Absent WWE star pulls out of World Wrestling Championships

A 23-year-old WWE Superstar is known more for his work outside the Stamford-based promotion than in it.

In 2020, Gable Steveson won the Olympic Gold Medal in freestyle wrestling after winning gold at the 2017 Junior World Championships. He returned to amateur wrestling earlier this year when he won the US Open in April. He also wrestled again at Final X in June.

Shortly thereafter, on July 30, Steveson made his WWE in-ring debut at NXT: The Great American Bash wrestling Baron Corbin. He has not competed on television ever since.

Now, it has been made official that Steveson will be replaced at the 2023 Senior World Wrestling Championships by Heavyweight wrestler Mason Parris, as announced by USA Wrestling.

The tournament, which is set to take place from September 16 to September 24, will take place in Belgrade, Serbia. As of this writing, it is unclear why he pulled out of the tournament, there is also no update regarding his WWE return.

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12-time world champion is convinced Gable Steveson has a bright future in WWE

Kurt Angle is often compared to Gable Steveson due to their similar backgrounds. The Olympic Gold Medalist recently appeared on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, during which he spoke extensively about the 23-year-old star:

"First of all, he's an incredible athlete. You know, he not only incredible on the mat wrestling, I mean, this kid, you know, he can do backflips. He's really athletic, super athletic. And I think he's gonna have a great future. I just don't know how entertaining he's gonna be."

Kurt Angle thinks Steveson will have a great future in the industry:

"I know that he loves to talk, a lot of his friends that I talked to say he's kind of a loudmouth, which is kind of good. Because you want to... He has potential. I think he's going to be pretty good. And so I expect him to have a great career. I don't know if he's going to have the career I had, but I think he could he could definitely." [H/T - CVV]

Angle and Steveson worked on WWE television prior to the latter's in-ring debut. However, the young star is not very well received by many fans and even some veterans.

NXT color commentator Booker T recently slammed comparisons to The Wrestling Machine and addressed the fact that Steveson was booed out of the building in his debut match. Read more here.