Gable Steveson confirms Summerslam attendance, sparks WWE link-up rumours

Bengaluru, August 12: Olympic wrestling champion Gable Steveson is all set to be in attendance for WWE’s 2021 SummerSlam pay-per-view on Saturday, August 21 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada.

As mentioned earlier, Steveson won a gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics last week and achieved the accolade of becoming the first heavyweight from the United States to win the men’s freestyle 125 kg event since 1992 at the Summer Games.

Since his Olympic gold medal winning feat, there have been rumours about him joining the WWE if and when Vince McMahon offers him a lucrative contract.

Meanwhile, Steveson had a conversation with Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated and confirmed that he will attend SummerSlam to support WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns, who the Olympic champion feels will “do his thing” against John Cena in the main event match.

“I’m heading over to Vegas to watch the champ Roman Reigns do his thing, John Cena is great, but he’s still going to have to acknowledge Roman Reigns.”

The champion from Minnesota already fuelled speculation on his future as he posted tweets directed at WWE Chairman & CEO Vince McMahon as well as UFC President Dana White earlier this week.

During his conversation with SI, Steveson affirmed that he heard from long-time mentors Paul Heyman and Brock Lesnar shortly after the big gold medal win in Tokyo.

Heyman and Lesnar have been positive influences in his life since he was in high school in Minnesota. Steveson also stated that if he does eventually sign with the WWE, then he wants to align himself with Heyman on and off the camera, becoming a straight-up “Paul Heyman Guy.”

“If I ever go to WWE, I’d be a 'Paul Heyman Guy,’” Steveson said. “Heyman is a legend. We’d be two people doing great things, and that would be a tough team to beat. And I’ve known Brock since I was in high school. He’s been there for me for a long time, making sure I do things the right way and put my best foot forward.”

It should be noted that Gable’s brother, Bobby Steveson, has already been training at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando and received praise for his recent work. Bobby may soon start working under a WWE contract with the next class of Performance Center recruits which is yet to be officially announced.

During the conversation with SI, Gable himself gave a positive update on his brother's career stating that Bobby will officially report to the Performance Center as a contracted WWE talent next week. Also, WWE is likely to announce new class of recruits next week.

The Steveson Brothers have been expected to sign with WWE for a couple of years now. The two have attended several WWE events in the past while Gable was shown on TV at NXT Takeover: Stand and Deliver back in April, with WWE Chief Brand Officer Stephanie McMahon and former WWE Talent Relations head Canyon Ceman.

NXT head-honcho Triple H spoke in a post-TakeOver media call mentioning they had been talking with Gable who could do amazing things in the WWE.