2021 Olympic gold medalist and WWE NIL inaugural signee Gable Stevenson has been released. Following the news that the WWE NXT roster, which included Drew Gulak, had been cut, Dave Meltzer reported that Gable Stevenson was part of it. When Stevenson signed with WWE in 2021, turning down the possibility of continuing freestyle wrestling or turning to MMA, he set a precedent for a large number of college athletes being molded into professional wrestlers at the Performance Center. Specifically, the Meltzer report notes that, contrary to all other reports, Meltzer signed a contract with WWE in 2020, and he will continue as an amateur wrestler in order to compete in the 2021 Olympics. It is written that. WWE was supposed to face competition from sister organization UFC, but won out and ultimately acquired him.
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Steveson continued freestyle wrestling after that, winning the 2022 NCAA Division I National Championship and most recently the 2023 U.S. Open Wrestling Championship. He was also scheduled to defeat NIL signee Mason Paris to earn a spot in the 2023 World Championship, but Meltzer pointed out that WWE barred him from competing in the tournament.
Although Stevenson was a popular commodity in the context of college wrestling and domestic wrestling, he was never able to make as much of a mark in the world of professional wrestling. In 2019, he and Minnesota wrestling teammate Dylan Martinez were arrested after they were accused of sexually assaulting a woman. In December of the same year, it was confirmed that he was not charged due to a lack of key evidence. The county attorney also pointed out that Minnesota lacks laws that allow discretion in prosecuting perpetrators of sexual assault on intoxicated victims. It is worth noting that Minnesota lawmakers updated their alcohol consumption and consent laws in 2021 following the overturning of a conviction in the case of State v. Francois Kalil.
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