Chad Gable had a rough outing on Monday Night RAW, failing to walk out of the Barclays Center with the WWE Intercontinental Championship.
Ethan Page beat him in the opening match of the November 2 episode of RAW before Crown Jewel. The two men left it all in the ring, but it was Ethan Page who came out on top.
Thanks for the submission!
He sent Chad Gable into an exposed turnbuckle and hit him with the Ego-Plex to sneak a victory.
His reign lasted 92 days, during which he defended his title multiple times against names like Rey Mysterio and Dragon Lee.
Fans have been questioning why the creative suddenly took the title off him, especially after putting in the work to rebuild his babyface character.
Without further ado, let’s take a look at five possible reasons why Chad Gable lost his Intercontinental Championship tonight.
1. Chad Gable wrestled with an apparent neck injury
The champion was compromised before the bell rang.
Eight days earlier in Fresno, Page planted him with an Ego-Plex on the arena floor during a tag match, and Gable needed medical attention while Dragon Lee finished alone.
It’s clear that Chad Gable wasn’t 100% heading into RAW this week.
He promised a fight anyway. Ethan Page dominated the majority of the match, working on his opponent’s apparent neck injury.
Chad Gable had one last gasp when he hit Ethan Page with an Angle Slam through the announce desk, and a moonsault in the ring, but it wasn’t enough to put the challenger away.
Chad Gable’s injury came into play during the match finish, which explains why he lost his title.
This could have been done to protect him from taking a clean pinfall loss.
2. Time to push Chad Gable to the main event scene
Chad Gable is 13 years into a career as WWE’s most reliable in-ring worker, and he has said time and again that he wants a world title run
The strongest hint came four days before the loss, when he pinned CM Punk clean at the October 29 live event in Youngstown, Ohio, and Punk raised his arm afterward.
Fightful Select reported the finish was booked for a viral moment rather than a television program, but WWE still chose Gable to hand Punk a rare clean defeat.
Dropping a secondary title is the standard way to make room for him in the main event scene.
3. Ethan Page couldn’t afford to take another loss
Page had chased this title since arriving on Raw after WrestleMania 42, and he had already lost a shot at the then-Intercontinental Champion Penta at Saturday Night’s Main Event in May.
For weeks, he argued Gable kept handing out title opportunities to luchadores.
Another failed title attempt would have killed his momentum and the heel character that he spent months building.
4. Chad Gable possibly taking some time off
Although not officially confirmed, Chad Gable losing the Intercontinental Championship could have been done to write him off television for the foreseeable future.
Interestingly, WWE has already announced Gable for NXT’s head-to-head with AEW Dynamite Blood and Guts.
He will be teaming with Dragon Lee and Rey Fenix against the Vanity Project’s Jackson Drake, Brad Baylor, and Ricky Smokes in a six-man tag team match.
Assuming this is his one-off appearance on NXT, he could take some time off and let Ethan Page carry the midcard scene for a while before coming back to rekindle the feud.
5. WWE has given up on Chad Gable
Chad Gable has done some of the best character work of his career lately. However, it could be argued that his new presentation didn’t pass muster with the WWE Universe.
It is possible that the creative lost faith in him and decided to take the Intercontinental Title off him.
It will be interesting to see if a rematch is on the cards heading into WWE Survivor Series: WarGames 2026.
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Edited by Sidharth Sachdeva
