Otis

El Gran Gordo

On April 12, 2016, Otis was announced as one of 10 new recruits to begin training at the WWE Performance Center. He made his debut for WWE at an NXT live event on July 8, 2016 (as **Otis Dozovic**), teaming with Adrian Jaoude in a defeat to The Authors of Pain (Akam and Rezar). Later that month he formed a tag team with Tucker Knight at NXT live events. Using the name Heavy Machinery, the duo made their television debut on the October 19 episode of *NXT*, losing to the team of Austin Aries and Roderick Strong as part of the 2016 *Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic*, with Bogojevic. The duo returned and had their first televised victory on the March 29, 2017 episode of *NXT*, defeating the team of Mike Marshall and Jonathan Ortagun. On the July 12 episode of *NXT*, Heavy Machinery unsuccessfully challenged The Authors of Pain for the NXT Tag Team Championship.

On the December 17, 2018 episode of *Raw*, Heavy Machinery were advertised as two of six NXT wrestlers to be moved to the main roster. With the shortened names of **Otis** and Tucker, they debuted on the January 14 episode of *Raw* interrupting an interview between Alexa Bliss and Paul Heyman. On the April 16 episode of SmackDown, the team was moved to the SmackDown brand during the 2019 WWE Superstar Shake-Up. At WrestleMania 35, Otis and Tucker competed in the sixth annual André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal, but failed to win. The duo participated at the 51-Man Battle Royal at the 2019 Super Showdown, but they were both eliminated during the match. The next month, at Stomping Grounds, Heavy Machinery received a shot at Daniel Bryan and Rowan's SmackDown Tag Team Championships, but were unsuccessful. The following month at Extreme Rules, Heavy Machinery again competed for the SmackDown Tag Team Championship, this time in a triple threat tag team match involving Bryan and Rowan and The New Day (Big E and Xavier Woods), which The New Day won. On the September 30 episode of *Raw*, Heavy Machinery made an appearance via the wild card rule to challenge for the Raw Tag Team Championship, but lost to champions Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode. At Crown Jewel on October 31, Heavy Machinery competed in a tag team turmoil match, but were eliminated by The New Day.

At Survivor Series, Heavy Machinery participated in a interbrand tag team battle royal which was won by Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode. By the end of 2019, Otis entered into a romantic storyline with Mandy Rose. On the February 14, 2020 episode of *SmackDown*, Otis had a date with Rose but saw Dolph Ziggler sitting at her table, causing Otis to walk away heartbroken. On the March 6, 2020 episode of *SmackDown*, Otis apologized to Rose, but Rose dismissed his heartfelt apology. On the March 20, 2020 episode of *SmackDown*, Ziggler distracted Otis by showing pictures of him and Rose and caused himself and Tucker to get disqualified in a match against The Miz and John Morrison. On the March 27, 2020 episode of *SmackDown*, Ziggler challenged Otis to a match at WrestleMania 36, which he accepted. At WrestleMania 36, Otis went on to beat Dolph Ziggler with a Caterpillar after a low blow from Mandy Rose, who kissed him after the match. On the May 1 episode of *SmackDown*, Otis defeated Ziggler to qualify for the Money in the Bank ladder match. On May 10 at Money in the Bank, Otis won the briefcase after AJ Styles and King Corbin tussled over the briefcase and dropped it to Otis unintentionally. On the September 11 episode of *SmackDown*, Otis and Tucker began a feud with The Miz and John Morrison after they stole the Money in the Bank briefcase from Otis. However, the briefcase did not contain the Money in the Bank contract as the contract was inside Otis' lunchbox. On the September 18 episode of *SmackDown*, Otis was sued by Miz and Morrison and was told to relinquish the contract, but Otis refused and opted to go to court instead.

As part of the 2020 draft in October, Otis remained on *SmackDown*, while Tucker was drafted to the *Raw* brand, disbanding the team; however, on the October 19 *Raw*, Otis tagged with Tucker, but disguised under a mask and using the name **El Gran Gordo**. At Hell in a Cell, Otis lost his Money in the Bank briefcase to The Miz, after Tucker betrayed him, hitting him with the briefcase. On the November 6 episode of *SmackDown*, Otis would be defeated by Seth Rollins in a Survivor Series qualifying match. On the November 13 episode of *SmackDown*, Otis would defeat Dolph Ziggler. Following this, Otis would be confronted by Chad Gable, who proposed to Otis that he would help him discover his "Inner Alpha". On the November 20 episode of *SmackDown*, WWE Official Adam Pearce would announce Otis as the final member of the men's *SmackDown* Survivor Series team. At Survivor Series, Otis would go on to be eliminated by Braun Strowman and Team *SmackDown* would go on to lose in a clean sweep. On the November 27 episode of *SmackDown*, Otis was set to have a match with King Corbin, but was attacked with a steel chair by Jey Uso and the match was called off after Otis could no longer compete. On the December 4 episode of *SmackDown*, Otis would team with Kevin Owens to take on Roman Reigns and Jey Uso. Otis and Kevin Owens would win the match via disqualification.

On the December 10 episode of *SmackDown*, Otis teamed with Chad Gable in a losing effort to The Artist Collective. On the December 18 episode of *SmackDown*, Otis would go on to defeat Shinsuke Nakamura. At TLC: Tables, Ladders and Chairs, the team of Otis, Chad Gable, Big E and Daniel Bryan would defeat Shinsuke Nakamura, Cesaro, King Corbin and Intercontinental Champion Sami Zayn in a eight-man tag match. At the Royal Rumble, Otis competed in his first Royal Rumble match, but was quickly eliminated by King Corbin. On the February 19, 2021 episode of *SmackDown*, Otis attacked Rey Mysterio at the orders of Gable after their tag team match, thus turning heel for the first time in his WWE career. On the April 2 episode of *SmackDown,* Otis and Chad Gable would team with then-current SmackDown Tag Team Champions Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode to defeat the Street Profits, Rey Mysterio and Dominik Mysterio in a eight-man tag team match. On *WrestleMania SmackDown*, Gable and Otis along with the previous three teams all participated in a fatal four-way tag team match for Ziggler and Roode's championships; Ziggler and Roode ended up retaining.

On October 2, during the 2021 WWE Draft, Alpha Academy were drafted to the *Raw* brand. On the January 10, 2022 episode of *Raw*, Alpha Academy defeated RK-Bro to win the Raw Tag Team Championships, marking Otis' first championship in his WWE career. He and Gable would lose the championships back to RK-Bro in March. At WrestleMania 38, Otis and Gable failed to defeat RK-Bro in a triple threat tag team match which also involved The Street Profits.

On the March 13, 2023 episode of *Raw*, Gable found Otis backstage taking part in a photo shoot with Maximum Male Models (MMM). Otis decided to leave with MMM instead of Gable, hinting at a breakup of the Alpha Academy. On the following episode of *Raw*, Otis accompanied Gable in Gable's match against Ricochet. Midway through the match, Maxxine Dupri walked out to bring Otis backstage. This would start a series of segments between Dupri and Gable where they both wanted Otis to be on their respective teams. Maxxine officially sided with the Alpha Academy on the May 15 episode of *Raw* when she cheered on Otis and Gable eliminating ma.çé and mån.sôör in an Intercontinental Championship number one contenders' battle royal match.

In the weeks that followed, Alpha Academy began to slowly turn face with their crowd reactions growing louder and louder. After weeks of training, Maxxine made her in-ring debut on the July 3 episode of *Raw* in a mixed six-person tag team match with Gable and Otis against The Viking Raiders (Erik, Ivar and Valhalla). Maxxine pinned Valhalla after performing a sunset flip on her. On the July 10 episode of *Raw*, Alpha Academy held a graduation ceremony for Dupri. At the end of the ceremony, Gable presented Dupri with her own Alpha Academy letterman's jacket. As Dupri was about to put on the jacket, The Viking Raiders appeared on the ramp to distract the team. Valhalla then attacked Dupri from behind and stole her jacket. On the following episode of *Raw*, Gable and Otis fought Erik and Ivar in a "Viking Rules" match. Despite dominating the match, Gable and Otis lost.