Before his first singles match at a WWE premium live event, Bron Breakker reflects on his football past, his pro wrestling present, and his NXT class’s future potential
Bronson Rechsteiner was never supposed to get the ball. A standout high school wrestler and baseball player, football proved to be his calling, with multiple college programs wanting his services. He would ultimately commit to Kennesaw State University, less than an hour from his native Atlanta. While he primarily played the Chris Cooley-esque position of receiver/short-yardage back in high school, Kennesaw State’s offensive depth chart was already set, so he’d switch sides of the ball and play linebacker. A year later, he’d be asked to step into a new role: fullback in the Owls’ triple-option offense. “They brought me in the office and just told me [that] we had some guys leaving, and this was the best possible thing for the team,” Rechsteiner—now known to the WWE universe as Bron Breakker—remembers. “It was a no-brainer.” Going from perhaps the most heralded defensive position to a new, untested offensive spot, Bron would begin to showcase his greatest intangible: doing whatever’s needed, big or small, with unmatched intensity, to make sure his squad is in the best position to succeed.
To describe the triple-option is to describe going to a packed theater on a Friday night: the view’s amazing if you’re sitting in the good seats, and it’s the most infuriating thing possible if you’re directly opposing it. On any play, the quarterback can run or pass, and the tailback can be the pitch man or leak out of the backfield. But the fullback? The fullback will either hurt your brain with their intricate movements or by crashing directly into it. A longtime staple of Georgia Tech and the service academies, some programs used it to make up for a lack of athleticism, hoping subterfuge and misdirection would confuse more talented defenses long enough to be able to compete with them. Kennesaw State had a bit of a different use for it: big Bron was gonna go out there, every play, and showcase every tool he had. A fan-made Bronson Rechsteiner YouTube highlight reel shows the full range of his talents: Bron’s breaking off 75-yard touchdown runs without another jersey in the picture, barreling through defensive linemen and linebackers on plays where he’s lead blocking, and catching passes downfield while finding guys at the third level to block on long plays. Anything and everything the position entails, Bron was doing as best (and as hard) as possible.
So, relatively early into his pro wrestling career, when he got the opportunity to switch positions—from NXT’s focal point to being more of a consistent cast member for the last year and change—he didn’t see it as a demotion but rather as another way to affect the game’s outcome. “I have no disappointment at all,” Bron shares, reflecting on his path since losing the NXT Championship to Carmelo Hayes at NXT Stand & Deliver in 2023. “This is one of those things where you have to trust the process.”
By the time Bron was old enough to say “Monday Night Wars,” the Steiner Brothers’s version of that process was all but complete. Last competing in a tag team match together on worldwide television in 2001, Bron’s father, Rick, was seeing his career wind down, while his uncle Scott transitioned to being a singles star under his “Big Poppa Pump” moniker. While aware of their careers, Bron didn’t have the same “kid in the locker room” experiences of the Dwayne Johnsons and Dominik Mysterios of the world. “There was always a very high expectation that I had to live up to and perform to. It’s been that way my whole life,” Bron said. “It’s just a standard that they set way back in the day. My dad and uncle are both (wrestling) All-Americans at Michigan, and they set the bar high for me and my brothers.” And while Bron’s path to becoming a WWE superstar didn’t involve being in and out of locker rooms as a kid, he is appreciative of the advice they give him, as well as just being able to follow in their footsteps. “I can’t be thankful enough for them paving the way for me so that I can live out my dream and continue the family’s legacy,” he says.
That legacy, forever recorded across WCW Home Video releases or traded tapes from Japan showcasing Rick and Scott’s dominance across the globe, wasn’t the true catalyst for Bron’s interest in pro wrestling. Like a young Dwayne Carter before him, his lifelong fandom came from the most unlikely of sources: a commemorative cup. “I remember my brother went to Wrestlemania 27 in Atlanta, where we live. I was a three-sport athlete, so I had my hands full all the time,” Bron said. “I remember him coming home with a cup and it had Triple H on it. He’s all jacked and everything. He was fighting the Undertaker. I remember looking at the cup and I was like, ‘Man, who’s this guy?’” Bron then dove into the WrestleMania 28 storyline between Triple H, the Undertaker, and Shawn Michaels. “That really kick-started my love for the sport.”
Conventional wisdom stated that the process would have Bron called up to Raw or SmackDown permanently in the summer of 2023, and while he flirted with the main roster, he’d still spend the majority of his time in NXT, jumping in and out of small feuds and short alliances. While externally, fans and pundits wondered, “what’s the plan?” for the NXT frontman, Bron never doubted that things would happen when the time was right, primarily because two-time WWE Hall of Famer Michaels happened to be his boss down in NXT. “I trusted Shawn wholeheartedly,” Bron reflects, “and I just wanted to be a great student, a great pupil, [and a] great soldier for him.”
Maybe the most telling example of Bron’s commitment to the team would come in the form of a new partner and a new title run. Baron Corbin—who’s been a lone wolf, a happy gambler, and a less-than-benevolent king during his WWE career—would find himself begrudgingly paired with Breakker, with the unlikely duo winning the Dusty Rhodes Classic, which was followed by a run with the NXT Tag Team championships. Corbin would fight against any idea that a bright-eyed, giddy, and intense Breakker would present, none more than Bron’s proposed tag team name, “The Wolfdogs.” Bron was tapping into some of the Thad Castle-like humor his uncle Scott would popularize in his TNA days, only with a bright smile he’d clearly been given by someone other than a Steiner brother. He was with a fellow collegiate and pro football player who wasn’t afraid to be less than serious when asked, which paid dividends. “[Baron] and I had hit it off from the get-go. As soon as he came down to NXT, we hit it off immediately,” Bron shares, remarking that their on-screen relationship mirrored their off-screen interactions. “It was really cool for me to be able to get to work with him because obviously, it brought out a different side of me where I was being a little bit more entertaining, just being funny, just goofing off. And we both were just loving it and having a great time.”
When you look at how quickly Bron has found success, it’s easy to forget how young he is. Until recently, EA Sports’s returning College Football video game franchise has been on academic suspension for almost 11 years, so there was no digital FB #32 to help claim dorm bragging rights while Bron had eligibility. His real-life college stats and combine numbers were good enough to earn him an invite to the Baltimore Ravens’ 2020 training camp and a spot in a very small fraternity: professional wrestlers included in the Madden franchise. Trying to earn a different trophy, Bron Breakker’s never played as, or even seen himself, in Madden 21. “I was more focused on just playing ball and just trying to succeed, trying to make a team, trying to make the 53-man roster,” Bron remembers. “That was a cool thing, but I’ve never played it.”
The following year, that focus would lead him to trying out for a different team. He was the most notable name in the 2021 NXT recruiting class, which included the other two-thirds of that Stand & Deliver main event: Hayes and current NXT champion Trick Williams. According to Breakker, his generation’s success is larger than just wrestling. “I think we’re all top athletes in the world,” he says. “That list of accomplishments in collegiate sports and professional sports prior to WWE with that group of guys is unbelievable. It’s like a once-in-a-lifetime group of guys coming together. I think the sky is the limit for all of us.”
Before they can run the show, they need to figure out exactly how they fit in with the established WWE talent. Bron is headed to Toronto for his first main-roster PLE title match, challenging Sami Zayn for the Intercontinental Championship at Money in the Bank on Saturday. But the path to the match, outside of racking up wins, has a very specific apex—the beatdown of one of his former NXT rivals, Ilja Dragunov, and the absolute evisceration of Ricochet, coinciding with the high-flying veteran reportedly choosing not to re-sign with WWE. As he did years earlier, Breaker appreciated being called on in the moment, letting his physical efforts reflect that feeling. “That’s the shot. You know what I mean? That’s your chance to take something and see what you’re made of and just make the most of every opportunity,” Bron states. After calling Ricochet “one of the best freaking wrestlers in the world,” Bron returns to his mindset in stepping into that position. “I think it’s just seizing the moment, seizing the opportunity, and just making the most of it.”
The only thing to figure out with Bron is how soon he’ll be called on to run the show. Having such a team-first approach, he’s not particularly worried about the optics of the guys he came up with getting their moments before he does. Being in a growing ecosystem with the talents you broke in with seems to be his goal, not a challenge to overcome. Even in predicting his future, he knows there’s no reason to carry the load alone. “Everybody is just so elite right now, just doing such a great job,” Bron says, shouting out Tony D’Angelo and calling Trick Williams “an absolute star” who is likely main roster-bound. “I think all of us, that whole class, everybody came in together as the opportunity to be world champion. Like I said, the sky’s the limit for all of us.”
In the meantime, Bron’s looking to fill any holes the company sees and letting the rest take care of itself. Understanding the big picture hasn’t always been the main concern of the biggest stars in wrestling, but he’s always seen the field in its totality, and made sure he was in position to make whatever play was necessary. And while Breakker never found the time to be the Madden MVP on his PS4, he may take some time out to run College Football 25. Whether it’s a packed arena or an online lobby, he plans to stay true to what got him here: the challenge of improving the team. When asked if he’d start his dynasty with his father and uncle’s alma mater, the firmly established Michigan, Bron doesn’t hesitate to toss that idea aside. “Kennesaw State, 100 percent.”