Chad Gable does not think he was ever going to beat Gunther for the Intercontinental Championship, and he says nobody told him either way.
Asked by Cody Rhodes on What Do You Wanna Talk About about his mindset during that program, Gable said he went at it as hard as he could.
“Super hungry, super motivated, because he was the first guy at that level that I had mixed it up with for any length of a program, multiple matches, and we had some chemistry, me and him, and still do. We did it on live events. It was great. One of my favorite opponents. So I wanted to go all in on that. I made some of these vignettes on my own. And I was doing everything I could.”
It did not end where he wanted, and he is not sure it was ever going to.
“It didn’t pan out. Now, would I say, am I surprised that it didn’t? No. I don’t know that that was ever the plan. I was still in a mode then where I was just trying to do whatever I could. I didn’t have anyone telling me here’s the plans, here’s what’s going to be in the pipeline for you. Nothing. I was just doing what I could, and I think I took it as far as it was going to be taken at that time, and I accepted that.”
What he took from it was a distinction between the business he came from and the one he is in.
“Frustrated, yeah, but it was one of those moments that was clear to me. You don’t control everything here. You can’t just work your way into success. Like, you can work, but it’s not like amateur wrestling where the harder you work, you’re going to see the results. It doesn’t exist like that. It’s not that kind of place, and that’s fine. I had to come to terms with that, and I have now.”
“That doesn’t change the work ethic part of it. It’s still in there. Otherwise, I’d be ashamed on a daily basis. But it was eye opening, and so it served me going forward.”
He said that lesson is what shaped how he approached becoming El Grande Americano, a character he took on late in his career and threw himself into rather than resisting.
Gable challenged Gunther for the Intercontinental Championship across 2024, in a program that included matches at SummerSlam and Bash in Berlin.
