Add as a preferred source on Google Chad Gable is living through one of the standout moments of his WWE career, and part of that evolution took shape during his run with Lucha Libre AAA.
Wrestling as The Original El Grande Americano, Gable fell to Ludwig Kaiser in a historic Mask vs. Mask Match at AAA’s Noche de Los Grandes on May 30 at Arena Monterrey.
The Undertaker had a direct hand in that process. The WWE Hall of Famer became a key figure on AAA’s creative team and helped Gable understand that he needed to stop overthinking his matches and start treating every move as if it were real.
In a recent interview with KFAN, Gable opened up about the experience:
“You know, it’s wild because I’d say the biggest revelation I had was last month after I did this mask vs. mask match in Mexico. That was one of those ‘it clicked’ moments for me during my whole story in Mexico,” Gable said. “But that’s like 13 years into my career, right? And so I had all these little breakthroughs along, and you can be this far into your career and still all of a sudden just realize things. It’s wild about that.”
“And Undertaker I think is responsible for a lot of that. Because he was helping out down in Mexico, what we’re doing down there. And he’s the one that finally got through to me, like the idea of just stop thinking so much and just treat it as if it’s everything you’re doing is real. Like, as if you’re going out for an amateur wrestling match. Take that mentality into the fight. And when it worked and it clicked, I was like, ‘This is so great. It makes it so easy.’ You don’t have to think about a thing. You just go out and do your thing and live in the moment. And like I said, that was just like a month ago I came to that realization. So, it’s crazy.”
Gable was also caught off guard by the reaction from Mexican fans, especially while working as a heel:
“It blew me away. The level of hate they had for me, it was a little scary at times,” he said. “You hear guys tell stories about the old territory days where like, ‘Oh no, we had real heat, they wanted to kill us.’ Man, there was times where it felt dangerous down there. And also I had little kids shouting things at me that I’m like, ‘You should not be saying that.’ [laughs] Like, they would have me go out and they would shoot arrival shots of us showing up to the building, you know? And I’d walk through the crowds — not planted or anything — they would just send me out through them, and people were putting hands on me. Like, pushing me and grabbing me. And I loved it, because I’m like this is as real as it gets with us nowadays.”
After the loss, Gable removed his mask in front of his family, handed it over to Kaiser, and thanked the crowd, who responded with chants of his name. He promised he’ll be back in AAA down the road.
Now Gable is looking to turn all of that into his first singles title in WWE.
After winning a Gauntlet Match over Dominik Mysterio, Dragon Lee, Ethan Page, Je’Von Evans, Joe Hendry and Rusev, he’ll challenge Penta for the Intercontinental Championship at SummerSlam on August 1 at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.