{"id":149500,"date":"2025-12-30T06:00:17","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T11:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/?p=149500"},"modified":"2025-12-29T19:26:04","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T00:26:04","slug":"the-enduring-appeal-of-akira-tozawa-and-otis-in-wwe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2025\/12\/30\/the-enduring-appeal-of-akira-tozawa-and-otis-in-wwe\/","title":{"rendered":"The Enduring Appeal of Akira Tozawa and Otis in WWE"},"content":{"rendered":"

WWE fans are undoubtedly familiar with Akira Tozawa and Otis, the men of Alpha Academy. Tozawa started as part of the Cruiserweight division before moving on to 24\/7 Championship pursuits. Otis was a part of Heavy Machinery with Tucker, and when the latter got released, he created Alpha Academy with Chad Gable.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Some fans know that they are capable of being in serious storylines and matches. That\u2019s why a section of fans is frustrated with them. To those fans, what happened<\/a> on the December 26, 2025, episode of Friday Night SmackDown is a waste. <\/span><\/p>\n

In Joe Hendry\u2019s segment with the Miz, Tozawa was dressed as an elf, and Otis was dressed as Santa Claus. It may be corny to some people, but they\u2019ve survived many years being those funny guys. For those questioning their relevance, here are some reasons why they continue getting television time every week.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Jobbers are Essential to Build Up Stars<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

Many wrestling fans describe jobbers with a negative connotation. They\u2019re the men and women who lose every single week. It may look like they\u2019re wasting their time in WWE or whatever company people follow. But jobbers have a vital role in professional wrestling. <\/span><\/p>\n

To help build stars, someone like Carmelo Hayes or Ilja Dragunov has to beat those types of guys to gain credibility. That\u2019s precisely what The Miz\u2019s role is right now. The same can be said about Otis and Tozawa. The last time they won as a team was over a year ago. <\/span><\/p>\n

They\u2019ve helped build up guys like Gunther, Rusev, Sami Zayn, and others during championship reigns and comebacks. Otis and Tozawa help them improve their title reigns and get them over with the crowd if they\u2019re new or have been out. Wrestlers like them help out popular wrestlers in a colossal way.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Otis and Tozawa are Both Incredibly Funny<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

Some wrestlers take the sport very seriously. Wrestlers like Gunther,\u00a0Natalya, and Timothy Thatcher\u00a0show off\u00a0their\u00a0vision of wrestling in the ring. Their only goal is to inflict pain on their opponents by any means necessary. But on the other side of the equation, some wrestlers enjoy being silly while entertaining the crowd.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

With the New Day embracing their heel turn, some wrestlers needed to step up to fill the funny people gap. Otis and Tozawa have done that to perfection. <\/span><\/p>\n

Both have always been funny on the main roster. Tozawa had all his 24\/7 hijinks, while Otis has always been the resident comedian. His storyline when he won Money in the Bank in 2020 was hilarious, with his comedy<\/a> on full display during a dark time. Otis and Tozawa have proved that funny guys are a valuable part of the WWE roster.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Both are Great Guys to Be Around\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Otis and Tozawa weren\u2019t forced to play silly roles. Tozawa didn’t need to have many run-ins with R-Truth over the years. Otis didn\u2019t have to do the Caterpillar or be Tucker and Gable\u2019s hilarious sidekick. They chose to do that in order to make fans laugh. If someone\u2019s having a bad day or a feud is getting serious, Otis and Tozawa will lighten the mood for fans and wrestlers alike. <\/span><\/p>\n

Some might think they\u2019re being wasted, but their impact on the program can\u2019t be understated. They are also willing to lose and shine a light on a champion or someone who\u2019s coming back from injury. Jobbers make those guys look good, which is essential to a wrestler\u2019s journey.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"A
Photo Credit: WWE<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Their job is to entertain people, and sometimes silly things happen in wrestling. Otis and Tozawa are both pros at doing their assigned jobs in a great way.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

More From LWOS Pro Wrestling<\/strong><\/p>\n

Header photo \u2013\u00a0WikiMedia Creative Commons<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 Stay tuned to the\u00a0<\/i><\/em>Last Word on Pro Wrestling<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a> for more on Alpha Academy, Otis, Akira Tozawa, and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the significant news in the wrestling world, as well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world.<\/i><\/em><\/p>\n

You can check out WWE programming on\u00a0<\/i><\/em>Netflix<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>\u00a0(Raw),\u00a0<\/i><\/em>USA Network<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>\u00a0(SmackDown),\u00a0<\/i><\/em>The CW<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>\u00a0(NXT),\u00a0<\/i><\/em>Tubi<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>\u00a0(WWE Evolve),\u00a0<\/i><\/em>A&E<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>\u00a0(WWE Superstar Sunday \u2013 Rivals, WWE LFG, and Greatest Moments), and\u00a0<\/i><\/em>Peacock<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>\u00a0(WWE Main Event, as well as archives and premium live event streaming). Follow WWE on social media to relive top moments and matches on\u00a0<\/i><\/em>YouTube<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>, and catch fast-paced action on X (<\/i><\/em>WWE Speed<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>).<\/i><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WWE fans are undoubtedly familiar with Akira Tozawa and Otis, the men of Alpha Academy. Tozawa started as part of the Cruiserweight division before moving on to 24\/7 Championship pursuits. Otis was a part of Heavy Machinery with Tucker, and when the latter got released, he created Alpha Academy with Chad Gable.\u00a0 Some fans know […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5338,"featured_media":149514,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[479,7860,5380],"class_list":["post-149500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wwe","category-wwe-universe","tag-akira-tozawa","tag-alpha-academy","tag-otis"],"modified_by":"Michael Joseph Sugue, Manager","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5338"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149500"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149500\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":149515,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149500\/revisions\/149515"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}