In 2021, Gable Steveson joined WWE through the NIL program. Steveson’s first match took place at The Great American Bash against Baron Corbin last year. The bout ended in a double countout. He competed in 16 non-televised matches before being released last week.
On the Hall of Fame podcast, Booker T was asked about Gable Steveson’s WWE release. Booker said that Steveson had a look and everything, but he didn’t focus on pro wrestling. The WWE Hall of Famer said that Steveson was unable to get out of amateur wrestling.
“He [Gable Steveson] had the look; he had everything; he had all of that man, and for it not to pan out, I think it was him not really buying all in. Not really saying, ‘I’m really going to throw everything into doing this and being the best at it. One foot in the door and one foot out, let’s just say that. Could he have cut it and really pulled this thing off? Probably, but I really think that [amateur] wrestling bug was still in his system, and it was hard for him to really get it out. Seemed like he still has something to prove there; again, just having one foot in and one foot out, I think that was his problem.”