Otis reflects on doing the worm for the first time ever at a fifth-grade sock hop.

These days, when Otis does the worm, it’s called “the caterpillar,” and he does it live on TV on WWE Monday Night Raw. However, the origin of his ability to do the dance is just as charming as his character on TV would lead you to believe.

During a recent appearance on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, Otis says he first busted out the move at a dance in fifth grade to the song “Batter Up” by Nelly. As so many good stories do, it all started with his mom encouraging him to get out of the house.

“I remember it was called the Sock Hop in Cooper Elementary School. My mom goes, ‘Get your ass out of the house, you’re watching too much horror movies, you’re watching too much damn wrestling. Get out if the house. I’m gonna take you to sock hop.’ What the hell’s a sock hop? It’s a form of dancing. We get in there, and of course, it’s typical, ‘I’m not gonna dance with a girl.’ It’s fifth grade, you know. I walk up to the DJ, I said, ‘Excuse me, sir. Do you have ‘Batter Up’ by Nelly?’ He’s like, ‘Yeah, but I wasn’t planning on playing that.’ ‘Play it next.’ Walked away. Next thing I know, I’m just waiting for the song to play. About 10 more polka songs came on. Finally, that goes on, all the dudes dance with their chicks. I just drop down, did it. Boom. Got that first reaction, attention. I’ve never been a big attention guy, but it’s always been some form of love to show for your craft of performing. So I dropped down on there, big whole place pops,” he recalled.

As for how he learned to do the worm, Otis says he just did it. All he had to do was let loose. It was also the only dance he had besides moving his hips.

“I just did it. I couldn’t do it at the house because we only have one layer of ceiling, not two for the living room. So if I did it, weighing that much as a child, it’d sound like a thunderstorm, like, ‘What the hell is that?’ So I couldn’t do it. So when I finally got to do it, I just let loose and just did it. It was the only dance I had besides the hips.”

These days, whether Chad Gable likes it or not, Otis busts out the caterpillar for the WWE Universe, Maxxine Dupri, and the rest of the Alpha Academy.

Speaking of Maxxine, read Otis’ thoughts on her progression in the ring and the women’s division overall.

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