Following this week’s WWE Raw, the reigning Intercontinental Champion Gunther is being promoted to be the longest and thereby the greatest of all time in the history of this particular championship. The Ring General went through the latest defense with his title and emerged successfully to earn a new accolade in his career.
In the main event of the September 4 episode of WWE Raw, Gunther defeated Chad Gable to retain the Intercontinental Championship. The challenger’s wife and children were shown watching the match from the front row as he was in action in the biggest singles match of his WWE career. The bout stretched up to 15 minutes which saw Gunther surviving Gable’s Chaos Theory and an ankle lock.
Gunther eventually obstructed the challenger with a vicious sleeper suplex, followed by a powerbomb and then a lariat for the clean pinfall win. With that, the UK native has survived the final hurdle en route to clinch the new record on WWE Raw.
WWE Fastlane 2023: John Cena Expected To Appear On October PLE
WWE Raw: Gunther defeats Chad Gable to clinch new record
At this point, Gunther’s reign is ongoing for 452 days and within two days, he will surpass The Honky Tonk Man’s 454-day reign. Over on social media, WWE has been promoting Gunther to be the greatest IC champion of all time.
Chad Gable was seemingly devastated after the match as he missed this latest opportunity to hold a singles gold in WWE. The Alpha Academy member is a two-time WWE Raw Tag Team Champion as well as a former SmackDown and NXT Tag Team Champion but he’s never won a singles gold in the company.
As for Gunther, his championship reign began on the June 10, 2022, episode of Smackdown when he defeated Ricochet. Since then, the leader of Imperium has successfully defended his belt in 15 championship matches. His most high-profile defense came against Sheamus at the Clash at the Castle event last year’s September and then in a Triple Threat against both Sheamus and Drew McIntyre at WrestleMania 39 in April.
According to Fightful Select, Gunther vs. Gable was moved to WWE Raw from Payback PLE, this weekend. The decision was made as WWE has been cautious about not inserting too many matches in a PLE. Besides, featuring this match in the main event segment would earn it more attention than Payback.
All Out 2023: The Outcasts Heading To Splitsville Following AEW PPV?
