Chad Gable has finally revealed where WWE was planning to take the El Grande Americano character before his injury derailed everything. According to Gable, the gimmick was only just getting started, and the company had even bigger plans to lean into the absurdity of him declaring himself the greatest luchador in the world.
Speaking to Chris Van Vliet, Gable explained that everything changed after his planned WrestleMania match with Rey Mysterio fell through because of Rey’s injury. Rather than ending the storyline, WWE intended to keep pushing Gable’s war against lucha libre culture, both as Chad Gable and as El Grande Americano.
“So from there, we continued kind of this assault, right, on the whole lucha libre culture and all this stuff. And I did it as both characters. Like, Chad Gable was also, you know, on this, you know, with Vikingo, you can even see all the insults and things I was hurling at him during the match.
And so it was just a matter of, like, continuing to gain momentum as this character and prove, like, this whole farce that I was the best luchador in the world, right? Like, how insulting to all these guys we have. Like, the best roster of luchadors that you could even ever dream, couldn’t come up with these guys, and I’m here claiming to be the best. I just love it, man. Yeah. I mean, we could have gone down any avenue we wanted. It would’ve been great.”
After Gable was sidelined, WWE chose to keep El Grande Americano alive with someone else under the mask. Gable admitted it wasn’t easy watching another person play his character, but it also motivated him to get back as quickly as possible.
“I watched it play out and, on a weekly basis, grew more and more competitively driven to come back and take my character back. At the same time, really kind of grateful for the new Grande carrying it on the way he did, because who knows what would’ve happened to that character had it just been forgotten until I came back.
You know, it may have gotten lost in the shuffle. We may have never got back to any point of importance, you know what I mean? So all credit in the world to him for not just keeping it alive, because he didn’t just keep it alive, he made it thrive.”
Gable’s injury ended up changing those plans completely, so fans never got to see just how ridiculous the El Grande Americano story was supposed to become. Looking back now, it sounds like WWE had only scratched the surface before everything was forced to change.
Do you wish WWE had been able to follow through on Chad Gable’s original El Grande Americano storyline? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
This transcript was produced exclusively for Ringside News from the original recording. Republishing the transcription in full is prohibited. When using excerpts, provide prominent credit and a link to this article.
