Alpha Academy | |
---|---|
Stable | |
Members | Chad Gable (leader) Otis Maxxine Dupri Akira Tozawa |
Name(s) | Alpha Academy |
Billed heights | Chad Gable: 5 ft 8 in (1.73 m) Otis: 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m) Maxxine Dupri: 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m) Akira Tozawa: 5 ft 7 in (1.70 m) |
Combined billed weight | 823 lb (373 kg) |
Debut | December 4, 2020 |
Years active | 2020–present |
Alpha Academy is a professional wrestling stable composed of leader Chad Gable, Otis, Maxxine Dupri, and Akira Tozawa.
The stable is currently performing in WWE on the Raw brand, where Gable and Otis are former one-time Raw Tag Team Champions. Gable and Otis are longtime best friends in real life with their friendship dating back to 2011, where they trained for the Olympics together in Colorado Springs. The two are now neighbors on the same street. [1]
On November 13, 2020 episode of SmackDown , Chad Gable opened the "Alpha Academy" (a nod to his former tag team of American Alpha with Jason Jordan) and recruited Otis as his client. [2] The team made their debut on the December 11 episode of SmackDown in a defeat to the team of Cesaro and Shinsuke Nakamura. [3] At TLC: Tables, Ladders and Chairs, Gable and Otis teamed with Big E and Daniel Bryan to defeat Cesaro, Nakamura, King Corbin, and Intercontinental Champion Sami Zayn in an eight-man tag team match. [4] [5] On the February 19, 2021 episode of SmackDown, Gable ordered Otis to attack Rey Mysterio after their tag team match, thus turning them into heels. [6] [7]
As part of the 2021 Draft in October, now known as Alpha Academy, both Gable and Otis were drafted to the Raw brand. [8] On the January 10, 2022 episode of Raw , Alpha Academy defeated RK-Bro (Randy Orton and Riddle) to win the WWE Raw Tag Team Championship. [9] They would both enter in the Royal Rumble match but failed to win. [10] On the March 7 episode of Raw , Alpha Academy dropped the titles back to RK-Bro, ending their reign at 55 days. [11] On Day 2 of WrestleMania 38 on April 3, Alpha Academy failed to regain the titles from RK-Bro in a triple-threat match also involving the Street Profits (Angelo Dawkins and Montez Ford). [12] [13]
On the March 13, 2023 episode of Raw, Gable found Otis backstage taking part in a photo shoot with Maximum Male Models (the team of ma.çé and mån.sôör, managed by Maxxine Dupri). Otis then decided to leave with Maximum Male Models instead of Gable. [14] This would start a series of segments between Dupri and Gable where they both wanted Otis to be on their respective teams. [15] Dupri officially sided with the Alpha Academy on the May 15 episode of Raw when she cheered on Otis and Gable eliminating ma.çé and mån.sôör in the Intercontinental Championship number one contenders' battle royal match. [16] [17]
In the weeks that followed, Alpha Academy began to slowly turn face with their crowd reactions growing louder and louder. After weeks of training, Dupri made her in-ring debut on the July 3 episode of Raw in a mixed six-person tag team match with Gable and Otis against The Viking Raiders (Erik, Ivar and Valhalla). Dupri pinned Valhalla after performing a sunset flip on her. [18] On the July 10 episode of Raw, Alpha Academy held a graduation ceremony for Dupri. At the end of the ceremony, Gable presented Dupri with her own Alpha Academy letterman's jacket. As Dupri was about to put on the jacket, The Viking Raiders appeared on the ramp to distract the team. Valhalla then attacked Dupri from behind and stole her jacket. [19] In the following episode of Raw, Gable and Otis fought Erik and Ivar in a "Viking Rules" match. Despite dominating the match, Gable and Otis lost but Dupri managed to take back her jacket. [20] On the July 31 episode of Raw, Dupri defeated Valhalla with a Japanese Ocean Cyclone Suplex in her debut singles match. [21] As the team was celebrating backstage, Imperium's Gunther took offense to Dupri's match win and mocked the team. Ludwig Kaiser then challenged Gable to last five minutes in the ring with Gunther, which Gable accepted. Despite Gable beating the clock, Gunther demanded the match to continue and defeated Gable. [22] On the August 7 episode of Raw, Gable defeated Tommaso Ciampa, Matt Riddle, and Ricochet in a fatal four-way match to be the number one contender to Gunther's Intercontinental Championship. Later that night, Otis lost to Kaiser after an interference from Imperium. [23] Two weeks later on Raw, Gable challenged Gunther for the Intercontinental Championship and won by countout. However, as championships do not change hands by countout or disqualification, Gunther remained champion. [24]
The group expanded with Akira Tozawa joining the stable and being assigned as a "junior member" in a Digital Exclusive before the October 23 episode of Raw. [25] In a bid to prove himself to the stable, Tozawa challenged Bronson Reed to a match but lost. [26] The following day, Tozawa appeared on Night 1 of NXT: Halloween Havoc and stole Noam Dar's NXT Heritage Cup. [27] Tozawa would return the Cup to Dar on Night 2 before managing to spook Dar into a match for the Cup on the following week's NXT but lost the match 2-1 under British Round Rules. [28] [29] On the November 20 episode of Raw, Dupri teamed up with Diamond Mine's Ivy Nile in a fatal-four way tag team match for a WWE Women's Tag Team Championship opportunity but was not successful. [30] On the December 11 episode of Raw, Nile accompanied Dupri in her non-title match against Women's World Champion Rhea Ripley. Ripley won by submission but did not release the hold until Nile entered the ring to save Dupri. [31] Dupri made her Royal Rumble match debut at the titular event on January 27, 2024, entering as the 18th entrant. She lasted over six minutes and was eliminated by eventual winner Bayley. [32]
During the build up to WrestleMania XL, Gable was involved in a storyline where he trained Sami Zayn for his Intercontinental Championship match against Gunther. At Night 1 of the event, Zayn went on to defeat Gunther for the title. [33] Zayn then gave Gable a title shot on the April 15 episode of Raw but Gable was unsuccessful in winning the title. After the match, Gable turned heel and attacked Zayn as he was celebrating with his wife at ringside. [34]
* | Founding member(s) |
---|---|
L | Leader |
Members | Joined |
---|---|
Chad Gable (L) | December 11, 2020 * |
Otis | December 11, 2020 * |
Maxxine Dupri | May 15, 2023 |
Akira Tozawa | October 23, 2023 |
Rami Sebei is a Canadian professional wrestler. As of 2024, he is signed to WWE, where he performs on the Raw brand under the ring name Sami Zayn, and is the current WWE Intercontinental Champion in his fourth reign.
Diamond Mine is an American professional wrestling stable formed in the professional wrestling promotion WWE, where they perform on the Raw brand. Formed in June 2021, the group consists of Julius Creed, Brutus Creed and Ivy Nile. Originally it was led by Roderick Strong and also included Hideki Suzuki, who was given the name Hachiman. The name and logo were derived from the original formation of Malcolm Bivens and Tyler Rust, where Bivens gave him the nickname Diamond in the Rust followed by pounding their fists. Strong was a former one-time NXT Cruiserweight Champion whereas the Creed Brothers were a former one-time NXT Tag Team Champions.
Charles Edward Betts is an American professional wrestler and former amateur wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the Raw brand under the ring name Chad Gable and is the leader of Alpha Academy. He is a four-time tag team champion in WWE.
Michael Carter Rallis is an American professional wrestler and former college football player. He is best known for his tenure in WWE, under the ring names Riddick Moss and Madcap Moss.
The Authors of Pain (AOP) are a professional wrestling tag team consisting of Akam and Rezar, with Paul Ellering as their manager. They are currently signed to WWE, where they perform on the NXT and SmackDown brands as members of The Final Testament stable. In WWE, they are former one-time Raw Tag Team Champions and one-time NXT Tag Team Champions.
Nikola Bogojević is an American professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the Raw brand and is a member of the Alpha Academy stable under the ring name Otis.
Walter Hahn is an Austrian professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the Raw brand under the ring name Gunther. He is the leader of the Imperium faction and is a former one-time and the longest reigning Intercontinental Champion of all time.
Demi Bennett is an Australian professional wrestler. She is currently signed to WWE, where she performs on the Raw brand under the ring name Rhea Ripley. She is a member of The Judgment Day stable and her 380-day reign as a former Women's World Champion is tied with Bayley as the longest in the title's history.
The 2023 Survivor Series: WarGames was the 37th annual Survivor Series professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event produced by WWE. It was held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. The event took place on Saturday, November 25, 2023, at the Allstate Arena in the Chicago suburb of Rosemont, Illinois, marking the third Survivor Series to be held at this arena after the 1989 and 2019 events. It was the second Survivor Series to include the WarGames concept after it was first introduced to WWE's main roster with the 2022 event, and as a result, it was the fourth Survivor Series to not feature a traditional Survivor Series match, after the 1998, 2002, and 2022 events.
The Street Profits are an American professional wrestling tag team consisting of Angelo Dawkins and Montez Ford. The team is currently performing in WWE on the SmackDown brand as a part of The Pride stable, which also includes Bobby Lashley and B-Fab.
Mansoor Abdul Aziz Al-Shehail, known mononymously as Mansoor, is a Saudi American professional wrestler, currently wrestling on the independent circuit as one-half of MxM alongside Mason D. Madden.
Victoria González is an American professional wrestler currently signed to WWE, where she performs on the Raw brand under the ring name Raquel Rodriguez. She is a former 3-time WWE Women's Tag Team Champion, 1-time NXT Women's Champion and a record-tying 2-time and inaugural NXT Women's Tag Team Champion.
Dominik Óscar Gutiérrez is an American professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the Raw brand under the ring name "Dirty" Dominik Mysterio, where he is a member of The Judgment Day stable. He is a former two-time NXT North American Champion.
The 2021 WWE Draft was the 16th WWE Draft produced by the American professional wrestling promotion WWE between their Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. The two-night event began with the October 1 episode of Friday Night SmackDown. It concluded with the October 4 episode of Monday Night Raw, with SmackDown airing on Fox and Raw on the USA Network. Unlike previous drafts, in which results took effect immediately, the results of the 2021 draft went into effect in the October 22 episode of SmackDown. This was also the last draft with Vince McMahon as head of WWE creative.
RK-Bro was an American professional wrestling tag team composed of Randy Orton and Matt Riddle. They were known for their time in WWE, where they performed on the Raw brand. The team's name was derived from Orton's initials and finisher "RKO" and combined with Riddle's catchphrase, "Bro". They were former two-time WWE Raw Tag Team Champions.
The 2023 Money in the Bank was the 14th annual Money in the Bank professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event produced by the American promotion WWE. It was held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. The event took place on Saturday, July 1, 2023, at The O2 Arena in London, England. This was the first Money in the Bank to be held outside of the United States as well as WWE's first major event to be held in London since Insurrextion in May 2002 and England in general since Insurrextion in June 2003. It was also the first Money in the Bank to livestream on Binge in Australia.
The Brawling Brutes were a professional wrestling stable in WWE. The stable was led by Sheamus and also contained Ridge Holland and Butch. The group started in November 2021. However, Sheamus would incur a shoulder injury in August 2023, and three months later in November, Holland would walk out on Butch during a tag team match, ending the group in the process.
Sydney Jeannine Zmrzel is an American professional wrestler, valet, and model. She is currently signed to WWE, where she performs under the ring name Maxxine Dupri on the Raw brand and is a member of the Alpha Academy stable.
Emily Andzulis is an American mixed martial artist, fitness competitor and professional wrestler currently signed to WWE, where she performs under the ring name Ivy Nile on the Raw brand and is a member of the Diamond Mine stable.