American Alpha were one of the hottest teams to hit the scene when they debuted on SmackDown Live after the 2016 brand split. After an impressive run in NXT and a strong cult following, the duo were ready, willing and Gable to take the SmackDown tag division by storm. In a recent interview with Sports Illustrated, Chad Gable admitted that, despite their NXT accolades, the duo had to completely start over on the main roster.
“The process of re-establishing ourselves was new to us. We started in Orlando at the Performance Center, and the local crowd saw us even before we were on NXT. When we got to SmackDown Live, we had to assume that no one had ever seen us before. That’s what we did, and it’s very hard to start over, but Jason and I were ready for this. We told ourselves ahead of time that we were going to prepare extra hard because not everyone watches NXT, and we’re working to attain our goals,” he said.
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Some fans have optimistically speculated that Gable could be revealed as Kurt Angle‘s illegitimate son next week on Raw. While we haven’t seen the duo featured with Angle yet, Gable has nothing but praise for the new WWE Hall of Famer.
“I saw Kurt at the hotel during WrestleMania weekend, and he still trains really hard. I figure there will be sometime when he is going to stop, but after watching him train, it doesn’t look like it. Jason and I are both very excited to sit and chat with him, and hopefully pick his brain. He carved the path that we’re following, he set the example for what we want to do, and he’s the best in the world at it,” he said.
Despite getting some shine for his ability as a singles wrestler, Gable revealed that his WrestleMania goal still includes his long time tag team partner.
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“In amateur wrestling, my goal was always to get to the Olympics. My goal in WWE is to make it to WrestleMania 34 with my partner and win the tag team titles. I’d love to be in a spot where we are defending the titles at next year’s ‘Mania, and hopefully that is in a marquee match in a prime place on the card. We can show people that tag team wrestling is, in my opinion, the greatest form of pro wrestling,” Gable said.
Ironically, American Alpha were the Tag Team Champions heading into this year’s WrestleMania and while Raw’s Championship belts were defended in a ladder match that featured the epic return of The Hardy Boyz, Gable and Jordan were lost in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal.
Since WrestleMania, the duo have lost the belts to The Usos and faded, quite literally, into the background. Hopefully, Gable’s premonition comes true and we start seeing the WWE get more use out of the best team on the roster.
