A lot was on the line when Gable Steveson made his in-ring WWE debut at NXT's The Great American Bash. Dubbed the “second coming of Kurt Angle” by fans eager to see another “Olympic Hero” produce incredible memories and provide WWE with a much-needed young babyface to help usher the promotion into the future.

Unfortunately, it's hard to quantify The Great American Bash as anything other than a disaster for Steveson, as he was booed relentlessly despite wrestling a certified charisma vacuum in Baron Corbin, and suddenly, his future was called into question by fans and pundits alike.

Would it be understandable for fans and WWE's brass alike to have questions about Steveson's future in the promotion after the match? Sure, but one person who still believes in the Olympic Gold medalist is none other than Kurt Angle, who told Chris Van Vliet that he still thinks the 23-year-old will have a great career in professional wrestling.

“First of all, he's an incredible athlete. You know, he not only incredible on the mat wrestling, I mean, this kid, you know, he can do backflips. He's really athletic, super athletic. And I think he's gonna have a great future. I just don't know how entertaining he's gonna be. I know that he loves to talk, a lot of his friends that I talked to say he's kind of a loudmouth, which is kind of good. Because you want to be able to, you don't want to be shy when you're in this. You know, I was a shy kid, and when I went to WWE, I had to learn how to suck it up and just go out there and put everything on the line. And it was really a hard transition for me,” Kurt Angle said via Fightful.

“But I think Gable Stevenson will have the same thing. He'll probably, you know, have to, you know, break that mold of being an amateur wrestler, because as an amateur wrestler, you show no emotion. You go out there and you focus and you wrestle and you go from the pen. It's not like pro wrestling, we have to show people emotion. You have to show if you're scared, or if you're mad or if you're, you know, excited. So there's, there's a lot. You have to have incredible charisma. And I think that Gable has that. I just don't know how well he's going to translate that when he starts talking. I do remember doing a pre-tape with him in Pittsburgh. And he did alright. You know, he didn't do incredibly well. But he did well, that it was like, Okay, this kid. He has potential. I think he's going to be pretty good. And so I expect him to have a great career. I don't know if he's going to have the career I had, but I think he could he could definitely.”

Does Steveson still have a future in WWE? Sure, all the promotion has to do is turn him heel, and suddenly, all of those boos from the crowd are a justified part of the character. How WWE decides to handle the situation, however, remains to be seen, as the pride of the University of Minnesota has been MIA since securing a double-count out with Corbin at the Bash.

Kurt Angles reveals how he almost landed in UFC instead of WWE.

Stopping by ESPN to have a conversation about his career with Marc Raimondi, Kurt Angle revealed that, while he may be best known for wrestling prowess both in the sports entertainment world and as an amateur Greco-Roman grappler, he has actually been offered multiple six-figure contracts to fight professionally for the UCF, including a $150,000 contract for 15 fights in 1996 hot off the tail of his Olympic run.

“I love fighting, but I don’t love it that much to get my butt kicked for 15 grand [per fight]. So, I decided to go to WWE, and when I got there, I had so much success early on,” Kurt Angle said via 411 Mania. “And then UFC started becoming mainstream in the early 2000s, and this is when I was having a stellar career in WWE, winning world championships, beating The Rock for the world championship, beating ‘Stone Cold’ [Steve Austin] for the world championship. And I thought, ‘Man, I would love to fight, but I already had this great career going on right now.'”

While it's hard to argue that Angle didn't make the right call in signing with WWE in 1998 over UFC, that wasn't the first time he was wooed into professional fighting, as The Ultimate Fighter came through again in 2009, offering the “Olympic Hero” $500,000 to join the promotion, even if he turned it down because he felt he was “past his prime.” Asked by Raimondi if he felt as though he made a mistake passing it up, Angles shared his feeling, which ultimately had a positive resolution.

“Every once in a while, it gets to me. And when I watch these fights, I’m like, ‘Gosh, man, I think I would’ve done pretty well in this. Seeing Brock Lesnar, my friend, be UFC champion and seeing Randy Couture, who I trained with for the Olympics, being UFC champion. It makes you question, did you do the right thing? But I look back, and I say, ‘You know what? I had a pretty stellar career in pro wrestling.’ So, I can’t regret that.”

Would Angle have created the same legacy in American professional sports had he opted to become a UFC fighter instead of a WWE Superstar after his Olympic career? Maybe yes, maybe no, but it's safe to say his wrestling career was indeed “stellar,” so what is there to complain about?