Enzo Amore explains how John Cena saved his NXT career after being ‘buried’
Former WWE superstar Enzo Amore recently explained how John Cena saved his NXT career after being “buried.”
Over a decade ago, in 2012, Enzo Amore made his WWE debut in NXT. Shortly after in 2013, he was paired with Colin Cassady, aka Big Cass. However, before he made it big with Big Cass, Amore was allegedly buried in NXT, although it caught the attention of John Cena.
Speaking to Emilio Sparks, Amore recalled Cena asking him to come out to the ring with him for a dark segment after getting buried.
“Every time they asked me to submit names, I submitted Enzo Amore. Within a week of getting there, I got there with 20 or 30 other people, they all got fired. The only people that made it were Charlotte, Baron Corbin, and Mojo (Rawley), and I was the last guy to get a name.
“So I go to the ring that day, in NXT, to do a job, and a guy did me a favor in Triple H, brought me here and I think he was just doing a charity case. ‘Let’s just give this guy a f**king bar story so he can go back home and tell everybody he had a WWE match,’” he said.
“I get to the ring, do the job, and when I get out of the ring Bill DeMott f**king motherf***ers me, buries me, and I’m like ‘ah s**t’, I got my head down walking out, and Rob Naylor goes ‘Enzo, John Cena wants to see you’. I run with him. I’m like running through the parking lot in NXT.
“I get there, and all the boys are looking at me when I come in, and they all clap for me, I’m like ‘what the f**k is happening’. John Cena calls me over to him, and he goes ‘I’ve been here for three hours, and I want you to know you’re the only thing that caught my attention all day. Would you like to come to the ring with me in the dark segment?’
The 39-year-old further opened up and reflected on how it was Cena who put him and Cass over, while Triple H squashed them.
Enzo Amore reveals how John Cena put him and Big Cass over
In the same interview, Enzo Amore opened up and shared the story of how he became a tag team with Big Cass.
“I immediately, in that moment, did something, I don’t know what, God took over. I went, ‘Can I come to the ring with that big guy right there, a seven-foot-tall guy, that’s my tag team partner, his name is Big Cass’, and John Cena goes, ‘Yeah tell him to come.’”
“F**k no we weren’t a tag team (at that point). F**k no we weren’t a tag team, we were just homies, and he was teaching me everything about wrestling, kayfabe. He was teaching me the psychology of the words we were using back here, what a gimmick is, I didn’t understand. John Cena got me and Cass over, gave us the rub. Triple H gave me a squash match, don’t know if it was supposed to be a one-time thing and done, but I lingered there for seven long years, and I’m sure he couldn’t wait to get rid of me,” he concluded.
Amore and Cass began teaming with each other in 2013 in NXT and remained a tag team during their main roster jump. The duo stayed together until 2017, before WWE decided to break them up.
Shounak Chakrabarti is an experienced sports journalist with a lifelong passion for athletics and storytelling. He holds a Master’s Degree in International Journalism from the University of Leeds and joined F4WOnline in 2025.
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