LogFAQs > #898216291

#137 - Enzo Amore Nominated by: paulg

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I can't reasonably rate Enzo Amore any higher than this; despite his ability to cut a decent promo, the man is accused of sexual assault and he stupidly did not even inform WWE of the incident. I mean, it was clear for a long time that he had become a mark for himself and he would constantly end up on TMZ where is bizarre partying habits made Brian Pillman seem positively docile in comparison. He would insult so many people outside of the ring and apparently became such an irritant that Roman Reigns had to lead a collective of disgruntled wrestlers in a movement to see him thrown off of a tour bus. He also was kicked out of the dressing room, and Neville pretty much bounced from WWE as a results of Enzo existing.

So as a human being, Enzo has not proven to be made up of sterling stuff.

But as a wrestler, he honestly isn't much better. Despite spending years on the roster in NXT and WWE, he never really clicked as an actual competitor. Perhaps that is why the Big Cass and Enzo feud turned out so horribly dull. Enzo himself was clearly a rag doll for bigger guys, and in the Cruiserweight Division itself, I think he really proved to be exactly the problem with the division. While characters certainly can get over (Drew Gulak did a fantastic job making something out of what was, on paper, a very strange premise), 205 Live was meant to hearken back to the days of WCW's cruiserweights. Instead, it slowly became more and more focused on characters, and Enzo as champion really proved that to be the case. 205 Live was really going through an identity crisis, and Enzo only exacerbated the situation.

Of course, fans of Enzo would expect me to rave about his promos. But, and I fear the standard ire I get for saying this stuff, but rarely did Enzo's promos go anywhere. He made the very best out of scripted material (his ridiculous look really played into his ridiculous lines well), but it was scripted nonetheless. Despite the quality of the feud, at least Enzo's promos propped up the Big Cass-Enzo storyline virtually on their own. But for nearly a year prior to that, Enzo was so formulaic that I found it distasteful. I'm a guy, you come to me, you deliver the same promo for more than a month, I get bored. The difference between The Rock and Enzo is that The Rock shook up his promos by having his character interact with others. The Rock was, of course, actually allowed to simply say what he wanted, and Enzo was not. That was maybe the difference maker, I guess; Dwayne was able to develop his character thanks to outside stimuli from his opponents, and Enzo was virtually a solo act since his opponents hardly ever said anything to him, and when they did, he wasn't given the opportunity to respond as if he was even listening.

Part of a good feud is call and response. Much like an Enzo promo by itself. There's call and response. But in storytelling, the response is the key. The response is how you develop and character. Enzo never was given the opportunity to develop because his catchphrases were the only thing he really had. By the time he could have started to develop, he had coincidentally developed bad habits outside of the ring, making his in-ring and mic work less appealing. And those habits led to his downfall.
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