Hi everyone. Nice to be here again. As some may have noticed .. Enzo Amore has gone through a transformation as of late. He’s now playing an arrogant Cruiserweight champion who cheats like hell while talking smack about 205 Live. He does this while getting babyface reactions to his catchphrases. Needless to say, Enzo has turned into someone you either love or hate depending on your mood, or how much you care for in-ring ability. Before I continue .. when I say Enzo is like an “anti-Roman Reigns”, I’m not saying he is like Reigns .. I’m saying he’s the opposite (for those who don’t know what anti means). And it’s hard to explain how .. but I’m going to try anyways.
The mirrored parallels to Reigns start as early as their NXT days. While Enzo was finding his feet as a character (and eventually finding Cass to team with), Reigns was a cocky heel character who wasn’t overly scared to pick up a mic. Don’t believe me? Go watch some of his old stuff; it’s not that bad! However, Reigns as a solo act soon ended with the formation of The Shield, who took over NXT in a short time. They were promoted quickly and found instant success after shocking the world at Survivor Series, while Enzo & Big Cass spent a long time in development .. never winning any titles, but gradually getting more and more over with their act.
While Reigns has been pushed very strongly over the past few years (to mixed reactions, but loud reactions nonetheless), Enzo’s lack of ring skills held his team back. They were never able to win a tag team championship unlike Reigns; who if you remember, won a set of titles with Seth Rollins. The typical formula for a SAWFT match was Enzo taking all the punishment before Big Cass would enter the fray and clean house. This wouldn’t work in big matches however, as champions had game plans and Cass couldn’t do it all on his own. The downfall of SAWFT began when Simon Gotch threw Enzo too hard in to the ring ropes and put him in hospital. The sympathy for Enzo was pretty high, while many called for Gotch’s head for being careless. While Enzo was on the sidelines, Big Cass showed he could do it on his own as a singles competitor, so much so that it changed everyone’s perception of SAWFT.
The work he did on his own highlighted how much Enzo held him back in the tag division. Suddenly it didn’t seem right for Cass to be doing the heavy lifting for a guy who could barely work a singles contest, and fans pointed out how likely it was for them to break up. When they were split (by a mysterious barrage of backstage assaults ending with the reveal of Cass wanting Enzo to suffer) it was seen as a demotion for Enzo, unlike Reigns who was promoted to the main event scene almost immediately after The Shield parted ways. Fans were ready to see a buried Enzo .. unlike Reigns, who was being pushed so hard it was clear he was never going to be.
And in a feud which saw Big Cass brutalize Enzo (& Big Show) on a regular basis, Cass picked up a serious injury and all the work they’d put in to his push had to be put on hold. So there wasn’t much left for Enzo to do, he wouldn’t be taken seriously as an Intercontinental or Raw Tag team Title contender, so the only alternative was to stick him on 205 Live. While Reigns had claimed many titles while being pushed down everyone’s throats, Enzo seemed to be heading in to a downward spiral. And it wasn’t just to do with his lack of in-ring ability. Around the time he was being attacked backstage by Cass, reports surfaced online of him being thrown off a tour bus. Reports made claims that Enzo wasn’t well-liked backstage, and many didn’t want to work with him as he never learned to wrestle properly. From this it was assumed Enzo would have his program with Cass and be moved to 205 Live to be buried and long forgotten .. but it didn’t happen.
And why was this? WWE purposely worked dirtsheets to over-exaggerate Enzo’s backstage heat as they noticed how many took it as gospel truth. While dirtsheets have been right about backstage heat in the past, they’d been given something which blew up to the point WWE used it as part of Enzo’s feud with Cass. They’d done it purposely to make it easier for fans to believe Cass would leave Enzo so suddenly, despite their huge merchandise sales and popularity. They needed to split, and WWE used dirtsheets to push Enzo as a sleazy, terrible human being behind the scenes. Some fans believed it and understood Cass’ frustration, while others sympathized with Amore. It was perfectly done. And while Reigns continues to get mixed, loud reactions, Enzo turned up to 205 Live as a fan favourite despite his deficiencies. To some he’s become a punching bag; someone they enjoy seeing get beat up. To all others, he’s still a certified G .. while everyone else is S-A-W-F-T. SAAAWWFT! Unlike Reigns (& Cena before him), WWE purposely went out of their way to make Enzo controversial. When he challenged Neville for the title, those who saw a burial in his future fully believed Neville would take him down a few pegs and remain the King of the Cruiserweights.
While fans claimed there was NO CHANCE (in hell) Enzo would become Cruiserweight champion, I expected it to happen sooner than later. Enzo didn’t have much going for him on Raw, so to show up on 205 Live ragging the show (by echoing fans comments) while taking the title? It’s perfect heat. Many fans demand their cruiserweight champion be able to work a decent match .. but with Amore they’ll never get that. All he can do is cheat and talk his way out of things, and depending on who you are and what you value, you’re either going to LOVE the way he keeps it real (by taking the piss out of the show), or you’re going to despise him as he can’t wrestle and doesn’t deserve to be in the same ring as the athletic 205 Live roster. Much like Reigns on Raw, Enzo is either the biggest face or biggest heel of 205 Live. Either Neville turned face, or he’s a crybaby like the rest as they can’t handle a little guy who can’t hold a candle to them in the ring. You either want the 205 Live roster to brutally destroy Enzo .. or you think they suck even more as he casually waltzed in and took the title without much bother.
Reigns has the look, he can work a decent match (I don’t care what you say, Reign’s can work good matches with the right opponents), but he sucks on the microphone. Enzo doesn’t have the look, he can’t work a decent match to save his life .. but he can flap his gums and generate bigger reactions than all of 205 Live combined. While many fans have grown to hate Reigns for his lack of character, fans can’t help but react to Enzo as his character is larger than life. There’s no one like Enzo, and unlike Reigns being hated organically (through WWE not doing enough to make him likeable), WWE put in a lot of effort to work the dirtsheets so a good deal of fans would spread the news that Enzo’s an arsehole in real-life.
For those who say you need to be able to work a match in WWE to be champion .. look at Hogan, Andre in his later years .. Kelly Kelly (the list could expand way further but I’ll stop there). It’s sports-entertainment, as long as the champion gets a reaction WWE will book them and find ways around the lack of ability. In Enzo’s case, he’s having to cheat like a reincarnated Eddie Guerrero. It’s all he can do to even the playing field to the athletes of 205 Live, and having him regularly work the microphone makes the show easier to digest. It’s now up to the athletes of 205 Live to prove they are more worthy of the title than this idiot. And when they do beat him .. they’ll go over in a big way, and that’s what Enzo has to do with his status. He has to elevate the characters of those around him, otherwise his “demotion” to 205 Live was the wrong move.
And just to start rounding this piece off .. if Enzo was such a bad guy for real, if he was so hated by management and locker room leaders, he wouldn’t get oodles of time on the mic on Raw & 205 Live. They wouldn’t keep him relevant. When WWE buries someone, they do a Zack Ryder on it. They do a Bad News Barrett (remember when he was getting over then we just didn’t see him?), or a Piggy James angle. They give talent no airtime .. or if they do, it’s to job out.
You can’t bury a guy when he’s on the show every week .. so at no point did I ever feel like Enzo was getting a demotion. I knew that his presence on 205 Live had to be taken advantage of, and what makes a nice change is WWE has done it right. And I applaud ’em for that .. they’ve somehow kept him relevant and saved 205 Live in the process. This is a crucial point of his career, and what happens next for him .. depends on how much he can sell 205 Live and make the cruiserweight title a championship fans want to see. He has to show his worth if he wants to stick around for the long haul. And he should keep using his deficiencies to his advantage. I don’t want to see a heel Enzo improving his ring skills, I want to see him be as useless as ever just to get under the skin of the purists. He needs to be easily disrespected, and I believe this is why Enzo is kinda like the anti-Roman Reigns of 205 Live.
So thanks for reading! And be sure to check you ain’t SAWFT. See you again.
