Gable speaks in-depth about his feud with GUNTHER.
Over the past several months, Alpha Academy’s Chad Gable has been attempting to dethrone GUNTHER as WWE Intercontinental Champion. His latest attempt took place on the September 4th Monday Night Raw but GUNTHER was able to retain and secured the record for the longest-reigning WWE Intercontinental Champion of all-time.
That match and their program was the focus of Gable’s appearance on WWE After The Bell. Following Gable’s loss, a camera panned over to his family who were ringside and caught a shot of his daughter shedding tears. Gable told Corey Graves and Kevin Patrick that his family being there was not a company decision.
Him and his wife decided to bring their kids out to the event because it was the last week before school started and wanted to give them something fun to do before that. He added that he did not know where they were sitting until his wife sent him a picture. Once WWE found out Gable’s family was with him, they decided to include them in the show. Speaking about his daughter becoming emotional, Gable said he’s explained to her how pro wrestling works but seeing him lose still brought that emotion out.
It kind of hit home for everybody here was that what made it real was the emotion — just happened that my family was there (for the I.C. Title match against GUNTHER), right? It wasn’t like I said, oh, let’s try to get you guys front row and make this a big deal. It was the last week before school, so I said, ‘Let’s take them with. Let’s give them one last fun thing for the summer…’ I don’t request front row tickets. I just get comps. They happened to sit there, they happened to get placed there… They (WWE) didn’t even know. They didn’t even know they were coming. So, they had no idea. So, then they found out about it. Then they wanted to, you know, kind of say, ‘Let’s take advantage of this a little bit and film you during the day with your family a little bit. They showed us showing up.’ But I mean, none of that was privy to them early in the week, anything… and I wasn’t even really aware where they were sitting until minutes before and my wife had sent me a picture so I was like, I’ll go see my little dude up front because he’s wearing — mostly to get his singlet on TV because now he makes me make him a freaking singlet every time I get one made (Gable laughed)… Even if you wanted to force some kind of emotion like that out of a kid, that stuff’s real. So, my oldest daughter is by far my most emotional. They all have different personalities but she’s the one that the world saw crying that night and she knows the deal. I’ve spoken to her about what daddy does and how it works and all this stuff. She knows but even that doesn’t matter. When you get there and your kid’s sitting in front of you watching their dad get beat up, it’s gonna draw it out of them, when she’s emotional like that. My middle daughter, forget it, she could care less (he laughed). I think she was looking down to see how many chips and cheese she had left in her nachos but, and the dude’s enthralled with it too but, the emotion from my older daughter, I think touches on something like you guys just said we don’t get often anymore and that’s what Mark (Henry) is talking about so when it happens, naturally and organically, it just means so much more because we get stuff a lot of times where there’s people in the crowd that we cut to or wherever. We use audience members or family members in a way that is, you know, we meant for it. We’re making it a part of the show. This was not planned. None of it was meant to be a part of anything and that’s what made it organic and really, really got everybody I think.
After the match was over, Gable was interviewed backstage and swore to God that the next time he faces GUNTHER for the title, his daughter will have a smile on her face because he’ll dethrone him. Gable knows that as a babyface, he should not be making promises to the audience he cannot keep.
Going into the match, he does not think there was anyone who realistically thought he was dethroning GUNTHER. The former NXT, Raw and SmackDown Tag Team Champion stated that during the match, that doubt was eliminated and people believed he would be the guy to end GUNTHER’s reign.
So, I was taught that lesson, the thing you mentioned about Bully (Ray), very early on in NXT, in WWE by one of my mentors there and they said basically what he said. As a babyface, don’t ever make a promise to the audience that you’re not gonna keep. If you don’t deliver on that, you’ve lost all credibility and before I said any of that, that all ran through my head and I knew it but the events leading up to this had just, like I said, reaffirmed my confidence in myself, my belief in myself to a degree I felt comfortable saying that and knowing that I’m gonna deliver on it (Gable swearing to God that he’ll dethrone GUNTHER). Take a look at the match… going into that match, I guarantee you, I promise you, nobody — everybody was maybe on my side, maybe they were cheering for me, maybe they were, ‘Go Gable! You get him.’ Did anybody really think going into it that I was gonna take him off the throne that night? I don’t think so. For my money, no. But, by the end of that match, 100 percent, I promise you, we eliminated all that doubt in people’s minds. We gave everybody hope for a second that like, he might be the guy. He might be able to do this. Oh my gosh, and every little inch closer we got, they kept going, it might happen tonight. I didn’t think it was gonna but it might happen and they’re getting a little closer and we got this close and for a guy like me to get that close and get the people to believe, I can’t just leave it at that and I walked out of there that night going, that can’t be the end. So to say, ‘I swear to God’ and trust me, I don’t take that lightly, I said it very deliberately, very intently and now, I’ve again, placed the onus on myself to do this because whether or not the company or whoever intends on giving me another championship, I will find a way to earn it, I will force my way into whatever doors I need to get into to deliver on that promise because I’m not a guy, also that, you know, uses words lightly. I deliver on the things I say I’m gonna do and I don’t do it often where I tell people this is what I’m gonna do but every time I do, it’s happened and I’ve delivered and this will be no different.
Earlier in the chat, Gable spoke highly of The Ring General and called him the ‘perfect opponent’. Gable brought up the professional competition that he feels exists between them.
GUNTHER is a perfect opponent for me in a sense that it’s always like, the size difference is there. That’s the obvious one. But, I think there’s a level of professional competition between me and him where I do respect him as a competitor but he’s the type of the guy that set this bar so high, but I’m almost envious of that in a way to where I should’ve been the one or I can be the one (to) do that as well. But, you’re gonna be the one that gets all the credit so I’m gonna step up and try to make it my turn and he’s also a champion that carries himself in a very distinguished way so, it makes me step my game up at the same time and I think when you have that kind of professional competition, then that’s what creates moments like that.
Continuing with that thought, Gable responded to Corey Graves’ comment that GUNTHER is the best pro wrestler in the world. Gable finds it difficult to argue with that although he is trying to take the spot GUNTHER is in.
I’d have a hard time arguing that (opinion that GUNTHER is the best wrestler in the world). Although I am chasing him trying to take that moniker, that title from him but at the same time, he’s doing it in a way that we don’t see anymore very often and I know a lot of people probably reference this about this but he’s got the old school style but he does it with such confidence and such poise, that it almost makes you mad. He makes it look so easy to just be so mean, powerful, smooth, crisp and ugly at the same time. It’s hard to describe to where, like, man, everything is punchy and powerful. But it looks great. It’s great, beautiful wrestling but at the same time, it’s gritty, it’s ugly and that’s what I love because man, every time we get in there, I’m in the middle of some sequence with him and we’re throwing down and we’re just beating the hell out of each other. It looks great. I can see why people like watching his style of wrestling. It grabs you in a way that we just don’t see that often anymore.
GUNTHER’s record-setting reign was celebrated on the 9/11 Raw, but in the main event, GUNTHER, Ludwig Kaiser and Giovanni Vinci were defeated by Gable, Otis and Tommaso Ciampa.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit WWE After The Bell with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
