Otis On How Influential Scotty 2 Hotty Has Been On His Career

Though it's been said to "never meet your heroes," in Otis' case, meeting his hero, Scotty 2 Hotty, was the best decision for his career. In a recent interview on Chasing Glory, Otis recalled the first time he met Hotty, and how Hotty mistook him for one of his opponents that he was supposed to face later on that night.

"I met Scotty – he was doing a show in Proctor [Minnesota] and he thought that I was working him," Otis chuckled. "We were just a bunch of fans sneaking in backstage. I snuck in and I was like, 'Hey Scotty, I just want you to know, I just won the 2009 National Championships in Fargo, North Dakota, and I did The Worm after I pinned the guy.

"He probably thought, 'Wow, this guy is trying to put himself over.' Then he was like, 'Well, what do you want to do tonight?' I was like, 'No, I'm not working with you tonight.' He was like, 'Who are you?' I was like, 'We're fans!' Years later, he's my coach."

Additionally, Otis mentioned how grateful he and Tucker are to have had him as a coach.

"He has been nothing but great help with Heavy Machinery – with our characters and our timing," Otis praised. "You know the t-shirt bit we had – the sexy take it off skit? He told us to pause and to keep doing it at certain angles. Just little details like that have helped us. We just had a blast in his class, man."

When trying to figure out what his signature move was going to be, Otis thought why not do something similar to Hotty's The Worm, but instead, call it The Caterpillar. After making some adjustments to it, Otis was able to use The Caterpillar, which was then praised by NXT fans before they left to make their debut on the main roster. Otis says that when he and Tucker wrestled their final match in NXT, he was shocked by how much love and praise he got after using it.

"I remember our send-off NXT match, it was a dark match that wasn't televised," Otis recalled. "We were in a six-man [match], and I told my opponent, 'We're going full Scotty on this,' because Scotty was watching. He was our producer for that match. I did it, and the crowd from the Full Sail Arena, oh my lord! I'll never forget that feeling. We were doing the W-O-R-M, it was woo, it was something."

Since his storyline with Mandy Rose, it seems that Heavy Machinery has sizzled out. But, Otis doesn't see it that way. Even though he's the 2020 Men's Money In The Bank winner, Otis believes that his big-time vision going forth is to still be a tag team competitor, and for Heavy Machinery to become the next Tag Team Champions of any or all brands.

"My big-time vision is there's this big tag team gauntlet match, and it's going to basically be all the tag teams from both brands, even NXT is going to be there," Otis stated. "Me and Tucky are the number one pick in there. We're going in there and [we'll] finally win the Tag Team Titles at WrestleMania. I don't know where it'll be, but sometimes, me and Tucky get that blue solid feeling. Then there's the 1-2-3, Tucky grabs me up in a chinlock, and we hold the titles. I'll be in the corner going crazy. That's my big vision, and I get energized just thinking about it."

You can view Otis' full interview above. If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Chasing Glory-Lilian Garcia with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.