Gable Steveson has been released from WWE.
The 2020 Olympic gold medalist in freestyle wrestling exits the promotion after he opted to explore a future in professional wrestling rather than MMA following his historic run in Tokyo that ended with a viral finish following a last-second score that allowed him to claim the championship.
Souces close to WWE confirmed his release to MMA Fighting on Saturday following an initial report from wrestling insider Dave Meltzer.
At 21, Steveson was already an NCAA champion at the University of Minnesota but he decided to take a stab at the Olympics following a delayed start to the games due to the global pandemic. Steveson ran roughshod through the heavyweight division in the United States to qualify for the Olympics.
He continued his dominant run at the Olympic games where he didn’t allow a single point during his first three matches, blanking his opponents with a combined 23-0 score. In the finals, Steveson took out 2016 Olympic bronze medalist Geno Petriashvili in thrilling fashion to capture gold and become the youngest American to ever achieve that feat.
Following his run at the Olympics, Steveson contemplated a future in either professional wrestling or MMA thanks to his deep ties to the sport, which included training with former UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar.
Ultimately, Steveson decided to test the waters at WWE where he was signed to an exclusive contract but he still discussed eventually making the move to MMA one day in the future.
“I would love to fight,” Steveson told MMA Fighting in 2021. “I’m not scared of fighting. I’m not scared of getting punched. I’m not scared of going out there and losing in front of a big crowd or winning in front of a big crowd. It doesn’t matter to me. I go out there to entertain people and for me, myself, to do something I love. I mean I love fighting and I love WWE. I love both.”
While he made brief appearances on WWE television over the next couple of years, Steveson never became a full time performer outside of a few sporadic matches on television.
With his release from WWE, Steveson could now potentially make the move into MMA, which is something he continuously teased even when he was training to become a pro wrestler. Most recently, Steveson worked out at Kill Cliff MMA in Florida, the same team responsible for fighters like Shavkat Rakhmonov, Gilbert Burns and Michael Chandler.
In fact, Steveson helped Bellator welterweight champion Jason Jackson brush up on his wrestling ahead of his recent win over Ray Cooper III.
There’s no word if Steveson plans to explore a future in MMA following his release from WWE but the path is now clear for that to happen if he chooses.
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