Chad Gable Recalls Being Replaced As El Grande Americano, Royal Rumble Return

Chad Gable recently recalled his reaction to being replaced as El Grande Americano and his return at the Royal Rumble. Gable was portraying the original Americano until he was injured in June of 2025. From there, the character was given to someone else (definitely not Ludwig Kaiser) as Gable recovered from injury. He made his return as OG Americano at the 2026 Royal Rumble and faced off with Americano II.

Gable reflected on being replaced in the role and more in his appearance on Insight With Chris Van Vliet. He said that seeing someone potray his character gave him a fire to return and pushed him to make it back. He also discussed what the original plan would have been had he not been injured. You can see highlights below:

On Where the Americano Story Was Headed If He Didn’t Get Injured:

“So from there, I continued kind of this assault right on the whole lucha libre culture and all this stuff, and I did it as both characters. Chad Gable was also in on this, you know, with Vikingo, you can even see all the insults and things I was hurling at him during the match. So it was just a matter of continuing to gain momentum as this character improved, this whole farce that I was the best luchador in the world, right? How insulting to all these guys. We have the best roster of luchadors, a dream couldn’t come up with these guys, and I’m here claiming to be the best. I just love it, man. I mean, we could have gone down any avenue we wanted; it would have been great.”

On Finding Out Someone Else Was Taking the Character:

“I watched it play out, and on a weekly basis, grew more and more competitively driven to come back and take my character back. At the same time, really kind of grateful for the new Grande carrying it on the way he did, because who knows what would have happened to that character had it just been forgotten until I came back. It may have gotten lost in the shuffle. We may have never got back to any point of importance. So, all credit in the world to him for not just keeping it alive, because he didn’t just keep it alive; he made it thrive.”

On the Rumor That Ludwig Kaiser Is El Grande Americano:

“Ludwig? I don’t see it. I haven’t seen him for a while, but I don’t see it. The internet’s a wild place!”

On the Americano Face-Off at the Royal Rumble:

“Yeah, we had to. Super cool moment, just to finally meet face to face, especially having that be my official comeback. Yeah, it was awesome, and it was a great starting point for us to paint that picture that we’re going to be headed down the same path collision course towards each other, and we both, I think in our heads had a very, very special intention for this story.”