Chad Gable On Making His Intercontinental Title Reign Special

Chad Gable Aims To Build "Special" Intercontinental Title Reign With High-Stakes Longer Matches

Current WWE Intercontinental Champion Chad Gable is on a mission to elevate his reign into something truly memorable, revealing that having the belt has finally granted him the TV time necessary to showcase the full depth of his in-ring capabilities.

Gable captured his first singles championship in WWE by defeating Penta at SummerSlam in Minneapolis. Speaking in a new interview with Complex Graps, Gable reflected on how transitioning away from short, high-tempo “sprint” matches has transformed audience investment in his work:

“To that point, I think what is special about it now is the fact that I’m getting a little bit more time to do what you’re saying. In the past, it may have been what many call sprint matches where they’re five minutes or six minutes or seven minutes, you’re trying to just put on the absolute best that you can in that short time. It’s possible, you can put on awesome matches. But now, since your point I have a championship, I think I’m getting able to do that over the course of 12-15 minutes, sometimes even more. That is allowing people to see that there are even deeper levels to what I’m capable of. There’s more on the line, there’s stakes. Every match, not only can it be good, but it also feels important. Maybe the ones in the past, they’re great matches, but there’s nothing at stake so people aren’t as invested as they might be now.”

Creating Any-Given-Night Suspense And Advice From Legends

Gable pointed to his highly acclaimed title defense against Dragon Lee on the September 14 episode of WWE RAW in Mexico City as proof that giving opponents credible, high-stakes opportunities creates electric crowd reactions:

“I mean, that crowd in Mexico was as invested as I’ve ever had a crowd with Dragon Lee. I think what I lend to this title, or what I’m trying to lend to this title is the fact that I want to give these guys opportunities and create these situations where it could happen any night. The kind of matches we have, the title could change hands any night. Those are the opponents I want, I want people to believe in them to that degree, that we’re on the cusp of something special every time I defend the championship. Trying to do something special with this one and I think we’re getting there.”

Beyond extra match length, Gable credited legendary veterans Randy Orton and The Undertaker with helping him unlock critical layers of his wrestling psychology:

“Randy Orton’s given me so much advice about the things that are necessary and the things that aren’t necessary. That’s another one of those things that took me a long time to turn into that knowledge and wisdom. He’s probably been telling me that stuff since I got called up on the main roster and it maybe took me ten years to finalize realize it now and put it into practice. So, just being smart with the way you do or don’t do things in the ring.”

Gable noted that a conversation with The Undertaker during a crossover appearance in AAA pulled his true competitive grit to the surface:

“Also, the stuff that Undertaker told me in AAA, that he had to pull out of me. To let some of my real nature from amateur wrestling and my competitive nature come out in what we do. I think I’d been hiding that for a long time, being very reserved. I can be a very intense person, obviously. When you’re amateur wrestling to the level and degree that I did for that long, there’s a level of intensity and anger and things that come out when it needs to. I don’t think I ever let that out until he finally convinced me to do that. That’s been a big help to access that as far as what we do.”