American Alpha, Jason Jordan and Chad Gable, were the premiere team in the tag team division of NXT, during their run in the developmental territory spanning for just a little over a year from mid-2015 all the way up until they were picked by Smackdown Live to be the part of the Blue Brand during the 2016 WWE Draft.
This run also included a tag team title run for the duo which they won at NXT TakeOver: Dallas.
Not long after losing their championship they were called up to the main roster to the spearhead the tag team ranks on Tuesday Nights. They are currently embroiled in a rivalry with The Usos which was a result of post-match beatdown on Gable and Jordan by the Samoan tag team kayfabe injuring Chad’s knee.
One-half of American Alpha Chad Gable recently spoke with Vavel and expounded upon their relatively infant main roster career.
Gable said, “The year before that we were there at SummerSlam weekend in Brooklyn doing TV tapings for NXT and now fast forward a year later and we’re on the SummerSlam show it is just like kind of mind-blowing you know. Everything seems like it is so far away all of the time and you look so forward and it is like ‘man we have such a mountain to climb but you just chip away and all of a sudden you have made these giant steps in a year and it is really gratifying.”
In the fall of 2015, NXT made a tour of UK, which involved the developmental brand’s first overseas PPV entitled NXT TakeOver, London. During the trip, Jordan and Gable competed in a live event in Blackpool, England in which they received an almost 10-minute long ovation from the live crowd and were serenaded by those in attendance.
The European crowd, especially the UK, are considered to be among the most passionate, vocal and rowdy on the planet and Gable was humbled and impressed at the same time.
On the experience, he said, “That was kind of a unique deal you know, we were all so excited to get over there and travel and do shows in all new arenas and in front of new crowds but we did not quite know what to expect. We were just blown away by every single night on that U.K. tour and that first one was just mind-blowing and Blackpool was something completely different than any other night there.
“I think we had a match with Blake and Murphy that night and I don’t think we touched for about eight or nine minutes of the match because the crowd would just not stop – something that we have never experienced before and even since then we still haven’t. When we went back in June, the crowd were just as insane and just as awesome so for us to make the jump at this time to the SmackDown roster and get to go back again, we could not be happier.”
This definitely would have been a surreal moment for the duo, who were just beginning to show exactly what they’re capable of as a tag team and it’s quite clear that the UK loves them some American Alpha as they also received a rapturous ovation during a match taped for the Dec 23rd, 2015 edition of NXT.
It’s clear that American Alpha could very well prove to be the standard-bearers for the tag team division for years to come and this ongoing feud with Usos will surely elevate them to a new level. A Smackdown tag team title run is truly on the cards for these standout amateur athletes, with the first one at Wrestlemania next year maybe?
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