After jumping through hoop after hoop after hoop, Chad Gable was finally afforded a chance to get in the ring with the “Ring General” of Imperium, Gunther, for his final scheduled Intercontinental Championship bout before officially surpassing The Honkey Tonk Man as the longest-reigning holder of the title.

Taking the ring at the Spectrum Center in Kenny Omega's favorite state, North Carolina, in front of his wife and young children, “Master” Gable would either go down in history as the man who stopped Gunther right in his tracks, becoming a singles champion for the first time in his professional wrestling career in the process, or give his foe the final win on his road to history, an honor no one wants on their resume.

Taking the ring in the main event of the show, Gable came out of the gates hot but quickly found himself working under the “Ring General,” who remains one of the biggest, strongest, and most dominant performers in the WWE Universe. Still, despite the lofty expectations, Gable was able to rally and attempt a comeback that got thousands of fans, most notably his kids, entirely on board with the belief that he could do the impossible. Locking Gunther up in multiple submission attempts, including a tip-of-the-cap to Kurt Angle with his signature Ankle Lock, it genuinely looked like the “Ring General” was going to tap out, but alas, it wasn't meant to be; Gunther got out of Gable's locks and with a combination Powerbomb-Clothesline combo, the all-time record was set.

What does the future hold for Chad Gable? It's impossible to know, but for Gunther, his place in history is not set.

Chad Gable vows revenge on Gunther after getting embarrassed on RAW.

After exiting the ring and consoling his kid, especially his daughter, who was crying for the world to see on RAW, Chad Gable accepted an interview with WWE Digital to discuss his loss to Gunther and what it means for both of their futures.

While Gable acknowledges that losses happen from time to time in professional sports, this one stung deeper than most because the ‘Ring General” made it personal by involving his family. Whether it comes today, tomorrow, next week, or next year, Gable vows to get revenge on Gunther and bring the Intercontinental Championship back to Minnesota.

“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.”

Did Gunther just unlock a new, more serious Gable who is going to leave all of the goofiness and gimmicks in the past to become a, dare I say, “Wrestling Machine” like Kurt Angle before him? Or were his words all just posturing in the heat of the moment that will fade away with time, leading Gable back to Otis and Maxxine Dupri and their typical shenanigans? Either way, what once felt like the definitive ending of their story now appears to be anything but, as the four-time WWE Tag Team Champion has revenge on his mind and the specific set of skills necessary to back it up John Wick-style.