Since 2021, Gable Steveson has been with WWE under its Next In Line (NIL) program, but he has yet to become a full-time talent for the company. He stepped away in 2022 to treat Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, and, more recently registered for USA Wrestling’s U.S. Open with the goal of competing at the 2024 Olympics.

Providing an update on his in-ring future, in an interview with KSTP, the 2020 Olympic Gold Medalist said he is pleased with his training to become a pro wrestler (h/t Fightful for transcription).

“I want to go out there on tv. I want to be the person people thought I was and I don’t want any doubt in my mind that I’m not. I’m getting the hang of doing everything the correct way – landing right, match psychology, everything in between. I’m flourishing and hopefully they see it, too. I’m excited because people haven’t really seen the real Gable because amateur wrestling kind of shelves a portion because we’re used to guys being disciplined,” he said.

Steveson also said WWE approved a few tournaments he can pursue, but not yet the 2024 Olympics.

“They’ve approved the fact that I can chase a couple tournaments,” Steveson said. “I think time will tell the Olympics story. Who knows because it’s a year away but I think we’re in good strides to make that progression.”

Steveson signed with WWE as its first NIL recruit in a program that offered college athletes the opportunity to pursue a career as a full-time pro wrestler. He followed that up with an appearance at WrestleMania 38, to suplex Chad Gable and work with the Street Profits. And on December 9, 2022, in Pittsburgh, he helped Kurt Angle fend off the Alpha Academy at Angle’s Birthday Bash on SmackDown.

While Steveson has more amateur wrestling ahead, he is only 22 years old and holds a bright future with WWE. Whenever he becomes a full-time talent, it will be interesting to see how he transitions as other former Olympians have.

For Gable Steveson, it looks like Olympics first, WWE second.

While the Olympic gold medalist had mentioned last month that he might have his first official WWE match shortly after WrestleMania, that no longer appears to be the case. USA Wrestling announced this week that Steveson had registered for the U.S. Open, marking his return to amateur wrestling after 13 months away.

Steveson left his shoes in the center of the mat after last year’s NCAA Championships, which traditionally serves as a sign that an athlete is finished with the sport for good. However, Steveson has been open about his desire to potentially compete in the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, and the U.S. Open is the first event that helps wrestlers qualify for the U.S. Olympic Trials.

As the first signee to WWE’s Next In Line NIL program, Steveson appeared to be the example the company could use for college athletes looking to find a path to becoming full-time pro wrestlers. That program is still going strong, with its third wave of talent joining in late January, but no one has graduated from NIL to the roster yet.

Steveson has come the closest, as he’s appeared on WWE broadcasts several times. At WrestleMania 38, he showed off some of his skills by executing a belly-to-belly suplex on Chad Gable before getting some props from the Street Profits and RK-Bro. And on the December 9, 2022 episode of SmackDown in Pittsburgh, Steveson came to the aid of fellow Olympic wrestling legend Kurt Angle, helping him drive off Alpha Academy.

That most recent appearance gave fans hope that Steveson would actually be added to the roster soon, especially with a new version of the WWE Draft coming up this spring. The resumption of his amateur wrestling career makes that unlikely, and it’s fair to think he might not circle back to WWE until 2025 if he makes the U.S. Olympic team.

In the meantime, you can watch Steveson’s return to the mat live on FloWrestling, as the U.S. Open takes place April 26-30 in Las Vegas.

WWE isn’t known for always showing restraint when it comes to new talent it’s excited about, which makes the slow, cautious approach it’s taken with Gable Steveson all the more intriguing. The company reportedly signed Steveson to a contract in September 2021, and has used the Olympic gold medalist as a success story to promote its Next In Line (NIL) program.

Steveson made appearances at WrestleMania 38 and got the rub from fellow Olympic hero Kurt Angle on a December 2022 episode of Raw. That made it seem like his debut might be imminent.

Spoiler: It was not. Steveson has yet to have his first WWE match, the company hasn’t announced when it might be, and he hasn’t been on TV yet in 2023. Despite all that, he sounded optimistic in an interview with MMA Fighting (h/t Fightful) that he is “pretty close” to making his debut — perhaps even right after WWE’s biggest show of the year.

I’m just waiting for that call and waiting for that time. Some days it’s stressful because I never know when it will come and I’m used to amateur wrestling where it’s like, ‘Hey, we have the Olympics in three months or we have the Olympic trials in two months, be ready for it.’

Right now, you’re going through the motions with no goal, and I wish I could have that goal in sight and put forth and give people real answers when I’m debuting, but it will be coming really, really soon. And when I mean really, really soon, probably after [WrestleMania] or just a little bit after that.

One caveat that could affect those plans: Steveson hopes to compete in the 2024 Olympics in Paris. Because the pandemic pushed the past Games back a year, there’s a rare opportunity for him to wrestle for gold twice between the ages of 21 and 25 (he’d be only 24 when Paris comes around).

Obviously, he’d need time away from WWE to train and compete, which he’s hopeful the company would give him. But that also means it might not make sense to push him too hard prior if he’s just going to be away for a big chunk of next year.

Still, WWE knows from its experience with Angle what the potential upside of an Olympic gold medal wrestler can be, and it’s Hall of Fame level. We may know in just a few months if it believes Steveson is ready to start that journey.