6 Ups & 4 Downs From WWE Raw (11 March - Results & Review)
1. It Apparently Doesn’t Mean More
Weeks of reheating and building up Chad Gable evaporated into nothingness Monday night when he secured the coveted final spot in the Intercontinental Championship number one contender gauntlet match… and lost.
WWE spent several weeks righting the ship with Gable, producing incredible video packages, using his daughter crying after his title match lost last fall as motivation, and setting the table for a rematch that would likely produce a classic WrestleMania match and reward a long-tenured, under-appreciated wrestler with a marquee spot.
Entering last, Gable seemed to have a difficult role, facing a fellow babyface in Sami Zayn who had already endured two tough matches. But both men managed to reset fans’ brains and suck them into this final as its own standalone contest. Gable wore Zayn down and had him on the ropes when Sami reversed an anklelock into a rollup for the win.
It’s tough to call Zayn getting a singles title match at Mania a huge disappointment, but Sami is basically bulletproof. They could have booked him against almost anyone and he could turn it into a money match. This was realistically Gable’s only shot at a big WrestleMania match, and facing Gunther would have been magical.
This just feels like either an unnecessary swerve, or just a complete failure to stick the landing on a pretty good story.