The Intercontinental title match between GUNTHER and Chad Gable ended in a count-out, which is typically the sign of an unsatisfying match. In this case, it was one of the best TV matches WWE has produced this year, and the fact that it didn’t main event is borderline criminal, which is why it’s main-eventing here.

We’re pretty sure everyone knew this match was going to be great. Gable and GUNTHER have been extremely consistent in the quality of their matches, especially since Levesque took over creative, and they had already done good work against one another as part of this feud. Monday’s match, though, was something else entirely, an absolutely phenomenal wrestling contest that by turns showed off Gable’s technical wrestling ability, GUNTHER’s power and ruthlessness, and Gable’s newfound refusal to stay down that’s going to turn him into the next Sami Zayn if he’s not careful. Our expectations were high; this match exceeded them.

Our favorite part, though, and the thing we loved most from “Raw,” was the finish. It had been teased earlier on, with GUNTHER going for count-out wins and demolishing Gable on the outside, only for Gable to keep beating the count. Then at the end, they spend some more time on the outside, and Gable hits a German suplex on GUNTHER over the barricade, runs toward the ring, and slides inside just in time to get the count-out victory. Of course, that doesn’t come with the title, but do you know what Gable does? He celebrates, because even though we, the audience, know wins and losses don’t really matter than much in wrestling, the characters should always want to win matches! Always! Gable could have just gotten counted out as well; it wouldn’t have changed the outcome as far as the title is concerned. But he used every ounce of his athleticism to get back into the ring in time to get the W, and as his reward, he became the first person to defeat GUNTHER in a singles match since his main roster call-up in 2022, and he’s almost certainly got another title match coming. We had a feeling we were getting the same match again at Payback, so we figured some kind of non-decisive finish was happening. But again, it exceeded expectations — instead of leaving us grumbling, the non-finish left us feeling triumphant, ecstatic, and eager to get to the next chapter.

In this space, we’re often quick to embrace wrestling’s weirdness — cinematic matches, supernatural characters, 40-minute Bloodline promo segments, etc. And we still love those things. But it’s always good to be reminded that sometimes, this dumb, bizarre half-sport is at its best when two people just wrestle because they’re wrestlers, and for no other reason than that.