Chad Gable told ESPN this weekend that he wanted a different result this time. He got it in front of his own crowd.
Gable made Penta tap to the ankle lock on Night 2 of SummerSlam at U.S. Bank Stadium to win the Intercontinental Championship, the first singles title of his WWE career. He is a Minnesota native and a 2012 Olympian, and he wrestled the biggest match of his life about half an hour from where he grew up.
Penta had been champion since March, when he took the belt from Dominik Mysterio, and had turned back Ethan Page, Je’Von Evans, Rey Mysterio and a six-man ladder match at WrestleMania 42.
Gable went at him immediately and never gave him room. He caught a springboard attempt and turned it into a run of German suplexes. Penta answered with a springboard head kick and a dive to the floor, and they traded chops until Penta landed another kick.
Gable opened up above the eye and kept wrestling. He blocked a destroyer and rolled through, took Penta into the ankle lock, then an armbar over the ropes. Penta escaped both. Gable countered a second destroyer into a German suplex on the apron, hit a moonsault to the floor, then a flying headbutt for two.
The third time was the ankle lock, and Penta had nowhere to go.
The win completes a redemption story WWE has been running since Gable returned to Raw. He earned the shot in a gauntlet on the July 13 Raw, going through Dominik Mysterio, Dragon Lee, Ethan Page, Je’Von Evans, Joe Hendry and Rusev.
