After weeks and weeks of anticipation, Gunther and his current rival, Chad Gable, finally got in the ring for the rubber match of their feud, working a main event showcase with no stipulations, no time limits, and, most importantly of all, no members of either team allowed ringside to interfere with the outcome for better or worse.

Would Gable, who “won” his first match with Gunther via a five-minute time limit – he was bested moments later when the match was restarted – be able to complete the series with a good old fashioned W via pinfall or submission, the only ways a title can change hands in WWE? Or would Gunther continue to dominate and not only Clothesline the  “Master” of Alpha Academy but also Powerbomb The Honkey Tonk Man's all-time record?

Well, as it turns out, Gunther came out with a pretty commanding victory, putting Gable down in front of his crying kids after a spirited babyface comeback attempt, and after the match, he and the rest of Imperium stopped by the RAW backstage area to gloat about the win with Jackie Redmond.

“What's going through my mind? I'm not surprised,” Gunther said via Fightful. “From the moment on I won this prestigious championship, I saw the vision. I envisioned this very moment, that I'm the one to redefine history, redefine the legacy of the Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship. I heard them talking, I heard them discussing their childhood heroes, Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels. I heard them talk about Steve Austin, The Rock. The reality is, when that bell rings, they all can come line up and lace my boots. Because as long as I'm alive, there's no man born yet to take this title off me again.”

With the record out of the way and any future title defenses now simply running up the tab for future champions to overcome when they win the title, Gunther's place in the annals of WWE history is now set. How his story will come to an end, however, remains to be seen, as there's at least one performer who doesn't want to see the “Ring General” drop the strap any time soon.

Chad Gable wants to see Gunther hold the IC Title for a very long time.

After taking a brutal loss to Gunther on RAW, it would be understandable to assume that Chad Gable would love a front-row seat to the “Ring General” losing his title as soon as possible, right?

Not necessarily. No, after being not only beaten but embarrassed by the champ in front of his family, Gable wants to see Gunther keep his title reign intact until he's the one who can end his run once and for all.

“It's one of those things where amateur wrestling taught me a lot about this, like having these huge opportunities and these big character-building and breakout moments at your disposal, and you gotta make the most of them. Then when something like tonight happens and it just slips through your fingers, it's happened before in amateur wrestling, but I learned to persevere, like find my way through it and realize that that's not the end,” Chad Gable said via Fightful.

“I promise you, in this situation, it's the same thing. That's not the end, for a number of reasons. One, because I have a legacy to protect here. We can talk all the ‘haha' stuff you want, ‘Thank you' and ‘Shoosh.' All that's fun, and it's a good time to do that to people and fun to play along with. But there's also times where, when it's my kids sitting in the front freaking row, and we got Gunther out there, talking to them, saying, ‘Is this your daddy,' and chopping me in front of them, my daughter's crying her freaking eyes out, it kind of stops being fun at a certain point. So that bothers me at a certain level. So you have my word, I swear to you, I swear to everybody, on myself and my career, that's not the end. I'm taking the Intercontinental Championship. I want him to keep it as long as it freaking takes for me to get a rematch. Because I'm coming back for it, and I swear to god, I'm winning that championship.”

Whoa, is Gunther about to turn things in a more serious direction, becoming the sort of “Wrestling Machine” that Kurt Angle transitioned into during the latter part of his initial run in the WWE Universe? Or will Gable come at things from another direction, embracing what makes him him in order to get a win without changing too much of what fans love about him? Fans will have to keep tuning into RAW to find out.