The story of Chad Gable and Otis is one of friendship, shared dreams, and professional wrestling success. From their early days training together at the Olympic Training Center to becoming a formidable tag team in WWE, their journey has been filled with memorable moments and challenges. Let's delve into the history of these two remarkable athletes and their evolution as a team.
Chad Gable: From Olympian to WWE Superstar
Charles Edward Betts, born on March 8, 1986, in Saint Michael, Minnesota, is known in WWE as Chad Gable. He exudes the competitiveness, intensity, and confidence of an Olympic athlete for good reason: He was one. Hailing from Minnesota, a state rich in wrestling history, Gable has been a master of the mat since his youth.
Before his WWE career, Gable was a prolific amateur wrestler who competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London in the Greco-Roman style 84kg event. He earned the right to compete at the London Olympics that summer after the Olympic Trials. In November 2013, Betts signed a contract with the professional wrestling promotion WWE.
Early Career in NXT
Starting in May 2015, NXT newcomer Chad Gable began a storyline with Jason Jordan, in which he tried to convince Jordan to form a new partnership, following the dissolution of Jordan's team with Tye Dillinger. After nearly two months of coaxing, Jordan finally agreed to a tag team match with Gable as his teammate. On the July 15 episode of NXT, Jordan and Gable were successful in their official debut together against the team of Elias Samson and Steve Cutler.
It wasn’t long before Gable’s prodigious skill inside the ring propelled him to Superstardom in NXT, where the savant of suplexes found his greatest success teaming with fellow amateur standout Jason Jordan. Known as American Alpha, the duo ignited NXT’s tandem division and won over the NXT Universe before being drafted to SmackDown LIVE in 2016 and eventually winning the SmackDown Tag Team Championship.
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On September 2, Jordan and Gable competed in the first round of the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic tournament, beating the team of Neville and Solomon Crowe. After defeating the Hype Bros, they would get eliminated from the tournament by the team of Baron Corbin and Rhyno. Originally villains, the duo turned into fan favorites even in defeat, when they showed fighting spirit and resiliency throughout the match. At NXT TakeOver: London, Gable and Jordan were successful in a fatal four-way tag team match, which was taped for the December 23 episode of NXT.
American Alpha faced off with the Vaudevillains on the March 16 episode of NXT in a number one contender's match where they emerged victorious, earning them an NXT Tag Team Championship match against Dash Wilder and Scott Dawson, now called "The Revival", at NXT TakeOver: Dallas. The pair won the NXT Tag Team Championship at the event.
On June 8 at NXT TakeOver: The End, American Alpha lost the title back to The Revival, ending their reign at 68 days. As a result of the 2016 WWE Draft on July 19, the team was drafted to the SmackDown brand, being their first tag team pick overall.
SmackDown and Tag Team Success
On the August 2 episode of SmackDown, American Alpha made their debut, defeating the Vaudevillains. The pair teamed with The Usos and the Hype Bros at SummerSlam to defeat the team of The Ascension, Breezango (Tyler Breeze and Fandango), and The Vaudevillains. The pair then entered an eight-team tournament which would determine the inaugural SmackDown Tag Team Champions, defeating Breezango in the first round to advance to the semi-finals where they faced The Usos.
They returned on the September 20 episode to face the Usos in a number one contender's match to establish who would face inaugural Smackdown Tag Team Champions Heath Slater and Rhyno at No Mercy, where they were defeated due to Gable's injury, marking their first loss on the main roster. At the event, they would instead team with the Hype Bros to face the Ascension and the Vaudevillians where they were successful.
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On the November 1 episode of SmackDown, American Alpha defeated the Spirit Squad to qualify for Team SmackDown for the 10-on-10 Survivor Series tag team elimination match at Survivor Series. On the December 27 episode of SmackDown Live, they defeated Randy Orton and Luke Harper of The Wyatt Family, Heath Slater and Rhyno, and The Usos in a four corners elimination match to become the new SmackDown Tag Team Champions, celebrating with their families afterward.
After defeating The Wyatt Family (Orton and Harper) in a rematch to retain their title on January 10, the pair would go on to defend their title in a tag team turmoil match at Elimination Chamber successfully against The Ascension, Usos, Vaudevillians, Breezango, and Heath Slater and Rhyno, entering fourth and eliminating the Usos and Ascension, despite an attack by the Usos after their elimination, continuing their feud. On the March 21 episode of SmackDown Live, American Alpha lost the SmackDown Tag Team Championship to The Usos after suffering a non-title match loss to the pair the prior week.
On the June 20 episode of SmackDown, Chad Gable answered the United States Championship Open Challenge put forward by champion Kevin Owens where he was ultimately unsuccessful. In a July interview, Gable spoke about going solo, citing his will to fight against top competition. On the July 17 episode of Raw, Jason Jordan was moved to the Raw brand.
Forming New Alliances
On the August 22 episode of SmackDown Live, General Manager Daniel Bryan announced that he had signed a returning Shelton Benjamin to team up with Gable, therefore creating a tag team between the two. The following week on SmackDown Live, Gable and Benjamin picked up a win over The Ascension in their first match as a tag team; this was also Benjamin's first WWE match since 2010. On the September 12 episode of SmackDown Live, Benjamin and Gable would defeat The Hype Bros, before defeating them again in a rematch at Hell in a Cell.
On the October 10 episode of SmackDown Live, Benjamin and Gable would defeat The Hype Bros, The Ascension, and Breezango in a fatal four-way match to become the number one contenders for The Usos's SmackDown Tag Team Championship. On the November 7 episode of SmackDown Live, they received their title opportunity and won the match by count-out, however, the Usos retained their championships as titles do not change hands by count out unless stipulated.
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After trading victories with The Usos the following weeks, they competed in a fatal four-way match for the SmackDown Tag Team Championships against defending champions The Usos, The New Day, and the team of Rusev and Aiden English at Clash of Champions, but failed to win the title. Two days later on SmackDown Live, Gable and Benjamin defeated The Usos in a non-title match.
On the January 2, 2018, episode of SmackDown Live, they defeated The New Day and Rusev and English in a triple threat match to earn another shot at the SmackDown Tag Team titles, which they lost the following week after pinning the wrong twin for the apparent victory and then losing the impromptu rematch. The following week on SmackDown Live, the duo confirmed their heel turn when they insulted the referee of their title match the week before, demoralized the fans, and accused General Manager Daniel Bryan of being biased, which resulted in Bryan booking them for a two out of three falls match against The Usos at the Royal Rumble, where they lost in two straight falls.
That following week, Gable and Benjamin interrupted an episode of Fashion Files, and traded insults with Breezango, challenging them to a match, Gable and Benjamin would eventually win the match. The next week, Gable and Benjamin mocked The New Day and faced them in a losing effort. On April 16, Gable was moved to Raw as part of the 2018 WWE Superstar Shake-Up, thus disbanding with Benjamin.
On the April 23 episode of Raw, Gable turned face after he took offense at Jinder Mahal insulting Raw General Manager Kurt Angle. Gable would defeat Mahal on his first match on the brand. On the September 3 episode of Raw, Gable formed a tag team with Bobby Roode and went on to defeat The Ascension. At Survivor Series, they would become captains for Team Raw, but lost to Team SmackDown in the 10-on-10 Survivor Series tag team elimination match. During this time, Gable changed his attire to trunks and began wearing a robe in his entrance, mirroring Roode's look.
Singles Competition and "Shorty G"
At Crown Jewel on October 31, Shorty G competed in a 10-man tag team match as a part of Team Hogan, defeating Team Flair. At Survivor Series, Shorty G was a part of Team SmackDown; he was eliminated by Kevin Owens, but his team won the match. After this event, Shorty G continued to wrestle in the tag team division with Mustafa Ali as his partner.
On the January 3, 2020, episode of SmackDown, Sheamus returned from injury, appearing to save Shorty G from an attack by The Revival, but then delivered a Brogue Kick to him. Sheamus then defeated Shorty G at the Royal Rumble, and on the January 31 episode of SmackDown. After three months away from television, Shorty G made his return on the May 29 episode of SmackDown in a 10-man battle royal for a spot in the Intercontinental Championship tournament but was eliminated by Cesaro. Later that night, Shorty G defeated Cesaro.
The Formation of Alpha Academy
Alpha Academy is a professional wrestling stable performing in WWE on the Raw brand composed of Otis, Maxxine Dupri, and Akira Tozawa. Formed as a tag team, Gable and Otis are longtime best friends in real life, with their friendship dating back to 2011, where they trained for the Olympic Games together in Colorado Springs.
“Achieving dreams is awesome in and of itself for anybody of course, but doing it with your best friend, alongside him, is something that’s hard to describe,” Gable told podcast host Corey Graves. “It goes back to our days at The Olympic Training Center. This is in 2010, 2011, and even further than that. We realized recently that I had coached against Otis in amateur wrestling matches.
“My brother was an amateur wrestler at heavyweight. Otis would wrestle him and I would coach against Otis before I even got to be friends with him. But then a couple years down the road, we were both living at The Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs trying to make the Olympic team, and our love of professional wrestling bonded us together in the summer of one of those years.
“We spent a lot of days in what we called the Man Cave at the dorms at the O.T.C. watching pro wrestling in a dark room taking our naps during the day trying to refresh for the next training session. We spent many hours talking about what could be and the possibility of eventually maybe making it ourselves and making something happen.
“At that point, it was just really talking crap as a couple of young kids, but before you know it, we were on the path doing the NXT thing. All of a sudden it’s 10 years later. Holy crap. We did it man. It’s wild.”
On the March 13, 2023 episode of Raw, Gable found Otis backstage taking part in a photo shoot with Maximum Male Models (ma.çé and mån.sôör, managed by Maxxine Dupri). Otis then decided to leave with Maximum Male Models instead of Gable, which began a series of segments between Gable and Dupri, who both wanted Otis to be on their respective teams. Dupri officially sided with the Alpha Academy on the May 15 episode of Raw when she cheered on Otis and Gable eliminating ma.çé and mån.sôör in the Intercontinental Championship number one contenders' battle royal.
In the following weeks, Dupri trained with Alpha Academy, who began to slowly turn face after increasing crowd support. Dupri made her in-ring debut on the July 3 episode of Raw in a mixed six-person tag team match with Gable and Otis, defeating The Viking Raiders (Erik, Ivar and Valhalla) when Dupri pinned Valhalla. On the July 10 episode of Raw, Alpha Academy held a graduation ceremony for Dupri. At the end of the ceremony, Gable presented Dupri with her own Alpha Academy letterman's jacket.
The group expanded with Akira Tozawa joining the stable and being assigned as a "junior member" on the October 23 episode of Raw. In a bid to prove himself to the stable, Tozawa challenged Bronson Reed to a match but lost. The following day, Tozawa appeared on Night 1 of NXT: Halloween Havoc and stole Noam Dar's NXT Heritage Cup. Tozawa would return the Cup to Dar on Night 2 before managing to spook Dar into a match for the Cup on the following week's NXT but lost the match 2-1 under British Round Rules.
On the November 25 episode of Raw, Otis and Tozawa defeated The New Day, seemingly triggering a massive breakdown regarding Xavier Woods and Kofi Kingston's near ten year friendship.
In January 2022, Gable won the Raw Tag Team Championship for a second time with Alpha Academy tag partner, Otis. Alpha Academy, the RAW Tag Team Champions, are quite the odd pairing. Chad Gable and Otis won the titles from RK-Bro on the January 10th edition of Monday Night RAW.
The former Olympian also opened up about the frustrations of being left off of WrestleMania card for years. “As it is with any superstar in WWE, your goal is to have that moment at WrestleMania, to get your match, and I’ve never come close to that,” he said. “Not only have I not come close, there’s been years where I haven’t even been on, and that was last year and that was the year before. There’s almost nothing more frustrating and debilitating than peaking, because I still treat it like I would a big amateur wrestling tournament, like WrestleMania is our big one. I’ll get myself ready. I’ll get in better shape. I’ll mentally prepare better 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,” he further stated.
They are friends in real life and their bond goes back years. The pair appeared on After The Bell to talk about their time together before arriving in the WWE, how their friendship evolved over the airs, and the frustrations of not being able to perform at WrestleMania.
Between 2023 and 2024, Gable tried in vain to achieve the Intercontinental Title, coming up short on multiple occasions before snapping on Intercontinental Champion Sami Zayn, German Suplexing him right from Zayn’s wife’s arms. Since then, Gable has been increasingly manipulative of his fellow Alpha Academy members, belittling and gas lighting them.
During the build to WrestleMania XL, Gable was involved in a storyline where he trained Sami Zayn for his Intercontinental Championship match against Gunther. After Zayn won the title on Night 1 of the event, Zayn gave Gable a title shot on the April 15 episode of Raw, but Gable failed to win the title. After the match, Gable attacked Zayn as he was celebrating with his wife at ringside, turning heel in the process.
The following week, Gable said that he had spent too much time training "losers" such as Zayn and his stablemates, declaring that the stable's focus would now be on Gable winning the Intercontinental Championship. On the April 29 episode of Raw, Zayn defended his title against Bronson Reed, winning the match by disqualification after Gable attacked him. The following week, Zayn attacked Gable during his match with Reed, leading to a triple threat match at King and Queen of the Ring on May 25, where Zayn retained his title.
At Clash at the Castle: Scotland on June 15, Gable failed to win the title from Zayn after Otis and Dupri refused to interfere on Gable's behalf, ending their feud. Two nights later on Raw, Otis, Dupri and Akira Tozawa walked out on Gable, who in turn left Alpha Academy. On the June 24 episode of Raw, Gable defeated Braun Strowman and Reed to qualify for the Money in the Bank ladder match at the titular event on July 6, which was won by Drew McIntyre.
After continuously being hounded by The Wyatt Sicks, Gable called out Bo Dallas, who was walking to the ring when The Creed Brothers (Brutus Creed and Julius Creed) attacked him from behind, aligning themselves with Gable in the process.
Otis & Chad Gable revel in becoming Raw Tag Team Champions - Jan 10 2022
The Split of Alpha Academy and New Alliances
This all came to a boil on the June 17th episode of Raw, where Otis finally had enough, pushing Gable down, before announcing that he and the other Alpha Academy members were leaving him. Later that night, Gable was shockingly attacked by The Wyatt Sicks, seemingly making yet another enemy.
Gable found a new alliance with The Creed Brothers, becoming American Made as they attempted to combat The Wyatt Sicks. On the July 15 episode of Raw, Otis, Dupri and Tozawa agreed to team up with The New Day's Xavier Woods in his feud against The Final Testament. On the following week, the team of Otis, Tozawa and Woods were defeated by The Final Testatement's Karrion Kross and The Authors of Pain (Akam and Rezar) in a six-man tag team match. After the match, Gable, together with the newly-aligned Creed Brothers (Julius and Brutus), continued to convince Otis, Tozawa and Dupri to reunite. Otis refused and were beaten down by Gable and The Creed Brothers.
On the April 21 episode of Raw, Otis and Akira were set to face the WWE World Tag Team Champions, The New Day, in a non-title match.
El Grande Americano
In early 2025, he began simultaneously portraying the masked luchador El Grande Americano. Under this persona, he would win his first singles championship, the WWE Speed Championship.
Championships and Accomplishments
Chad Gable has achieved significant success in WWE, including:
- NXT Tag Team Championship (with Jason Jordan)
- SmackDown Tag Team Championship (with Jason Jordan)
- Raw Tag Team Championship (with Bobby Roode)
- Raw Tag Team Championship (with Otis)
- WWE Speed Championship (as El Grande Americano)
Additionally, Gable made history by becoming the first to defeat Gunther in singles competition in WWE, after he bested The Ring General by count-out! on the Auguest 21, 2023 episode of Raw.
Here's a summary of Chad Gable's title reigns:
| Championship | Reign | Partner/Persona |
|---|---|---|
| NXT Tag Team Championship | 1 | Jason Jordan |
| SmackDown Tag Team Championship | 1 | Jason Jordan |
| Raw Tag Team Championship | 1 | Bobby Roode |
| Raw Tag Team Championship | 2 | Otis |
| WWE Speed Championship | 1 | El Grande Americano |
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