Chad Gable opens up about the ‘Shorty G’ gimmick as Otis recalls kissing Mandy Rose at WrestleMania

Chad Gable and Otis are two stars who became popular with the WWE Universe for different reasons, but have found an extra level by pairing together. 

The real-life close friends teamed together at WrestleMania 39 this weekend in a losing effort, but Gable has been lauded for his in-ring showing which featured landing a rolling German suplex on the 6ft8in Braun Strowman.

Fans have always acknowledged Gable’s in-ring talents and Otis has the natural charisma that WWE’s top brass so desperately covets.

However, after Gable was saddled with a demeaning ‘Shorty G’ gimmick and Otis lost the Money in the Bank briefcase, the pair needed to come together to find their way again – for real.

‘I think we both hit a low point where he lost everything, I was squandering… I finally let go of the Shorty G thing, back as Gable but with nothing really in the pipeline and it was like ‘Dude, we’ve been best friends for however long, we’ve never really interacted here in the company, let’s try something new and see,’ Gable exclusively told SportsMail. 

Chad Gable and Otis sat down with SportsMail’s Alex McCarthy during WrestleMania weekend 

Gable(R) and Otis(L) were part of a Fatal 4-way tag team match during Night 1 of WrestleMania

‘Once people in the company saw it, once the fans saw it, they saw the friendship shine through and they were like ‘where has this been? We’ve been waiting for this’.

‘When it’s real life, it’s easy,’ Otis added. ‘I’ve been blessed where I’ve had tag team partners and I fell in love with them.

It’s more fun to be in the road before your partner, it’s just easy to be on TV and do something like we would in real life actually.’ 

Shorty G was a gimmick that was essentially made to do nothing more than make fun of Gable’s height. Fans unanimously hated it, and it seems Gable did too. When did he know it was a disaster like the rest of us?

‘A couple of months in,’ Gable started.

‘I dunno, I’m not against trying anything. Opportunities is what gets you places here, just an opportunity at anything. So when I was presented with it, I was like let’s try it out?

‘I had a couple of big moments there with Team Hogan and stuff like that, but I kind of lost steam pretty quick around WrestleMania later that year.

‘So I said OK, let’s start thinking about the next thing. I’m always jotting stuff down, brainstorming and pitching, so once I realized I had a lot in the pipeline I wanted to do with the Gable character that I had never done yet, it was time to pour it out.’

Gable had a WrestleMania moment with his suplex, but Otis had a major one of his own in 2020 when he kissed Mandy Rose. Unfortunately, due to the Coronavirus pandemic, there were no fans present for the magic moment.

Otis is still searching for his next peak, but he still cherishes his highlight thus far.

‘There was a lot of great moments that year and I don’t want to take anything away from Drew winning the title and whatnot, but they say you never forget your first WrestleMania moment and kissing the lady, the blonde lady – can’t say her name yet (Rose has since left the company) – that was… but even to see it get the love and the reactions online two weeks later, it was cool [laughs].

Gable and Otis would go on to lose the 4-way to the Street Profits on WrestleMania Night 1

Otis mentioned the kiss with former WWE superstar Mandy Rose as a high-point in his career

Rose was recently released after an extraordinary reign as the NXT Women’s Champion