WWE Intercontinental Champion Chad Gable recently appeared on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, where he discussed various topics, including the origin of his El Grande Americano character.
Gable said, “So I was doing some stuff with some of the luchadors in I think September, October of that year, beginning as Chad Gable, and I thought, man, we can get a lot out of this. A lot more than we are right now. We can turn this into something special. I thought of this idea of donning a mask and kind of using it to insult their culture. Get more personal with this, rather than just go out and have matches with these guys, because the matches are going to be great. We can do the great matches, but to make it special, we have to find a way to elevate it, and that was an idea to elevate it. Then when the right people got heed of the idea, and kind of thought this might work, then they started contributing and made it even better. Creative team, Hunter, all these people. My concept was there, the genesis of it, but I needed all this other help to like really formulate it into what it became.”
On the original idea for the character:
“To get heat, and I think maybe some people thought that it was going to be like a comedy character or something. I don’t think we ever presented it as that, and there was never the intention. It was never supposed to be funny. Entertaining, sure, but no, it was never a ha-ha, funny type thing. I think it was kind of mean-spirited to jab at these guys to give them a reason to really come after me and insult an entire culture of wrestling to get some heat. I think it worked.”
On whether it was supposed to be a comedic act:
“Yeah, no, not at all. You’d find some of the best performers. I think people that I’ve looked up to and that deserve a lot of credit in our business are famous for reinventing themselves and constantly giving themselves new avenues, new gimmicks, and new ways to approach their character they already have. So I’d be remiss if I didn’t learn from them and try to do that myself. So there’s just an example of that.”
You can check out the complete podcast in the video below.
