Otis will take part in the men’s Money in the Bank ladder match this Sunday from the WWE Performance Center. The 28-year-old from Duluth, Minnesota recently took part in an interview with CBS Sports. During the discussion, Otis addressed pitching the angle with Mandy Rose to WWE management.
“We decided to just kind of present this to the writers and the people behind the scenes,” Otis said. “They were like, ‘Well, what’s the main focus here?’ The main focus is the lonely loner in high school or some nerd kid trying to get the most beautiful girl in the classroom. That was basically my thought of it.”
He continued to say that at the time, they didn’t know Dolph Ziggler would be involved but that he fit naturally into the story.
“We were lucky enough to think about this and lucky enough to have the company get behind it. Luck plays a huge factor, man,” he continued.
Otis on Heavy Machinery’s Future
With Otis having a single’s match at WrestleMania and now in the MITB ladder match, some fans have wondered what the future is with his Heavy Machinery tag-team partner, Tucker. Otis confirmed that Heavy Machinery is still moving “full tilt” as a tag-team, however.
“Heavy Machinery is full tilt. Just because there’s a little bit of absence here and there, I’m sure everyone is stirring up conversation and putting their opinions out there. But that’s a part of it. That’s a part of the mystique of what’s going on right now in WWE. I talk to my brother every day; I call him every night.”
Otis trained at the Mercury Pro Wrestling Academy in Colorado. He was signed to WWE in 2016 only a year into his career. Otis and Tucker were paired up shortly. They competed in the second-ever Dusty Rhodes Classic later that year, losing in the 1st round to Austin Aries and Roderick Strong.
Otis was also named the Pro Wrestling Illustrated Rookie of the Year in 2017.
The full interview can be read here.
