6 Ups & 5 Downs From WWE Raw (22 April - Results & Review)

3. Dressing Down Alpha Academy

There’s tough love, and then there’s what Chad Gable did Monday night to the rest of Alpha Academy.

Gable explained his attack on Sami Zayn last week, and like all great heels he justified the beating by suggesting that Sami’s ringside celebration rubbed everything in his face, right down to rushing to his wife at ringside, when that should have been Chad with his daughter.

But there was no need to dwell on the why, as it was pretty obvious at the time last week that Gable had just finally snapped at being denied what he felt was rightfully his. Gable turned his attention to the unfortunate cast of characters in the ring, Alpha Academy.

What followed was a dressing-down that belittled each individual member of the group as being little more than jokes – which in storyline isn’t far from the truth. Gable shredded Akira Tozawa as a goof who does his dumb little dance and then loses match after match. Maxxine is “dumb as a box of rocks” and hasn’t shown anything. And Otis is the biggest disappointment of them all.

Rather than dismiss the group as ineffective, Gable made them recommit to a new purpose: making sure Gable becomes Intercontinental Champion “no matter what.” This sets the table for the group to either go full-fledged heel, resist, or fail miserably. Gable could then ditch the group and turn to his other training partners, who might be more than ready for a change in attitude: the Creed Brothers.

Imagine Gable growing frustrated at the incompetence of Alpha Academy and having the Creeds dismiss them and formally joining Chad as a new stable. It would inject new life into everyone and create a badass group that could be a serious threat.