JBL believes WWE should put the Intercontinental Championship on Chad Gable if the company is ready to start a serious run with him.
Speaking on Something To Wrestle With, JBL discussed Gable’s recent work and said he has viewed Gable as one of the top wrestlers in the world for some time.
I love the fact that everybody’s coming around to what I said the day after the show.
I’ve thought Chad was the best wrestler in the world for some time or at least one of them.
JBL said Gable has always had the tools, comparing him to Kurt Angle.
Chad’s a fantastic athlete.
He’s very smart.
He’s a lot like Kurt Angle.
I mean, these guys who can do comedy, he can do all this different stuff.
JBL said there is a difference between getting comedy heat and getting real heat in Mexico.
It’s easy when you’re in the Alpha Academy or whatever the little gimmick skit thing he was in to get heat as in, okay, we’re going to do something campy and get booed.
That’s pretty easy to do.
JBL said Gable reached another level while working in Mexico.
To go down to Mexico and get real heat where people want to kill you when you’re coming out of arena, that’s not even the same business.
And Chad, when he came down there, he figured it out.
JBL pointed to Gable’s match with La Parka as the moment he saw things click.
When he had the first match with La Parka, that was the first time I saw this guy has got it figured out.
He worked a heel match where he worked the leg, worked the leg, worked the leg, and finally goes over.
It was a fantastic match.
JBL also praised Gable’s role in a mask-versus-mask match.
He’s the maestro for this mask versus mask match, which I thought was just absolutely fantastic.
You look at Chad just orchestrating every single thing around him.
It’s unbelievable.
It’s incredible what he’s doing.
JBL credited Undertaker and Jeremy Borash for helping Gable, but said Gable still had to be the one to execute.
I think Undertaker is a big part of that, you know, and so is Jeremy Borash.
Realizing what you need to tell him to let him do it, but he still has to do it.
JBL said not everyone could have done what Gable did with the same advice.
Undertaker could have told a hundred different wrestlers the same thing.
Ninety-nine of them couldn’t have did what Chad Gable did.
It takes the two of those guys to be able to do that.
JBL also compared Gable’s current rise to WWE suddenly having to figure out what to do with Steve Austin after Austin 3:16 caught fire.
The same thing happened with Stone Cold.
All of a sudden he does this Austin 3:16.
They weren’t planning on using him that much.
They didn’t have something for him.
JBL said WWE suddenly had a major commodity with Austin and had to be careful not to hurt his momentum.
All of a sudden, now you got this really hot commodity.
We didn’t have plans for him.
So, it takes a while to figure out, okay, wait a minute, we got to figure out what to do.
And you don’t want to take a misstep.
JBL said WWE may be in a similar position with Gable.
The same thing with Chad.
All of a sudden they end up with this freaking commodity that’s just unbelievable.
You don’t want to misstep.
You don’t want to put him out there and do something that kills that fire.
You want to do something that’ll build it.
JBL said WWE has something valuable with Chad Gable.
I think they’ll figure it out.
I mean, they’ve got an unbelievable commodity here.
Conrad Thompson then asked JBL whether WWE should put the Intercontinental Championship on Gable.
JBL said he would do it if that is the direction WWE is going.
If that’s where you’re going with him, yeah, I’d put the title on him.
Done.
Not any doubt in my mind unless they have some idea of where they want to go with him next.
JBL said the timing feels right to him.
I don’t know if this is the spot.
To me, it feels like the spot where you put Chad Gable over and start this big nice run with him.
JBL again praised Chad Gable’s in-ring ability.
He is such an incredible worker.
And guys like this only come along, you know, once or twice a generation that guys like this that can work like this.
JBL said Chad Gable has figured it out, and WWE now has to decide where to take him.
Chad’s figured it out.
Maybe that run down in Mexico with Undertaker is what got him to that next level.
I don’t know.
But he’s there and you got to figure out now what to do with him.
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article, please credit Something To Wrestle With, with a h/t to Wrestling Headlines for the transcription.
