Spiderman makes a career out of beating people he shouldn't.
Wolverine had not beaten up Exodus or Magneto. Magneto was under group attack, Wolverine got a shot in. Not the same as Gladiator and Gambit going at it one-on-one and Gambit knocking Glads silly with a deck of cards.
BUT - I agree that you have to take averages into consideration, and not just low showings. And that's why I stated very clearly above that Gambit would lose a rematch. You just can't say that it was bad writing or a lack of understanding of the character on the part of the writer, because the writer who created the character wrote him in that story.