Enzo Amore Gives Detailed Account Of What Happened Backstage At Raw 25 Before His WWE Release
Enzo Amore's WWE release was sudden and caught everyone off guard. Not only were the allegations against him heinous, but they had to be taken especially seriously in the midst of the Me Too Movement. Amore was WWE Cruiserweight Champion at the time of his release and although the case against him was dropped due to insufficient evidence, it didn't help his employment status with WWE.
Amore carries on as Real1 and is releasing rap music under his new moniker. Real1's first single, 'Pheonix' was a diss track aimed at his accuser, the situation surrounding his release, and the media outlets that sensationalized the story. Since his four-month social media silence is over, the man formerly known as Enzo Amore went into detail as he discussed what happened backstage before Raw 25 on his last night with WWE.
"Vince McMahon was running around backstage — headless horsemen, insanity. It's crazy and I found out about this while I was in rehearsals with the APA. So my phone keeps blowing up, people keep texting me" Real1 said on The Steve Austin Show. "I'm like well people texting me, why is my phone keep ringing, keep ringing going through these rehearsals. I look and I see a tweet and that's how I found out. I didn't know anything. I called Mark Carrano immediately."
"I don't change in the locker room I change by myself so I'm off changing by myself and I'm like, 'Hey Mark we need to talk' and he's like 'yeah, no s–t.' Link up with a lawyer from WWE in-house attorney and Adam Hopkins from PR. They asked me about the situation and I'm completely transparent and I call my lawyer because I was running around by myself before I called Mark Carrano backstage in a laundry room — I was in a laundry room calling my lawyer. I was like 'get on the phone get this s–t handled right f–king now this is crazy.' Then I called Carrano and I told him, yeah man I just paid my attorney a retainer whatever you need to sort this thing out you know. The police had never contacted me about this not once, not one time."
Real1 revealed his friend's girlfriend received a strange email about him earlier in the month. Someone was representing themselves as an investigator and was contacting this mutual acquaintance of Real1's for information about a possible investigation.
"I got a buddy of mine who hit me up and was like, 'hey man my girlfriend got an email from a guy saying he was an investigator saying some girl made a claim against a wrestler.' Never mentioned my name but obviously, I kinda knew what he was talking about. That was when I called my lawyer immediately and I was like, 'find out what's going on here.' Now I didn't have to pay my lawyer to do that I just called my lawyer and this was in December and he called up and there's nothing going on. There's no investigation that he finds out about, my lawyer finds out about nothing."
Amore said his attorney called the police station and found out there was no investigation after the initial email was received. "Then this person puts this tweet out there on Raw 25 which is not a coincidence," Real1 continued. "The police still to this point have never called me or contacted me. Not only one time, I'm not made aware to anything that's going on outside of the fact that I have a friend who gets an email saying from a person claiming to be an investigator that there was a wrestler involved and they wanted to inquire to get more information. They never said there was a rape case or anything. They didn't say anything like that so I didn't even know these details. I find out like everyone else in the world."
Steve Austin brought up the situation by saying he spoke to Enzo Amore that day when he got to the Barclays Center. Amore said it was great to turn the corner when he got to work and see Austin and Bubba Ray Dudley standing there because they are two of the only veterans not with the company who he stays in contact with. Things weren't as cheerful once the allegations against Amore came out causing Vince McMahon and Company to not only change up a majority of Raw 25, but Enzo also had to deal with talking to the office about this newly discovered problem.
"When this happens I make Vince aware immediately because I go right to Vince, what else are you gonna do?" Real1 continued. "The company is aware of this just as I'm made aware. This tweet goes out and the company is running around backstage and you know how backstage is. So they don't know where I am. They're trying to find me, they're trying to call my phone." Real1 then said before he talked to anyone in WWE, he called his attorney to tell him to get in contact with the police and find out what was going on.
"I go see Vince he's the first person I go see, are you kidding me? Give me a break. So I go see Vince and he says, 'we can't send you out there tonight, we can't put you on the show. This tweet, this is really bad.' I didn't say anything. I just stood there and I let Vince talk for a minute and I said, the first thing I said was, 'you know and I know that I didn't do this and I deserve better than this because I'm a good person,' and I walked out. Vince said to me, 'you gotta tell me when something like this is happening.' I said, 'man, I don't know but I knew that there was that email, there was an email that came in to a friend from a person who was an investigator who never claimed to be a police officer.'"
Enzo Amore said when he found out about the strange email from an investigator the thought didn't even cross his mind to go to WWE about it because he called his attorney about the situation and he was told there was nothing to it.
"You know I walked into Vince's office, told him I was a good person and didn't deserve this, I walked into the hallway. As I'm walking down the hallway at the Barclays Center he told me you know, 'go home.' I said to him I guess I'm on my way to DC, SmackDown is in DC. I'm like, 'alright you sending me [to DC]?' he goes, 'go home and wait to hear from us and we'll tell you if you need to come to SmackDown tomorrow.'"
"At that point I had no idea that I was suspended or being fired and the way it was kinda relayed to me it was like, 'okay I guess I'm going to DC tomorrow, I'm playing by ear, waiting to hear.' I walk down the hallway and I see Adam Hopkins and I see Adam and I'm like, 'is there any further information? Have you guys gathered any further information?' like on a legal tip. He says, blah blah blah and then he informs me that I've been suspended and the tweet already went out."
"I was just in the room with Vince. He sent me home, told me maybe DC tomorrow, I didn't hear I was suspended. Adam told me and I had just stepped out of Vince's office. I grabbed Carrano immediately I saw him just by chance by something and I said, 'I'm never gonna be able to forget this.' I said 'look at me right now I'm outa here and I'm not gonna forget this.' I walked out with a lot of emotions, I turned my phone on airplane mode and I dipped out of Barclay's Center and I know where I am I go from there to my sister's house in Deleware. I escape. I got in the car, I drove to Deleware, my sister's house immediately from Raw and I recorded myself speaking the entire drive."
Real1 said he still has the footage from that long drive to Deleware, but he doesn't know what he's going to do with it yet. He was dealing with a lot and continues to put the pieces together to this day. Thankfully, he has a devoted fanbase who stood by him the entire time. Real1 said Mark Carrano called him the next day and informed him WWE decided to "go the other way" and fire Enzo Amore who then replied, "this is your loss, not mine."
If you use any portion of the quotes in this article please credit The Steve Austin Show with a H/T to Wrestling Inc for the transcription
Source: The Steve Austin Show