wrestling / News

Alpha Academy On Their Goal To Be On WrestleMania 38 Card, Crafting Their Characters In WWE

February 16, 2022 | Posted by Blake Lovell
Alpha Academy Raw Talk Image Credit: WWE

In a recent interview on After the Bell with Corey Graves, Alpha Academy discussed crafting their characters in WWE, their goal to be on the WrestleMania 38 card, and much more. You can read their comments below.

Chad Gable on crafting their characters in WWE: “The whole idea here of putting us together and us teaming up was I can get him to be a little bit more serious. I could elevate him a little bit in that tone and get him away from this old character. The whole time, not really thinking how can he do the same for me and kind of bring out my personality, and maybe we can mutually benefit from this relationship as a team. It just wasn’t happening. We were just stagnating for so long, and it’s not like we didn’t want to flourish, everybody does. But it just so happened that I had gone back to school and used the pandemic and some of the extra free time to go back to school and get my master’s degree. I finished that up in October, and I would mention it in backstage promos and interactions but nothing serious. It was just dropped in here and there, but I started thinking in my more downtime that this can work. This can be applied to the character I’m already doing with Otis to bring him up and I don’t need to do it in a way that’s genius or over the top – everything doesn’t have to be ‘I’m the smartest guy.’ It can just be a part of who I already wanted to be and who I was in the past and weld it together.”

Chad Gable on their goal to be on the WrestleMania 38 card: “I think it looks, to me, it looks like giving [RK-Bro] their tag team title rematch at WrestleMania. Because as it is with any superstar in WWE, your goal is to have that moment on WrestleMania and to get your match. I’ve never come close to that. Not only have I not come close, there have been years where I just haven’t even been on. That was last year, the year before, and there’s almost nothing more frustrating or debilitating than peaking because I still treat it like I would a big amateur wrestling tournament. WrestleMania’s our end of the year, it’s our big one. So I’ll get myself ready, get in better shape, mentally prepare better just because it’s our big event. To do all that work every year and not have it pay off or not feel like it paid off is so frustrating. It’s almost like a mission this year to make it happen more than ever, and I feel Otis feels the same way.”

Otis: “It’s crazy to think that we’ve been in the Andre the Giant battle royals, and before the pandemic, we were gonna be in Tampa and that kiss with Mandy would’ve been in front of a lot of people. That would have been a ridiculous reaction. But you do it in the warehouse and the vibe isn’t the same. It was very special to me because it was my first match and Dolph’s first singles match at WrestleMania, I believe. That was cool, but we haven’t got that feeling yet. Everyone is telling me about the feeling of when that crowd is hot and you’re in the middle of the ring trying to make magic. There’s no better feeling than that. It hasn’t been that way at WrestleMania for either of us, so we want to go there and perform our asses off. That’s our mission, baby. Get us on it.”

If using any of the above quotes, please credit After the Bell with Corey Graves with an h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.