Why WWE Released Enzo Amore

Since WWE announced Tuesday that Enzo Amore was being released from the company in the wake of claims from a woman in Arizona that he raped her in October 2017, there has been a lot of speculation that he was let go because is guilty of the accusations. That is not the case.

WWE’s standard protocol in these situations is to suspend a talent indefinitely when they have been arrested and then if the charges are dropped, bring them back. If the talent is convicted, they are immediately terminated. Amore has not been charged with anything by the Phoenix Police Department and according to Mike Johnson of PWInsider.com, there have been no developments in their investigation that mean an arrest is pending.

Johnson was told that WWE management was completely unaware of the allegations and the criminal investigation into the incident until members of the wrestling media reached out to them on Monday afternoon after the woman released her statement on Twitter. The company was in the middle of putting together Raw 25 and had already locked their plans in, including having Amore face Goldust from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York during the third hour of the show.

When WWE learned of the allegations on Twitter, Amore was approached at the Barclays Center and asked about them. According to numerous sources, while Amore denied the allegations were true, he acknowledged that he knew about the investigation. From WWE’s perspective, the fact that Amore had been aware of the criminal investigation, yet failed to inform organization officials about, led to his immediate suspension and expulsion from the Barclays Center.

With WWE being a publicly traded company that promotes primarily to families and children, management was angry that Amore, who they had built the entire 205 Live brand around in recent months, had knowingly put them into a position where, on a major media day, they had to react to inquiries over one of their champions involved in what could only be described as horrible, heinous accusations. One source noted that the only way the timing could have been worse would be for WWE to have been blindsided by this during WrestleMania weekend.

The decision to terminate Amore on Tuesday was again, not a belief internally that Amore was guilty, but a determination that Amore failing to inform the company was, as several people described it, “the last straw” for Amore within the company.

It isn’t news that Amore had been a controversial figure behind the scenes, something that was openly talked about in his recent WWE Network interview with Corey Graves. Sources indicated that there had been a number of issues previously with his conduct, including WWE officials being unhappy that he had gone on social media to mock Big Cass’ legitimate injury last year when he hadn’t been instructed to do so. There was also a situation in Europe where he was thrown off a tour bus for, allegedly, being loud and not letting fellow wrestlers sleep in the middle of the night even after he was asked repeatedly to quiet down. Within the company, among the wrestlers, Amore had been one of the least liked members of the locker room (if not the most) as he often dressed and traveled on his own.

In the end, WWE officials felt there were too many instances of problems in recent months that were already building against Amore. With his decision to not come to the company about serious criminal allegations, while knowing about them for months, was the thing that led to them finally getting rid of him.