King of annoying
Crazy-haired, crazy-eyed Enzo Amore is the WWE’s new “G”.
WWE Special: Money In The Bank Sunday 25 June e.tv (*194) 13:00
Enzo Amore’s been in the WWE for less than six years and “in that time I’ve had more broken bones and bumps that I did through school playing football!” says the 30-yearold. And while fans think “oh no, not him!” when Enzo shows up, WWE Executive Vice President Of Talent, Live Events & Creative Triple H jumped at the chance to sign him in 2011. And that says something for Enzo’s talent!
FANS IN HIGH PLACES
New Jersey-born Enzo (real name Eric Joseph Arndt) didn’t start out wanting to be a wrestler. He studied journalism at Salisbury University in Maryland and played football on his varsity team (as a linebacker and safety). “I’d grown up loving wrestling and watching it, but I never considered it a possibility,” says Enzo. Turns out he had a fan thanks to his performance specialist – Enzo had been training with fitness guru Joe DeFranco since he was 16 and Triple H started working with Joe in 2011. Joe showed Triple H a cellphone video of Enzo goofing around in the gym pretending to be a WWE Superstar and he was sold. “I brought him in for a try-out and everyone – I mean everyone – told me to cut him,” explains Triple H (real name Paul Levesque). “I told them, ‘He has huge personality. If he can annoy us this much, imagine what he’ll do in the ring and with fans who’re going to love to hate him!’”
TRAIN ME, TEACH ME
Don’t think that Enzo just walked into the WWE though. He spent four years – from 2012 to 2015 – learning the ropes on NXT, the WWE’s training and finishing show. “And now I’m working in the ring with ‘The Heartbreak Kid’ Shawn Michaels!” Enzo gushed in January 2017. “I grew up watching him. I’m learning from the greatest of all time about the business. It’s full circle for me. When I met him backstage, I showed him this autographed photograph I got from him when I was a kid. He just laughed.”
LEARNING CURVE
But wrestling isn’t nearly as fake as Enzo first thought. He’s 1.8m tall and 91kg but he’s been left in a heap more times than he cares to remember. Like in May 2016 when he was knocked out during the Payback pay-per-view – his head hit the ring ropes, throwing him into the matt and concussing him. And in December 2016, Enzo was jumped by Rusev and left with a giant bruise over his whole leg – a knee injury kept him out of action for a month at the same time too.