Speaking of elevating talent, we are beyond thrilled that WWE is giving Chad Gable a renewed singles push, as he won a four-way match to become #1 contender to GUNTHER’s Intercontinental title. The match — which also involved Ricochet, Matt Riddle, and Tommaso Ciampa — was predictably fantastic, but Gable in particular was showcased, and he was 100% the right person to win. Ricochet doesn’t need either the IC title right now; Riddle does, but he’s also a very recent GUNTHER challenger and is pretty hard to take seriously these days, which is good because he sucks. Ciampa would have been the second-best choice, but Gable already has a storyline with GUNTHER going back to last week, and after the way he’s been anchoring “Raw” for the past several months, both inside and outside ring, he deserves the spotlight. Also, he got to win in his hometown! If anything could convince us beyond the shadow of a doubt that Vince McMahon is currently off somewhere recovering from spinal surgery, it’s the fact that Chad Gable got to win in his hometown. Vince would never.

We’re slightly less unsure about the other new aspect of this feud. If Ludwig Kaiser legitimately thinks Maxxine Dupri is good at wrestling and should be in the stable that’s all about wrestling being sacred instead of the comedic weirdo gang, that’s fine. If this starts to get into stalker/voyeur territory, we are out, especially because it’s impossible for us to believe that a member of Imperium has ever been sexually aroused by anything, except possibly THE RING. Anyway, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. For now, we’re just going to sit here and fantasy book Gable winning the Intercontinental Championship just before GUNTHER breaks Honky Tonk Man’s all-time record, because that would be amazing.