Someone in WWE once told TJ Wilson that he had “killed” Chad Gable’s career. Seven years later, he was producing Gable’s Intercontinental Championship match against Penta at SummerSlam.
While speaking on the Counted Out podcast, Wilson opened up about the pressure that comes with producing WWE matches and revealed just how brutal the backstage reaction can be when something doesn’t go according to plan.
Wilson didn’t pretend producers always get everything right. Sometimes a match misses the mark. Sometimes the producer misunderstands what WWE wants entirely.
“We’ve all—every producer’s experienced it. We’ve all either—the match missed the mark or there was—we—I thought I understood something. It turned out I completely misunderstood the assignment. And it’s happened to all of us.”
Those mistakes can feel considerably bigger when they’re happening on WWE television, but Wilson has learned not to treat every bad match like the end of the world. His first concern is considerably simpler: Did everyone walk out healthy?
“As long as nobody gets hurt, I’m okay. I’m okay with this segment. As long as nobody got seriously hurt, I’m okay with this segment. The match can fall off rails. Every single person that’s ever put on a pair of boots or gotten in the ring has had a terrible match.”
Then came the Chad Gable story. Wilson revealed that he got into trouble over something involving Gable back in 2019, and the criticism apparently went considerably further than simply telling him the segment or match wasn’t good. He was told he had killed Gable’s career.
“We’ve all—I’ve been in trouble before. I was told—I was told, uh, it was very funny because I had his match at SummerSlam against Penta, but I was told I killed Chad Gable’s career in 2019.”
That accusation looks pretty wild in hindsight. Gable’s career clearly wasn’t dead. Seven years later, Wilson found himself producing Gable vs. Penta for the Intercontinental Championship at SummerSlam, a match that ended up receiving plenty of praise. Wilson couldn’t help but laugh at how things turned out.
“So I don’t know. He seems to be doing pretty…”
Bottom line: Wrestling can make one bad night feel like a catastrophe backstage. Seven years later, sometimes it just becomes a pretty funny story.
What do you make of TJ Wilson being told he had “killed” Chad Gable’s career in 2019? Let us know in the comments below.
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