Whether it's part of Heavy Machinery or American Alpha, Otis has become one of WWE's most popular babyfaces. For a time, the company pushed him as a singles star, inserting him into a high-profile romance storyline with Mandy Rose.
While it was far from one of Vince McMahon's strongest creative endeavours, it did help put Otis on the map as a legit fan favourite. Talking to Chris Van Vliet, Otis looked back on that and what it meant for him as a WWE Superstar.
"She was definitely the ignition for sure. Because you can it pitch all day long. But again, like with Mandy, she’s like, 'I’ll talk to Vince,' okay. Because I was just kidding around, I would see a bikini post on her IG and I would be like 'You look good, babe.' And then it became this thing and on Google, it said 'Is Otis married [to Mandy Rose]?' It was just one post."
"And I’m sitting there going, 'Oh I can get some more leverage here.' So I kept posting it just for laughs and she’s awesome. The girls, they’re a blessing too. So yeah, but she talked to Vince came out and then we started rocking and rolling there. So I mean, but she definitely was like, 'Hey, we gotta do this.' It’s one of those things where I’m gonna kiss the world champion bikini model. Behave yourself. Every day was a test. We could never do a pre-shot. It was always live because somebody would mess up."
"I’m sweating terribly because I got to get a hold of a cake. The box was so uncertain that I was like this thing falls during a live shot I don’t know what to do, but I don’t know. It was just like, you couldn’t find a grip on it. And of course, Ziggy, I love Ziggy man. It’s pretty crazy. Ziggy gets in the picture and it was his first singles match in the warehouse as WrestleMania was my first singles too."
So it was bittersweet because I respected Dolph off a lot and it’s like, 'Damn, I wish it was better.' Just that time but you know, times being the times."
It was during this time that Otis shocked everyone by winning the Money in the Bank briefcase, all but guaranteeing he would become WWE Champion. McMahon ultimately decided against that and instead had him lose the briefcase to The Miz.
The A-Lister only held the title for a couple of weeks before losing it and the whole thing ultimately felt like a waste of time. Reflecting on that period, Otis admitted, "I don’t think there was a plan, no." Talking about the win, he added:
"It was kind of a shock because the whole day we couldn’t get up on the roof for the longest time because of COVID stuff. It was like just sitting, sitting, sitting, do one thing and shoot it. So you were basically just sitting there in your gear. They were kind of bullsh*tting with all the boys and calling stuff that would make it more spectacular. So it’s just like a long day and then finally Jamie [Noble] was like ‘You thinking King Kong up in there’, I’m like, ‘King Kong?’ He goes, ‘Yeah, come with me.’ Jamie Noble is all fired up. He walks up and is just climbing this ladder with his cowboy boots."
"I’m like, ‘Man, I’m not going up there. I hate heights.’ That’s why I only go on the second rope. He’s like, ‘Get your ass up here, come on!’ It was a long way down. It’s the headquarters. So we got out there and he goes, ‘I’m gonna take a picture of you. Take your shirt off and roar like King Kong, really roar.’ I’m like, ‘Okay, I’ll roar.’ I’ve been sitting for 14 hours. Then they said you’re gonna win it. I’m like, ‘Oh, okay.’ From there, again, it was who’s healthy, who’s not, so that could have been a factor there with testing for COVID and all that. There were a bunch of changes going on."
Check out the full interview with Otis in the player below.