3 Ups & 5 Downs From WWE Raw (31 Aug - Results & Review)

3. A Fighting Champion?

The Intercontinental Championship has been called “the workhorse title” in WWE because several of its holders defined the belt (and their reigns) by regularly wrestling outstanding matches that carried WWF/E’s undercard.

Chad Gable is cut from that same cloth and is more than capable of being a workhorse champion who defends the IC title weekly, or at worst every fortnight.

Instead, Gable had one fantastic match against Rey Mysterio two weeks ago and has spent the past two episodes of Raw – including Monday night – talking about his legacy and who he would face next.

Chad came out to address his legacy, then brought out Dragon Lee to offer him an Intercontinental Championship match based on Lee's loss to Rey Fenix last week. This brought out Ethan Page, who (somewhat rightly) called Gable out for dodging him and just handing out title matches to other wrestlers. Of course, Page used less-than-flattering terms to describe Dragon.

Lee and Page bickered for a bit, prompting Gable to make a match between the two, with the winner facing him on Raw in Mexico City in two weeks.

This was bad from every angle: Gable as a “fighting champion” picking and choosing his opponents for weeks down the line and avoiding Page in the process, then making matches to set up a challenger because he was about to hand a title match to one wrestler. By the time Gable defends the IC title again in Mexico City, it will mean that he will have defended the title twice in six weeks – hardly a workhorse pace.

If you’re looking for a good model for Gable, Carmelo Hayes defended the United States Championship nine times in less than three months earlier this year and built a reputation for taking on all comers by actually doing it.