Enzo Amore recently spoke with This is 50 (transcript via wrestlinginc.com) about the rape allegations against him and his WWE release. Here are the highlights.
Accused of rape:
“You want me to address the elephant in the room? The kind of the jungle was a f–king lion not an elephant, welcome to the f–king jungle brother. Dust under the rug. I squashed that sh– in Phoenix. If we ever wanna talk about victims, real victims awareness for those victims, the good things the Me Too movement has done, the issues that exist in society that – bro we have real issues, okay. In our country and to ever make light or to foreshadow or throw shade on some of the most heinous acts one can commit in all of humankind, to use it as a ploy for fifteen minutes of fame… the pendulum should swing both ways, unfortunately, it doesn’t always and in a society that deems people guilty until proven innocent, I’m not a victim. I put myself in that situation. I’m a huge Red Hot Chilli Peppers fan, I went to a Red Hot Chilli Peppers concert, had a bit too much to drink and you meet people at face value all the time in life. Make no mistake about it when you’re on the road Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday on the road 300 days a year you have to be a certain type of person. The one thing I can say about WWE is to make it to that level I can’t look around the locker room and point out one bad really sh–ty person like an evil person because to make it to that level you have had to succumb to a lot of pressures and beaten a lot of odds to make it to that place. I’m not a victim, I’m not going to sit there and say: ‘this girl what she did to me,’ man I addressed that in Phoenix and I wrote that song and videotape that a month after this happened. Man, it’s water under the bridge the dust settles I’m not worried about it. But I have an opportunity of a lifetime that I didn’t ask for though. I didn’t ask for it but that’s to make a real difference and make a real chance and to help people who are real victims especially children who’ve been abused. To spread the word on those evils and provide good-hearted real change in those environments, that is something we can talk about. I’m not going to continue to mention this person’s name or even give them that. Give me a break that person should be in jail. The only problem I have with in society when you hashtag things like guilty till proven innocent cause it’s a real thing, the only things I have to say bad part about the situation that’s out there […] people expressing them like their law is that they’re also allowing it to happen which is mind-boggling and mind-blowing to me.”
Becoming clickbait:
“I’m no saint. I’m like everyone else I make mistakes in life and I will continue to and this probably won’t be my first hiccup. I don’t know, I don’t know what the future holds. But the same people like this human that accused me of this, and I got myself there. But when someone evokes extreme lack of credibility in their answers and their responses and the manipulation of using media as a marketing tool, hashtagging ‘Me Too’ to get your voice heard these are the same people that are buying guns and shooting up schools and shooting people up all over our country and you’re letting them do it because you’re watching them as a society. When a person stands on TMZ and goes, ‘oh he took me from behind oh I understand why he raped me I’m a hot b–ch.’ When you hear that as a society and you still sensationalize and headlines and use fake news as a play to create double clicks and double clicks and clickbait across the world. I was clickbait. When TMZ comes out with a story after watching my accuser say those things with those people who have actually been through this. Who are going through this stuff, they’re really hurting… for you to watch that accuser make such light of the situation and then to air it and get the clickbait and the advertisers that’s all it is. I knew that because I was in the business of propaganda!”
