WWE legends celebrate the unsung hero of Penta's RAW debut

01/20/2025 06:51 PM

When Penta took the ring for his not-so-surprise WWE debut on RAW, hardcore fans of professional wrestling knew they were in for a treat, but what about the more general wrestling population, who don’t watch AEW, TNA, Lucha Underground, or any of the other promotions the Lucha Brother has wrestled for?

Well, fortunately for Penta, he was given a pretty effective helping hand to get himself over, with Matt Hardy celebrating his in-ring partner, Chad Gable, for being the perfect base to set his opponent up for long-term success on his Extreme Life podcast.

“I thought it was tremendous. I thought it was great, I thought Penta going out and working against Chad Gable, Chad Gable was great, he’s just tremendous, he’s such a great talent, and he’s always just a great guy on top of this as well,” Matt Hardy declared via Fightful. “Just for Penta to go out working against Chad Gable in a really competitive, good, strong match is just how Penta needed to be introduced… Whenever he came out, he got a great reaction, and I think a new viewer who is watching Penta for the first time at home, watching on the TV screen, they’re like, ‘Wow, this guy is really talented. This is reminiscent of Rey Mysterio to me; I think he’s gonna be someone who becomes a big star like Rey Mysterio.’ I think that was totally the right direction to go with Penta.”

While Hardy is more or less on the money with his comments, he was far from the only WWE legacy act who celebrated Gable’s efforts, with JBL using some time on Something to Wrestle to put over the modern-day Kurt Angle.

“They [WWE] do debuts better than anybody else. It’s absolutely unbelievable. To put him out there with Chad Gable, Gable is God’s gift to wrestling, man. He’s just like a modern-day Kurt Angle. He can do absolutely anything,” JBL said via Fightful. “He is so freaking talented and so good at what he does. He’s a lot like Kurt as far as what he does with his microphone skills, what he does in the ring, he can do comedy, he does serious stuff, he can be a great wrestler. I mean, that’s the right guy, and that’s so important to put Penta out there with somebody like Chad Gable. Now, Penta, obviously, is a huge star. He’s gonna be a star no matter what. But you give him a guy like Chad Gable, and Gable helps make him.

Could Penta have gotten over if he wrestled anyone else or even had a tag team match with Rey Mysterio, which was the original plan? Sure, his mask, wrestling gear, and overall presentation is among the best in the business, and WWE was always going to push him to the moon based on his action figure-selling potential alone. But by working with Gable, who sold a perfect Canadian Destroyer, Penta looked like a killer in the ring, which rounded out an ideal introduction.

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