"People were absolutely nuts about him" - Legend says WWE made a mistake by not pushing Otis after MITB win (Exclusive)
Wrestling veteran Bill Apter thinks WWE fumbled with Otis after the Alpha Academy member won the Money in the Bank briefcase in 2020.
Otis is currently paired with Chad Gable on RAW as part of the Alpha Academy. As entertaining as their pairing has been, the 31-year-old's career graph could have been different had WWE pushed him after he won the MITB briefcase. Otis was fresh off a memorable storyline with Dolph Ziggler and Mandy Rose when he secured the contract.
Though the company had him win the MITB briefcase, the follow-up was disappointing. The former RAW Tag Team Champion wasn't presented as a top star, and he eventually lost the briefcase to The Miz at Hell in a Cell 2020.
On Sportskeeda Wrestling's UnSKripted, Bill Apter stated that WWE made a mistake by not capitalizing on just how popular Otis had become with fans. Apter added that he remains a fan of the RAW Superstar to this day.
"You talked about lightning in a bottle? Do you know where they went totally off ? When Otis won the Money in the Bank. People were absolutely nuts about him. They loved not only his personality and the whole thing with the worm. He was, at that point, red hot, and why they didn't leave him up there? To this day, I'm a big Otis fan," said Apter. (31:05 - 31:41)
Check out the full video below:
WWE Superstar Otis and Chad Gable are best friends in real life too
In a chat with Sportskeeda Wrestling last month, Chad Gable revealed how close he and Otis were in real-life, too. He mentioned that the two had known each other since 2009 when they hadn't entered the business. Gable added that working with Otis in WWE is easy since they share a similar outlook towards things.
"Beyond just being a tag team, we're best friends. We've known each other since 2009, [2008], somewhere in there, so not just working together but growing together and finding each other in this business after going through amateur wrestling, Olympic-style wrestling, open training centers, and things like that, has been the most rewarding and fruitful part of it for me. Working together is easy because we get along, [and] we've got the same mindset. We live right by each other. That part is easy. Just the whole journey has been the best part for me," said Gable.
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Otis and Chad Gable were in action on this week's edition of WWE RAW, where they lost to Ricochet and Braun Strowman.
If you take Bill Apter's quotes from this article, please embed the YouTube video and credit Sportskeeda Wrestling.