Former WWE star voices frustration over massive change to his character
A former WWE star was not happy with a change that the Stamford-based company made to his character. He left the promotion earlier this year.
Damon Kemp signed with WWE in 2021 and he wrestled in NXT for a couple of years. During this time, he was able to impress everyone with his wrestling prowess and skills. What many people do not know is that Kemp is the older brother of Olympic gold medalist Gable Steveson.
Steveson also had a brief run in WWE where he competed in NXT but his relationship with his brother was never acknowledged and many fans do not know that they are related given their different last names.
During an interview on The Wrestling Classic, Damon Kemp noted how it was strange that WWE would not let him use the same last name as his brother given that it would have made sense in a storyline but the company offered an explanation for this.
"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?'" Damon Kemp said. [H/T WrestleTalk]
The 25-year-old star further mentioned that he thought it was funny when Gable Steveson helped Eddy Thorpe defeat him during their match:
"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.'" [H/T WrestleTalk]
It remains to be seen what the future has in store for Kemp.
WWE felt that Damon Kemp should face his brother only at WrestleMania
WWE is no stranger to having brothers face each other at WrestleMania. From the Hardy Boyz to The Usos, fans have witnessed "Brother vs. Brother" matches happening on The Grandest Stage of Them All. It looks like the company had one more planned for the future.
During the same interview, Damon Kemp mentioned that he was told that if he and Gable Steveson ever had a match, it would be at WrestleMania:
"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 and then I was like, 'Okay, so, you know, maybe five, ten years down the road, I wrestle my brother at WrestleMania. I’m just thinking at the time, thinking of the what ifs.'" [H/T WrestleTalk]
The prospect of watching the two brothers compete against each other at The Show of Shows seems difficult since both have been released by the Stamford-based company.