Chad Gable Discusses Shoulder Injury He Suffered While Portraying El Grande Americano In Mid-2025

WWE Intercontinental Champion Chad Gable recently opened up about the shoulder injury that kept him away from in-ring action for several months last year.

Gable was in the midst of his iconic El Grande Americano gimmick when he injured his shoulder while wrestling El Hijo del Vikingo at Worlds Collide during the summer of 2025. This led Ludwig Kaiser to step in as his imposter and make the El Grande Americano character his own.

Gable ultimately returned at this year’s Royal Rumble and went on to have an iconic rivalry with Americano. The rivalry culminated in a legendary Mask vs. Mask match this past May, in which Gable unmasked himself.

During an appearance on INSIGHT with Chris Van Vliet, Chad Gable revealed how he got injured, the initial timeframe for his recovery, and his thought process when he suffered the setback. Below are the highlights:

On his mindset after he got injured

“Yes, I would say right before I got injured, I was having what I would call the peak of my career. I mean, creatively as well. I was just so fulfilled. I was doing all this awesome stuff. I got to wrestle like twice in one day in LA that day on two epic shows.”

On how he got injured

“So I was wrestling Vikingo at that World’s Collide show, and I had my arm posted on the ring apron. You could see a point in the match where he’ll do a 630, insanity, to the floor on me on my back, and my arm was posted in a way on the ring apron. When he came down on my back, then also it stretched my arm, but my arm stayed where it was, and I could feel it. I felt it. I’ve never torn a muscle or anything like that before, so it was new to me. So I knew something happened. Obviously, we do the match. Adrenaline carries you through, and then it was just a fully cortisol-filled day because I had to run across and do that Money in the Bank match as well.

“So I never gave it a chance to really settle in because it was just like we got stuff to do here, man. Then there was some pretty gnarly bumps in the Money in the Bank match as well that took their toll. Had a steak with my mom and dad that night. Probably a glass of wine. Went to sleep. Woke up the next day, and man. I don’t know that I’ve ever felt that level of fragility that I felt the next day, almost like any little thing I did, I was gonna just ruin myself, like super fragile. That’s when I knew something was wrong.”

How many months was he supposed to be on the sidelines?

“Six months was the rough estimate, and I think I was ready in four and a half, certainly ready by five, but probably four and a half.”

Gable went on to capture the WWE Intercontinental Championship from Penta at SummerSlam: Minnesota and is set to defend his gold against Rey Fenix next Monday.