8 Ups & 7 Downs From WWE Raw (Nov 1)

2. Winning When You Lose

Chad Gable Finn Balor
WWE.com

Chad Gable is widely regarded as an uber-talented wrestler who is woefully under-utilized. That’s why no one was really giving him much of a chance against Finn Balor but were more likely hoping for a good showing.

What we got instead was Gable not just hanging with Balor, but putting him on the defensive and keeping him on the ropes throughout. Chad counter-wrestled and worked the leg, throwing in a Northern Lights/German suplex combo as he had Finn reeling.

The peak came when Balor went up slowly for a Coup de Grace, but Gable superplexed him… only for Finn to steal a cradle for the win. That was the kind of win where Balor looked luck to escape, and Gable looked strong despite losing.

It didn’t hurt that later, Randy Orton talked up that match as a reason he has his eyes on Gable and Otis in the tag division.

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Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.