Otis responds to reports saying Vince McMahon wanted him and others to improve their in-ring work

WWE has done a refresh on Otis’ character in recent weeks now that he is no longer teaming with Tucker. These days, he’s working alongside his real-life best friend Chad Gable on SmackDown but some of the work he’s done on TV was overshadowed a little bit this week when news broke that Vince McMahon wanted Otis, Keith Lee, Omos, Mace, and others to put in more training at the Performance Center because he was not happy with their in-ring work.

During an interview with FOX Sports, Otis said Vince McMahon has been “very funny and very cool at the same time” during their interactions and they both love AC/DC.

In regards to the report about him and others being told train more at the PC, Otis said, “I think it’s always been there.”

He added:

“It wasn’t like, “Hey, we were told this and that.” That Performance Center is a tool for us to get better. If another big man wants to come up to me and wants to work on stuff, or vice versa. We’re always working.

So, that report was kind of funny at the same time. We’re never not working. Especially now that we don’t have live events, so we can’t really get our stuff out. It’s just bottled inside in a little bottle.

Right now it’s like, we’re not getting that stuff out there. So, we’ll find more and more ways to get in the ring with each other. Which, nothing beats a crowd. That’s the one thing I miss to this day is that crowd, man. Feeling that rush from there. The acceptance, you know what I mean? Especially my favorite towns. Milkwaukee? Good lord. Yeah, Milkwaukee. We’re not getting that out so much. But now it’s time to get better. It really hasn’t been set dates, there hasn’t been set anything. It’s just, like, when you want to come in, brother. Or I’ll talk to Braun about something, so me and Braun will do curls for about thirty minutes. Then, let’s talk about something over here. So, it’s always been there. I don’t know why it came in a big report gimmick. But, yeah, I don’t know.”

Otis said he doesn’t read much of what is on the internet because of his reading dyslexia.