El Grande Americano has become one of the most unexpectedly popular characters in WWE and AAA over the past two years. The man behind the original concept has finally been revealed, and it’s Chad Gable.
In a recent interview with WittyWhittier, Gable said the mask was his idea. He originally pitched it as a way to add another layer to his ongoing feud with several luchadors.
“The El Grande Americano thing, you know, started just as me wanting to kind of put more into a story that I was already involved with, with these luchadors, and I wanted to take it to another level. This was my idea of donning this mask and, like, my way to try to elevate this story, not knowing where it was going to take me, you know, career-wise.
And you never really can predict stuff like that. And then, on top of that, the injuries. So, for those that don’t know, I had a shoulder surgery. Rotator cuff was torn, bicep tendon, all kinds of stuff that I had to have repaired that forced me to go away.
And again, it’s circumstantial. Who knows where we’d be right now if all of these elements had not just turned out the way they did? Somebody else took over the El Grande Americano gimmick and they were doing it while I was hurt. I come back, and now we’ve got a built-in story there.
And it is, like you said, a bit of an odyssey and a journey. We had to go through, like, I would call it valleys and peaks and lows and things like that to get here. But now where I’m at, it’s almost like, man, I couldn’t have written it any better than it turned out, you know? I feel very fortunate in that aspect.”
Gable’s injury completely changed the character’s trajectory. Ludwig Kaiser took over the mask while Gable was on the shelf, gaining massive popularity in Mexico and setting the stage for a rivalry between the two Americanos.
The story culminated in the Mask vs. Mask Match at AAA Noche de Los Grandes on May 30. Kaiser won, and Gable was forced to unmask.
Tonight (August 17), he makes his first title defense against Rey Mysterio on RAW.