Kurt Angle recalls his first interaction with Gable Steveson.
Olympic gold medalist Gable Steveson signed with WWE in 2021. Given their shared background as Olympic gold medalists, he was compared to WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle from the start. Steveson and Angle appeared on-screen together on WWE SmackDown in 2022. Steveson later had a run in NXT, but he was released in May 2024. He then signed with the Buffalo Bills.
Speaking on The Kurt Angle Show (via One True Sport), Kurt Angle was asked to share his thoughts on Gable Steveson joining the Buffalo Bills.
“I’m not surprised. The kid’s a super athlete. You think Brock Lesnar is an athlete? This kid, he might be a little tad bit better athlete than Brock Lesnar. That’s very difficult for me to say. Especially for Brock’s size, he’s an incredible athlete. Him and Gable Steveson are, but this guy, I mean, he is so diverse. He’s fast, he’s athletic. I’ve seen him do backflips just standing there. He’s a 250-pound monster. For him to be able to do stuff like that, it’s just incredible. So I wasn’t surprised that he signed with the Buffalo Bills. I’m surprised they didn’t put him on the practice team for a little bit because he never played football before, at least not in college. But I think he’s gonna make a huge impact right away, I really do. It’s crazy, but he’s a one-in-a-lifetime individual, and that’s how I think of him," Angle said.
Angle then recalled how he met Steveson, and the latter told him that he wanted to be better than he was. Angle noted that he wished him luck with that.
"I met him. He’s like, ‘Hey, Kurt Angle, I just want to tell you, I respect your career, and I want to be just like you.’ I was like, ‘Oh, thank you, Gable.’ He goes, ‘You know what? No, I want to be better than you.’ I was like, holy shit. [Laughs] What an asshole thing to say [laughs]. I said, ‘Well, good luck, man,'" Angle said.
Click here to see what Shawn Michaels said about Gable Steveson's departure from NXT.
Chad Gable has said that there was no jealousy when he was working with Gable Steveson. Check out his comments here.
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