6 Ups & 3 Downs From WWE Raw (17 Aug - Results & Review)
2. Rey Turns Back The Clock
Did anyone really doubt that Chad Gable versus Rey Mysterio would be the match of the night Monday?
Gable’s first Intercontinental Championship defense was a fantastic piece of business, a fast-paced, back-and-forth battle that put the entire luchador tournament to shame. Chad targeted Rey’s leg to soften it up for an ankle lock, but he also countered Mysterio’s aerial offense with some high-flying moves of his own.
For his part, Rey was fantastic here, pushing the pace to try to keep Gable on the defensive. He used cunning to bait Chad into charging and hitting the turnbuckle, then nearly beat him with a tornado DDT. But Gable fought back, overcame a slew of 619 attempts, finally clamping on an ankle lock and winning a rollup battle to retain the IC title.
Mysterio channeled a bit of that old magic, with fans fully biting on a couple of near-falls and the crowd sounding deflated when Gable refused to release the ankle lock. If anything, Rey did almost too good of a job, because it ran the risk of turning Gable into a situational heel. Thankfully, that didn’t happen.