Enzo Amore recently spoke with FOX Sports to promote the upcoming WWE SummerSlam PPV event. Here are the highlights.
On his concussion at the WWE Payback PPV: 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. And 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, no ill side-effects of this concussion that was almost a freak accident. But what we do in the ring is not ballet, this is dangerous. People have their fair share of injuries, but luckily for us in WWE some time off doesn’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. I honestly believe that the 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 isn’t. And 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.
On facing Kevin Owens and Chris Jericho at SummerSlam: Let’s just be fair here. Kevin Owens? He couldn’t rock with me. It just wouldn’t happen. Chris Jericho… I will give him one thing. As a kid growing up, I did idolize Chris Jericho at one point. But, the reason we get into this business is so that your idols become your rivals. Step into a ring with a guy like Kevin Owens, who’s traveled around the world and been in the ring for 15 years, and a guy like Chris Jericho, who has achieved pretty much everything there is to achieve in this business. They set the bar high, man, that’s what they did, but we didn’t come here to play limbo, we came here to jump hurdles. How you doin?
On the great reaction he got from the fans when he made his main roster debut: You know, there was probably a ton of people there – including Vince McMahon – that would have never expected that kind of reaction. But going into it, you know, Triple H gave us the opportunity of a lifetime and I don’t think anybody ever realized that when the WWE Network came out and NXT was on the Network it became a brand. And it was the third brand of our company. The opportunity we got there was to perform in front of crowds by the thousands in the U.K. [at NXT TakeOver: London], and the majority of the crowd that night after WrestleMania for Monday Night Raw in Dallas was a U.K. crowd, a crossover crowd. People who are enthusiasts of WWE and they knew what WWE NXT was. I kinda looked at Hunter when my music hit from across Gorilla, I saw him right before I went out of the curtain … and it was organic, it was real. I could have never imagined that kind of reaction in a million years, but at the same time I had an inkling that ‘hey wait, these are the same fans that I just performed in front of in Europe three months ago.”
Amore also talked about Triple H and more. You can read the entire interview here.
