Scrapped WWE WrestleMania Plans Unveiled for Gable Steveson & Damon Kemp

WWE made several surprising decisions over the past year, including releasing and not renewing contracts for some notable talents. Among these departures were the Steveson Brothers, Damon Kemp and Gable Steveson, who garnered a lot of attention when they initially signed with WWE. However, their time with the company was short-lived, despite WWE reportedly having big plans for them.

WrestleMania moments are rare, but WWE had apparently planned for Damon Kemp and Gable Steveson to feature prominently on the grandest stage of them all. These plans also involved the Creed Brothers, who continue to shine on the main roster, even as the Steveson Brothers are no longer with WWE.

While speaking to The Wrestling Classic, Damon Kemp revealed some of the plans WWE had discussed with him and his brother, including two potential WrestleMania matches.

“So, it was weird (dynamic between myself & my brother in WWE). He was doing his thing with amateur wrestling… the Olympics and stuff like that, and then I wanted to keep my last name. I was like, ‘Why not keep my last name? He’s literally in the business with me. Looks just like me. Why would we differentiate at all?’ And then they’re like, ‘Oh yeah, eventually, we’ll get to something where you guys get to do this and do that,’ and then, it was also really funny when they had him help Eddy Thorpe out. I just thought it was like comedy kind of, in a way. Because I was like, I found out that he was gonna help him out because he knew me really well. But we weren’t related. I asked him, I was like, ‘Yo, you know people are gonna know we look alike?’ I was just thinking in the back of my head, is it gonna eventually lead to something? Because I lose to Eddy, do I eventually get to wrestle my brother?”

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“You can go back and look on Twitter. Brisco, Gerald Brisco tweeted it, like three years ago and there was a thing with The Creeds. He was like, ‘This is the match that we’re gonna see at WrestleMania. The Stevesons versus The Creeds.’ I still have the tweet saved. Great dude also. More stories with him, and then I was like, ‘Why are we doing this? It’s just kind of weird, kind of comedy-ish,’ you know?”

“I think if we would have wrestled in NXT, I think a match like that would have been a match — we were told, ‘If you guys ever wrestle, it would be at WrestleMania,’ and we were literally told that. ‘If you guys ever wrestle, it would be a WrestleMania match’ and then I was like, okay, so, you know, maybe five, 10 years down the road, I wrestle my brother at WrestleMania. I’m just thinking at the time, thinking of the what ifs.”

In the 2021 WWE Draft, Gable Steveson was assigned to the Raw brand, officially beginning his WWE career in October 2021. His first notable appearance was at WrestleMania 38 in April 2022, where he was introduced by Stephanie McMahon and later confronted Chad Gable. Steveson made occasional appearances, including at a Kurt Angle birthday celebration and on NXT in 2023, but his full-time move to NXT was met with a lackluster reception after a no contest match against Baron Corbin. Fan criticism followed, and in September 2023, it was reported that Steveson was removed from the NXT roster. Shawn Michaels later clarified that scheduling issues were to blame, and Steveson briefly returned in January 2024 before being released from WWE in May. Gable then joined the Buffalo Bills, but he was later cut.

Meanwhile, Damon Kemp continued his WWE journey, facing Tony D’Angelo for the Heritage Cup in June 2023 but losing the match. On June 25, Tavion Heights defeated Kemp in an initiation match to join NQCC, which marked Kemp’s final WWE appearance before his contract was not renewed in July.

The decision to let the Steveson Brothers go came as a surprise, especially given WWE’s initial plans for them. While it remains unclear whether they will return to WWE, the door is never fully closed in the world of professional wrestling.

What’s your take on WWE releasing Damon Kemp and Gable Steveson? Should AEW consider giving them a shot? Let us know what you think in the comments!