Enzo Amore said watching Big Cass make his AEW debut after battling addiction was “so much sweeter” than their original WWE debut together, calling it one of the most meaningful moments of his career even though he was not involved, speaking on the Stories with Brisco and Bradshaw podcast.
Enzo said he and Cass had not spoken in over a year when Cass called to tell him he was going to stay with a man named Doug Lawson in Delaware to train and get his life together. Lawson, who works with Michael Strahan, Deion Sanders, and Ray Lewis, had met Cass at an autograph signing and confronted him directly.
“He walked up to him and said, ‘Dude, you look fat, out of shape, and a shell of the guy I used to see on TV,'” Enzo said. “And Cass bowed up like, ‘I’m going to whip your ass.'”
Enzo said Cass later had a seizure at a House of Hardcore show in Philadelphia after attempting to cold-turkey quit alcohol. He then went to rehab and stayed with Lawson. The experience forged a lasting bond between all of them. “Next thing you know, me and Cass are in Doug’s wedding. Me and Doug are in Cass’s wedding with DDP’s stepdaughter Lexi,” Enzo said.
Enzo said DDP played a major role in Cass’s recovery, bringing him down to his house to work through his issues. “Big Cass was struggling with some, very open about his issues, and was working with DDP and all the people that they work with that they make videos and they show you resilience and people that have come back from terrible addiction,” Enzo said. “And Big Cass did that, and that video is out there for anybody who wants to see it. It’s awesome.”
Enzo said he spent time at DDP’s house during that period and recalled that instead of alcohol, DDP’s bar was stocked entirely with flavored seltzers. “He would have a bar loaded to the gills. It was just all these seltzers that were just every flavor seltzer you could ever imagine in your life,” Enzo said. “When you’re just with the boys and you’re standing around and you’re talking, and you look back, by the time the night’s over, there’s just a garbage can loaded to the gills with all of these seltzers. We would just go out back and there’d be like 20 seltzers just shit-canned by the time we were done talking shit. And man, God bless DDP.”
Gerald Brisco praised DDP for his work helping wrestlers recover. “He’s a saint for what he’s done for Jake and the other guys,” Brisco said.
When Cass debuted on AEW television as Big Bill, Enzo said the significance was not about the match or the booking. “It wasn’t about the booking. It wasn’t about the story. It was about, ‘Dude, you just got back on TV,'” Enzo said. “It’s so much sweeter this time around than it was for us then.”
Enzo said he and Cass still talk every week, mostly in a group chat about sports and fantasy football. “He’s still a comeback story to this day,” Enzo said.
The full interview is available on the Stories with Brisco and Bradshaw podcast.
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