WWE Removes Gable Steveson From NXT Roster
Gable Steveson was a part of the WWE NXT brand, but a change has been made to remove the Olympic Gold Medalist from the roster.
It was announced earlier this week that Gable Steveson has been removed from competing in the freestyle World Championships that he had qualified for.
At the Summer Olympics in Tokyo, which took place in the summer of 2021 due to COVID-19 in 2020, Gable Steveson won an Olympic Gold Medal for freestyle wrestling at the age of 21. Steveson signed a WWE contract in September 2021.
Since then, there was speculation that he wanted to compete in this year’s freestyle wrestling World Championships and pursue another Olympic Gold Medal next summer in Paris as well. However, WWE has apparently made a ruling on that.
According to Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the 23-year-old Steveson was removed from this year’s World Championships because of a ruling made by WWE.
“Less than two weeks before the world championships, Gable Steveson has pulled out. The official story is that he has decided to not compete. Mason Parris, who Steveson dominated in the national championships and beat two more times in the team trials will represent the U.S. in the 275 pound weight class. This is one week after amateur wrestling sites had reported he was in. It is a really weird story because there was no point in him competing in the tournament and wrestle-offs if not to compete in the world championships.”
“But at the end of the day, this was a WWE decision as he’s under contract to them. WWE had neither confirmed nor denied whether Steveson would be competing when asked but we do know at least at one point the idea was for him to take time away to go into hard training for worlds. WWE also, strangely, did not publicize his recent dominant wins at the senior nationals and at Final X.”
“It doesn’t really make any sense to have gone to Final X and been allowed to go to Final X to get a shot at the worlds and pull out of worlds unless it is injury related, and there was no mention of an injury. One would think this would indicate WWE not allowing Steveson to go for his third NCAA title next year nor the 2024 Olympics, but ultimately this is a decision up to the company.”
Gable Steveson No Longer Listed On WWE NXT Roster
The WWE in-ring debut of freestyle wrestling Olympic Gold Medalist Gable Steveson took place at June’s Great American Bash event when he faced WWE veteran Baron Corbin. The match only went 6:34 and ended as a double countout. Fans chanted “bulls**t” at the finish and were booing Steveson even though he was the babyface in the match. Steveson hasn’t appeared on NXT TV since then, nor has he been mentioned at all.
It was noted by Dave Meltzer that Steveson is no longer listed as a member of the NXT roster.
“Another interesting note is that Steveson has been officially removed from the NXT roster. I don’t know what that means past that’s happened and there are no plans for him in NXT at this moment.”
That could mean a lot of different things including the possibility that WWE wants Steveson to have more training before he is put on TV again. Steveson remains under WWE contract, likely for several more years.