Dragon Lee secured a major championship opportunity on Monday’s WWE Raw, defeating Ethan Page to earn a shot at Chad Gable’s Intercontinental Title.

The championship match will take place when Raw returns to Mexico City for the first time in 15 years on Monday, September 14. Lee will now have the chance to capture gold in front of fans in his home country.

While Lee’s victory made sense ahead of WWE’s return to Mexico, the decision to have Page lose surprised some viewers. Just one week earlier, Page appeared to be positioned as one of Gable’s next challengers.

WWE attempted to protect Page during the finish. Gable stopped “All Ego” from cheating, allowing Lee to take advantage of the distraction and secure the victory.

Speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer explained why he was not impressed by the finish.

“Sometimes they overdo it on protecting the loser and in this situation, this was one of those times,” Meltzer said.

“That finish, he should’ve won a lot better than that for that finish. I mean, it was obvious that finish was there to protect Ethan Page because they think that Ethan Page, and they’re not wrong, that Ethan Page is actually the money match for Chad Gable and they’re obviously holding it off ... based on that, yeah they had to protect him.”

Meltzer’s co-host Bryan Alvarez suggested WWE could have achieved the same outcome by having Lee defeat another heel from the Raw roster.

That would have allowed Lee to challenge Gable in Mexico City without Page suffering a defeat, particularly if WWE still views Page versus Gable as an important title programme for the future.

Would you have booked Dragon Lee to defeat Ethan Page, or should WWE have found him a different opponent? Share your thoughts in the comments.