The 28-year-old recalls wearing a three-piece suit that barely fit him–he couldn’t get the button across his stomach and was using the fourth notch on his belt–but he wanted to look presentable and meet everyone.

Unbeknownst to Otis (real name Nikola Bogojević) a year and half later, he is a part of this year’s Money in the Bank ladder match, the biggest opportunity of his career to date.

“The Money in the Bank match this Sunday, there’s going to be complete carnage,” Otis told Newsweek. “The women and the men’s match going down at the same time in the same building? I don’t know what’s going to happen. I’m in the match and I don’t know what’s going to happen.”

With the coronavirus pandemic ongoing, the WWE will hold both traditional Money in the Bank ladder matches in their corporate building. All 12 competitors will have to start on the ground floor and make their way to the roof and grab their respective briefcases using a ladder.

After the two-night WrestleMania 36 that featured a Boneyard and Firefly Fun House match, this year’s Money in the Bank matches could be something inspired.

But Otis’ rise in the WWE is just as improbable as the match itself. After his tryout in early 2016 Otis was signed and started being taught by the likes of Robbie Brookside, Normal Smiley, Scotty Too Hotite (who Otis says was a huge Heavy Machinery influencer and helped with their in-ring timing and how to interact with the crowd), Steve Carino, Terry Taylor and others in the Performance Center.

Head trainer Matt Bloom was someone who also had a big influence on Otis and the team that he would eventually become a part of.

“Bloom is very close to the Heavy Machinery product. We have a close relationship with him; it was kind of brotherly love,” Otis said. “He looked over us a lot and wanted to make sure we were on our game and come up with fresh ideas.”

Otis didn’t start as one half of a tag team. He worked against Patrick Clark–now known as Velveteen Dream–for a number of months doing NXT house shows around Florida when he first started. And then Bloom one day decided to pair him up with Tucker.

“I see some similarities between you two. And I want you guys to work together and see if this will work,” Otis said, imitating Bloom’s voice.

Tucker was actually in the Performance Center about three years before Otis got there, and his experience helped him acclimate to the WWE in that first year.

“I didn’t know Tucky very well before we met. But of course as you’re doing the miles with your fellow brother and doing these matches and going to these towns, you become a wife on the road,” Otis said. “We became super close and I love that man, honestly. I couldn’t ask for a better big brother. [Tucker’s] a genius in the ring. I watch from the apron and I see the talent right there. He has great ideas and a certain ear for the crowd.”

This July 22 will mark Heavy Machinery’s four-year anniversary since teaming up. That first match they worked heel against TM61–the team of Shane Thorne and Nick Miller–and the duo hasn’t looked back since.

In their time in NXT, Heavy Machinery would wrestle for the tag titles but were never able to capture it. But their exploits didn’t stop with tag team wrestling, especially for Otis.

His September 2018 match with then-NXT champion Tommaso Ciampa opened the eyes of many to what he can do in a singles match. Otis took Ciampa to the limit, but would come up short.

“To me anytime I get to go into the ring, it’s like jazz to me. I like getting in there whether it’s tag or singles, it’s going to be a good time. I try my best to entertain and also make the person I’m wrestling with make some music with,” Otis said. “That match was special to me because as Ciampa is, he’s been the face of NXT and was battling Johnny Gargano. I think it was something different and fresh for the NXT Universe for him to go against a tag guy. After the match we shook hands, had a great time, and was something I wouldn’t forget.”

Otis thinks the reaction from people afterwards was “this big guy can go a little bit.” But when asked if he felt it was a turning point in his career, Otis doesn’t see it that way.

“People know me, they know I’m simple in the head. It’s just business there. Did it turn around my career? Honestly I don’t know,” he said. “It was just a piece of business we did and [me and Tucker] continued on our tag team thing. I’m sure it opened up a few eyes to whoever was watching that I’m here to entertain and be a game-changer. If it [changed how people saw me], it did. I don’t think too much about what’s going to happen, which is funny coming from someone who is in this company.”

After a number of months in NXT, Heavy Machinery would move over to Monday Night RAW. But it wouldn’t be until they got drafted to SmackDown in October 2019 that the tag team would find their greatest success.

Having feuds with the likes of The Revival, Daniel Bryan and Rowan, and Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode, Heavy Machinery was on their way to becoming one of the top teams on the blue brand, but nothing could prepare them for the Mandy Rose storyline.

“We’ve just been lucky that [the crowd] accepted a potbelly, big loving machine. We just go out there; this is me, this is Tucky this is my feelings towards Mandy and it’s been nothing but great feedback from it,” Otis said. “As performers at this level we overthink things, that’s part of the game. Right now we are having so much fun with Mandy, Sonya [Deville] and Dolph and expressing those emotions in front of the camera. It’s been a heck of a ride without the crowd, which was the only downside to all of this. But when we come back we’re going to give every person in that crowd a big sweaty hug.”

Otis’ feud with Dolph Ziggler after he sabotaged his date with Mandy began arguably the top story on SmackDown. It ran from February, through Heavy Machinery’s Elimination Chamber performance, to their singles encounter at WrestleMania 36, which was Otis’ biggest match to that point.

And while Otis got the victory and the girl, it is only the beginning for him. He now has an opportunity at the Money in the Bank briefcase and odds are the championship of his choosing.

When asked about what this match means to him, Otis says–like with the bout with Ciampa–he doesn’t think too much about those sort of things, but will tackle it the way he does every match.

“It’s something where in my head it’s a night of business where I’m blessed and thankful to get those opportunities. But at the same time, I’m there to do a job and that’s to entertain the people and I always get excited to do anything involving getting in the ring especially for a history-making match like this,” Otis said.

“Being in the headquarters is going to be something very different from what we’ve seen before. With a bunch of experienced guys I can’t wait for the people to see it on Sunday and see what the outcome is. People are going to talk about it. WrestleMania was WrestleMania, this is Money in the Bank and is a different flavor for the dinner table.”

WWE Money in the Bank will stream live Sunday May 10 starting at 7 p.m. EDT on the WWE Network.