Chad Gable Thinks Former WWE Persona Helped Him Keep Perspective

Chad Gable has looked back on his WWE career and explained how a rather embarrassing gimmick became a turning point.

2026 has been a fruitful year for Gable, with his Intercontinental Championship win being the crowning achievement. The former Alpha Academy member feels that he is only now beginning to appreciate his success, having experienced many ups and downs throughout his career.

"I think I'm only able to do that [appreciate his current success] because it's happening this far along in my career. If this had happened, you know, when I was three, four years in, I don't think I'd realize what I kind of had in my hands. Right now, I'm at a place where I can take that bird's-eye view, just because of having gone through all these other things in my career. So, I actually consider myself really fortunate that it took this long for something like this to happen because it's like I appreciate it all that much more," he said on "Insight."

Gable touched upon one persona he wasn't particularly fond of, the Shorty G character, which he said helped lead him to where he is today. He believes the success he enjoys now wouldn't have been possible without going through that not-so-great gimmick.

"I was going through, like, different phases in my career the other day for a different project I'm doing, and, like, the Shorty G era came up, and I'm, like, documenting what happened, and I'm, like, 'Man, do I want to include this or not?' But you have to because without those, it's like nothing will ever feel as special as it should because you have — it's a cliche, but, like, yeah, you don't realize how good the good stuff is without the bad stuff," he added.

The Intercontinental Champion, in retrospect, thinks the Shorty G character wasn't as bad as many believe it was, saying that fans didn't connect with it. However, it's still a gimmick that he isn't too proud of.