After spending years yucking it up with Otis as a babyface mid-carder under the Alpha Academy banner, Chad Gable has officially turned to the dark side once more, transforming himself into a domineering taskmaster who decided to leave all of the goofiness on the Road to WrestleMania in favor of becoming a straight up killer willing to do whatever it takes to win the belt he believes is rightfully his.
Will it work? Can Gable turn himself into a certified “Wrestling Machine” who swaps out a fun personality for pure #Graps? Well, in the opinion of the original “Wrestling Machine,” Kurt Angle, the answer is likely yes, as, on his The Kurt Angel Show, the WWE Hall of Famer put over the booking decision in a major way.
“Well listen, the Kurt Angle formula worked the first time, the Kurt Angle formula will work today. I have noticed, I've been watching Chad, and he's doing a lot of actions that Kurt Angle used to do,” Kurt Angle explained via Fightful. “Different characteristics, different facial expressions, taking off the singlet before he does his finish, he's been doing the Angle Slam [and] the Ankle Lock, so I feel like this is a rebirth of Kurt Angle. I'll tell you this, he's doing a great job of it, too. He has really stepped up and I don't know if I could have done it any better than him. He's doing really good right now.”
Interesting stuff, right? Well, wait, it gets even better, as Angle took things a step further, noting that he would happily consider returning to WWE in order to manage Gable either as a member of Alpha Academy or as the leader of a new version of Team Angle.
“They never actually considered that [heel manager], at least with Chad,” Angle explained via Ringside News. “For some reason, they never decided to do another Team Angle or me team up with Alpha Academy. I think that would be a great idea. If I were going to do it, it has to be worth it to me.”
Why do heels always seem to work better with a manager than rolling solo? Honestly, it's a tradition as old as wrestling and remains a classic tactic because it still works incredibly well to this day. Pair up Angle and Gable with the Creed Brothers under a new heel banner – Alpha Team Angle, anyone? – and give Otis, Akira Tazawa, and Maxxine Dupri to a main roster version of Chase U, and who knows, WWE could have a very interesting angle that could tear it up for months to come.
Gunther would have been fine with Chad Gable ending his IC Title run.
While Chad Gable has now fully embraced becoming a heel in the WWE Universe, there was a time in the not-too-distant past – read: three weeks ago – when he was a full-on babyface strategizing ways to take down Gunther as the Intercontinental Champion.
In the end, that effort was successful, as Gable was able to coach Sami Zayn up to become the new Intercontinental Champion, but in an interview with Gorilla Position, Gunther revealed that he would have been fine with “Master Gable” defeating him for the belt too, as he felt the story made a ton of sense.
“I don't think there was one right person. I think there would have been a few options. Chad Gable is the other one that would have made a lot of sense,” Gunther explained via WrestleTalk.
“Sami is definitely one of those where it was ‘he's the right guy to do it.' He's absolutely a fantastic professional wrestler. He has the natural connection with the audience. He's really the underdog that people can connect with and understand the struggle. It's naturally the personality he is. He doesn't look like the perfect athlete. That's not who he is or ever was. That also adds to the people having a connection because basically nobody in our audience is a perfect person. It's a very human thing to not be perfect. It's very easy to connect with it and to go through those struggles with that person.
“On top of that, he's fantastic in the ring and has been for years. To do the match with him at the biggest stage possible and go out in the biggest way possible, I was very happy with that. It was a very successful ending to that reign.”
Initially, this was widely positioned as a Sami story because Gunther spent quite some time putting over the reigning and defending Intercontinental Champion for how his contrasting babyface style made for a great match at the “Showcase of the Immortals,” but that bit about Gable is interesting too, as it directly plays into why he turned heel in the first place. If WWE had given him the rub and believed in his star power as a babyface champion, it sure sounds like Gunther would have been down to do the job, which makes Zayn's win all the more infuriating for the leader of Alpha Academy.