Kurt Angle: Gable Steveson Is Going To Adapt To WWE Very Well

Kurt Angle believes Gable Steveson will adapt 'very well' to life in WWE if he can be open to the character work and entertainment aspect of the business.

Steveson was signed by WWE as part of the Next In Line program last year and has featured sporadically on WWE television in recent weeks. The 21-year-old's path to WWE is very similar to Angle's, who famously wasn't ready to embrace the scripted entertainment nature of the promotion when first offered a contract in 1996.

Speaking on his podcast, The Kurt Angle Show, he said: "Gable Steveson is a phenomenal athlete, especially for his size. The kid is a super athlete, and I think he's gonna adapt very well to pro wrestling.

"The only issue is, I don't know his personality. I don't know how open he is. If he's able to come up with a great character that people relate to, or that people absolutely hate. You know, you can be a great wrestler. But if you don't have the character, and promo skills, you're going to be stuck in the mud, you know, you're not going to have as much success and someone like Gable Steveson, he's an Olympic gold medallist. They're going to bring him in larger than life.

"So a lot of pressure is going to be put on him just like it was for me, my rookie year. I mean, I won every title that year and within 10 months of when I started, I won the world title. It was a really crazy year. You know, it opened my eyes because I didn't have any experience in pro wrestling. I never watched it. I didn't keep my eye on it. I was just an amateur wrestler that didn't you know, you know, the only sports I watched were football, baseball, basketball, wrestling. I didn't watch pro wrestling.

"So I think Gable is going to do a good job. I think he's gonna adapt very well. I think he's gonna have a lot of success in WWE. He's very young, he's gonna go back to college one more year and wrestle. I don't know why. He already won the NCAA's, he won the Olympics, to go back to the NCAA's is, you know, I guess he just gives him another title under his belt. But he doesn't really need to do that.

"But I think he wanted to fulfil his promise to the wrestling program in Minnesota. So I don't blame him for that. But there's no reason for him to do that. But I think the game was gonna be a great addition to the WWE."

H/T Fightful