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After literally years of anticipation, fans finally got to see Gable Steveson wrestle his first match as a member of the greater WWE Universe at The Great American Bash, and the results… were not good.
Taking the ring against main roster stalwart Baron Corbin, Steveson was booed for most of the match, and that sour reaction only got worse as the match went on, with fans chanting “You're not Angle” as he attempted to secure a win against the man who retired the OG “Olympic Hero.”
But what did the actual Kurt Angle think of Stveson and his less-than-ideal reaction from the crowd during his first match in the company? Well, Angle actually believes the reaction was intentional by WWE, as he revealed on his eponymous podcast.
“Well, I feel badly for him because he's being compared to me at this point in time. He hasn't even barely started, so I don't know how his future is going to be. I know he's really talented, really athletic. I'm not sure how he is as far as entertainment-wise, but as far as in the ring, I heard he's really good. But no, I don't think it's a fair assessment to compare him to me right now. I think down the line, you can do that,” Kurt Angle said via Fightful.
“This is crazy, but people have been coming to me and telling me, ‘Hey, he wrestled Baron Corbin at NXT, and the fans were boobing the heck out of him. Then he pulled his straps down, and the fans got even more pissed.' You know what? I think that's something WWE is actually doing. They want to make him a heel. So they're gonna have them copy and mimic me. That's what this is, I believe. I think they're gonna have him copy and mimic me so he can piss the fans off. So that he starts out as a heel because it's easier to be a heel starting out than it is a babyface. So I think that I think they're the ones that actually told him to do this stuff. I really believe that, and I think WWE is brilliant for doing it.”
Whoa, could Angle actually be on to something? Would WWE actually introduce Steveson as a babyface only to turn him heel in order to play off the contrast between himself and Angle? If so, that would actually make for a very interesting play, as if fans want to boo a performer, why not embrace the boos and let them do half the work?
Chad Gable gives some advice to Gable Steveson after The Great American Bash.
In the lead-up to SummerSlam, Chad Gable was asked by Liam Crowley of Comicbooks.com if he had any advice for WWE's other Gable regarding his transitioning from an Olympian to a WWE Superstar. While Chad never got to the same level as Steveson in amateur wrestling, he has insight into what it takes to excel as a sports entertainer providing a fascinating contrast between the two different types of “wrestling.”
“Yeah, I think a lot of it is kind of understanding what we do here in this company. That's a big part of it,” Chad Gable said. “In WWE, we tell stories, and we connect with people, and we do that through our wrestling matches. So we don't just wrestle, and it took me a long time to learn that too. Like trust me, when I came in, all I wanted to do was have these great matches and just be a wrestler, and then very quickly realized that, like, that's not going to work here. We need to tell stories and make people tell stories and connect to you. And once I realized that, that's when everything changed for me. So if I can go back or tell anybody early in their career that comes from amateur sports or anywhere else, that's very competitive in nature to allow yourself to be vulnerable. Allow people to show you who you really are and not just feel like you're this, ‘Ah, I'm a killer!' all the time. And I don't know that that's what he's doing or that's where his mind is, but that would be my advice for him.”
You know what? Good on Master Gable for being open to providing Steveson with some insight, as it wasn't too long ago when the Olympic gold medalist was suggesting that he should change his – given – name so there aren't two Gables in the WWE Universe. Whether Steveson can ultimately open himself up to being vulnerable and become an in-ring storyteller remains to be seen, but hey, you can't blame it on bad advice from Master Gable.
