WWE: 3 potential challengers for Shinsuke Nakamura’s Intercontinetal Championship

1. Chad Gable

Right now, perhaps the most important non-title storyline WWE has to sort out is Chad Gable’s.

A lot was invested in him by virtue of his impressive run in the King of the Ring tournament. It seems like WWE succeeded in getting the crowd behind him as well based on the reactions he’s been getting. Everything is set-up for Chad Gable to continue to receive a huge push.

There’s just one small problem. He just lost his biggest match in years.

WWE can’t let Gable spiral after that defeat. The company can’t let him get lost back in the shuffle if they truly are as invested as they appeared to be in his continued success.

Why wouldn’t they be too, to be totally honest? Gable has excelled in his role so far, even with a storyline that feels like it was ripped straight out of the next teen Netflix movie.

He deserves to have a payoff for this big push, along with being stuck with such a lame story, and I can’t think of a better reward than a feud for the Intercontinental Championship.

It would be easy to map out the road to a massive win for Gable that begins with being mocked by Sami Zayn for his King of the Ring misfortune, before he ultimately comes within mere seconds of beating Shinsuke Nakamura at a pay-per-view. That inevitably leads to Gable questioning whether he has it in him to win the big one, before he ultimately captures the Intercontinental Championship in a wildly entertaining match down the road.

It would be the perfect kind of underdog story to really continue to sell Chad Gable to fans, and hopefully turn him into a premier star in the process. It also would be with the guidance of two established and impressive superstars in Zayn and Nakamura, who could deliver both the exciting matches and entertaining promos needed to carry the feud along.

When you look at it like that, I would argue it’s almost a necessity for WWE to give Chad Gable a shot at Shinsuke Nakamura sooner rather than later.