Chad Gable says the El Grande Americano character originated with him.
Gable first introduced the masked persona while feuding with several luchadors, with the character eventually taking on a life of its own. After Gable was sidelined with a shoulder injury, another wrestler assumed the El Grande Americano identity and continued using the gimmick during his absence.
The situation ultimately led to Gable returning as El Grande Americano and facing the new version in a Mask vs. Mask match, which Gable lost. Since then, he has attempted to make amends with several of the luchadors he previously disrespected.
During a recent interview with WittyWhittier (see video below), Gable reflected on the unexpected success of the character and revealed that the original concept was his idea.
“Funny how this business works, wrestling itself, you never know what’s going to work out, what’s not going to work out, what’s going to surprise us, and what people are going to really latch on to,” Gable said. “I think that’s been the story of the last year and a half or two years. The El Grande Americano thing started just as me wanting to put more into a story that I was already involved with these luchadors, and I wanted to take it to another level.”
He wasn’t done there.
“This was my idea of donning this mask and my way to try to elevate this story, not knowing where it was going to take me career-wise,” he continued. “You never really can predict stuff like that. Then on top of that, the injuries. 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.”
Gable noted that his injury ultimately created an entirely new direction for the storyline when someone else took over the character while he was sidelined.
“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. Now we’ve got a built-in story there. It is like you said, a bit of an odyssey and a journey we had to go through. 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.”
