Enzo Amore may just be one of the most popular wrestling performers in the world at the moment and the 29-year-old spoke recently to Fox Sports recently in the build up to SummerSlam.
The Certified G will be teaming up with tag-team partner Big Cass to take on the newly established friendship of Kevin Owens and Chris Jericho at The Biggest Party of the Summer.
On where his journey began
Amore has held down a number of mediocre jobs in his time including as a piano mover, a disc jockey for the New York Mets and most interestingly as a manager at hooters.
The Bonafide Stud tried to teach a few things about how he got his start in NXT and he spoke about how he had a friend of a friend in the wrestling industry.
He said "My athletic trainer when I was playing high school football, college football was a guy named Joe DeFranco out of New Jersey and Triple H, you know he’s got the craziest schedule in the world, he was looking for a new athletic trainer."
The Game is well known for his 'midnight workouts' with his wife Stephanie McMahon and according to Enzo, DeFranco was "if not the best" then he was surely "one of the best in the country."
As an avid wrestling fan it was a shock when the trainer mentioned to Amore if he "knew a guy named Paul Levesque" so much so that he said his "jaw nearly hit the ground."
He continued "I mean, you’re talking about a kid who used to train at DeFranco’s and talk about becoming a WWE superstar his entire life and walked around in this persona. Enzo Amore, the guy you see on TV, existed in a gym in New Jersey long before he ever took to a TV screen."
The former NXT performer said you could call it "destiny" or "whatever you want" but what he was given was "the opportunity of a lifetime" to "tryout" in "WWE NXT" and by his "saving grace" he was given the "opportunity" to talk to "Dusty Rhodes."
The American Dream is famed for helping young talent develop their attention and many of the stars of the developmental roster and even new comers to the main roster cite him as being a huge influence on their careers.
Enzo said he was "handed a microphone" and "told to go kid" this chance opportunity made the trainers take notice and see something special inside the youngster and thankfully he is now a regular on WWE screens.
On his concussion
Recently back in May 2016 at WWE Payback, Amore suffered a concussion during a match with The Vaudevillians when his head struck one of the ropes rendering him unconscious and requiring medical assistance.
The performer said he has no recollection of the incident that caused fans at home and his partner Big Cass to remain in shock as the 29-year-old was taken away in an ambulance.
Thankfully, he is unscathed and is now back at 100& and he spoke about the incident to which he said "Well, the process began when I was sitting in a hospital and I went ‘what’s going on?’ and I looked up and I saw Big Cass and Sami Zayn standing there."
Amore maintains that he had no idea that he had been injured and had to be assured by the doctor "The doctor looked at me and said ‘you got hurt in your wrestling event.’ I had no idea what had happened, but luckily for me I work for the WWE, and by God’s saving grace I never had any post-concussion symptoms."
The Realest Guy in the Room admits he was lucky not to have been seriously injured or to have suffered any consequences following his head trauma but said that it was just a "freak incident."
While he was out-of-action and recovering Enzo said he was thankful for the treatment that WWE provided for him as he said that people need to understand that what the performers do in the ring is "not ballet" and that it is "dangerous."
He said "Luckily for us in WWE some time off does not’t mean that you’re not going to be taken care of or you’re not going to be getting paid or you’re not going to see the best doctors."
In recent years the wrestling promotion has taken huge steps in aiming to prevent any head injuries that their performers receive, including banning a number of move in the ring that could cause head injuries such as chair shots and Seth Rollins' Curb Stomp.
On this Enzo said he believes that "WWE is the leader and/or ahead of all the other sports in concussion awareness and understanding what it does to guys. Understanding how serious an injury can be. They go by the right protocol, they set a parameter of what is a healthy brain and what is not."
Many wrestlers have suffered head based trauma with a number of ex-performers filing a lawsuit against the company for producing 'unsafe working environment' while that is separate to Amore's incident, it is great to see and hear of the strides that the company is taking to prevent injuries.
He continued "While they’re learning so much more, I believe the WWE is leading the way in gaining that knowledge so that we can better prevent these things from causing ill side-effects in the future and so that our guys remain healthy and taken care."