A former WWE Superstar has revealed that not only are they training Gable Steveson, they have also tipped the Olympic star for big things.
After winning Olympic Gold in Tokyo, Steveson became one of the most sought-after combat athletes in the world. With Steveson already an NCAA Champion, Danny Hodge Trophy winner, and Junior World Champion, his resume attracted a sting of suiters.
However he chose however to sign with WWE and became the first athlete to sign a NIL (Name, Image, Likeness) contract when he signed with the company in September 2021.
Steveson was a part of the WWE Draft just one month later where he was sent to Monday Night Raw with the red brand’s final pick. His only action inside a WWE ring to date came at WrestleMania 38 where he suplexed Chad Gable after Alpha Academy battled RK-Bro and The Street Profits.
Since April, updates on Steveson have been few and far between, with no news on when he will begin to feature on Raw.
Although a former WWE star has now tipped the Olympian for the top after working with him. Speaking in a new interview with Chris Van Vliet on his Insight podcast, Ken Anderson, formerly known as Mr. Kennedy revealed that he has been training Steveson.
“I’ve been getting in the ring a lot more and rolling around with some of my students. I have a couple of students right now that have WWE try-outs, one guy that is signed to WWE. [Chris asks who’s that?] That’s Gable Steveson, who’s been training with us. He’s local, he lives in the Twin Cities, and he’s been signed now to Raw for a year, and they really haven’t done much with him.
So he just wanted to [try it], he reached out and said, ‘Hey, can I come in and like just hit the ropes and stuff? So we’ve been doing a couple times a week with him, and I’ve got some of my best students working with him. He’s got some amazing innate ability that you just can’t teach somebody.”
Continuing on, Anderson explained that he taught the amateur star how to take his first bump.
“The first time I remember he came in and I said ‘What do you know how to do?’ and he goes ‘Nothing.’ Have you taken a bump yet, and he said ‘I’ve never taken a bump.’ Do you know how to run the ropes? And he knew how to run the ropes kind of.
And so I told him how to take his first bump. And normally I go through this whole progression where I have people hold on to the rope, and then they take a fall back and then push them over somebody’s back. And I just said like, tuck your chin, you know, drive your, drive your hips up to the ceiling, and you want to land in your, in your upper shoulder area. And he went boom, and did it almost perfectly.
And then I told him, you know, to get up, there’s a certain way we get up to our right. And he got up the wrong way. I didn’t even have to say anything, he remembered halfway through and he like, reversed himself back down and then got up the right way. And I feel like that happens all the time.”
Looking ahead, Anderson said that he’s got no doubt that Steveson will go on to big things.
“He’s already kind of having matches with a couple of our guys. He’s gonna be great. I think he just needs to tap into his verbal skills. And the thing is, he’s super charismatic, and he can talk, he really can. It’s just getting him to sort of take it to 10. He’s just a chill guy, he’s kind of relaxed, not stressed about anything.”
Ken Anderson signed with WWE in February 2005, before making his main roster debut that August. Known as Mr. Kennedy, the star rose up the card quickly but his rise was derailed by a series of injuries and a suspension for a wellness policy violation.
He left the company in 2009, before heading to TNA and the independent circuit.
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