Enzo Amore on Being a Product of WWE NXT, What Triple H Told Him When He Signed, Promo Work

Chad Dukes of CBS Radio Washington DC 106.7 The Fan and ChadDukesWrestling.com spoke with WWE NXT star Enzo Amore. The full interview is at this link but here are a few highlights:

Developing his promo work as a journalism major at Salisbury University:
“None of this happens overnight and Rome wasn’t built in a day. I’ve always put the pen to the pad and I’ve always had aspirations of doing what I’m doing today. Basically when you’re a writer and have a mind like mine, my mind has gone platinum multiple times and I have got a heart of gold, my heart’s in the right place. I’ve wanted to do this my whole life, promo material, when you’ve basically got a bible of promo material, I’m telling you I got so much promo material written down, I’ve forgotten more promo material than people will ever come up with. So, it’s all in my back pocket.”

Being a product of WWE NXT:
“I never was in a wrestling ring before I stepped foot into a WWE ring, so I am a product of NXT. I trained under Bill DeMott. I did a lot of my promo work with Dusty Rhodes. Those two guys were so instrumental in my career, I feel like I never could just completely take that step out of NXT. I owe it to the fans, I owe it to the people around me, the trainers, the coaches. That’s what you see in our product, you see people who are hungry and those people who are coming back, pulling double duty, they’re hungry, they wanna compete. The NXT environment is so competitive.”

Getting a shot from Triple H:
“He had started training with my strength coach. From the age of 14 I had been training with Joe DeFranco from DeFranco’s Training Systems out of New Jersey, they do a lot of combine training. I had played college football, I had always lifted and was a huge fan of the sports entertainment business, more particularly the WWE. Huge fan of DX- Shawn Michaels and Triple H. One day I was working out at DeFranco’s gym and Joe came up to me and said, ‘I got a phone call from a guy named Paul Levesque, who wants me to train him.’ My jaw just hit the ground.”

“After about a year of him training with Hunter, I made a YouTube video… I was always training so basically I gave Joe a link to a YouTube page that had a compilation of me lifting, running, boxing, and then I cut a promo at the end of it on the Hudson River around the time the Jersey Shore was popular. Came at the Jersey Shore people’s necks, a little disrespect, hit ‘em with a little 1-2 combo, the haymaker pancaker and badaboom, the realest guy in the room was born.”

“He showed it to Hunter and Hunter just gave me a tryout. He’s our boss and he’s very approachable out here at NXT. He gave me my first opportunity and I’ll never forget the words that he said to me when I met him, he simply said, ‘don’t screw this up.’ He probably wouldn’t remember it, but for me I hung onto those words, because that’s all he said.”

Justin Gabriel Quits WWE

Former 3-time WWE Tag Team Champion Justin Gabriel quit WWE this weekend. There are currently no details or specifics on the situation.

Gabriel had been picking up victories over Adam Rose on WWE's live events tour, but the success ended there. The 33 year old South African didn't have a televised win since a victory over Sin Cara on Superstars in September.

Gabriel signed a WWE developmental deal in 2008 and was assigned to Florida Championship Wrestling, where he became Heavyweight champion. He also had a reign as tag team champion before being announced as a contestant on the first season of WWE NXT.

Following the conclusion of NXT, Gabriel debuted on the main roster as a member of Nexus, attacking John Cena and the Straight Edge Society. While a member of Nexus, he'd become WWE Tag Team Champion with Heath Slater.

After leaving Nexus, Gabriel and Slater would join former Nexus leader Wade Barrett in the Corre, where they would enjoy two more WWE Tag Team Championship reigns. Since then, Gabriel had mostly been relegated to Superstars and Main Event, staying away from any major storylines.

**UPDATE**
Following reports that Justin Gabriel quit WWE over the weekend, the sports-entertainment organization announced Sunday that he has been released from his contract.

WWE issued the following statement to F4WOnline.com today confirming the release of Gabriel: "WWE has come to terms on the release Justin Gabriel effective as of today."

God's Last Gift: How Seth Rollins became the future of WWE

The first people Seth Rollins brought to tears — before The Shield, before the WWE Universe, before anyone — were his mom and dad.

That’s a rough note to begin on, but it’s necessary because originally, we had planned to write about Seth Rollins in June 2014, and our story — his story, really — was going to be your usual underdog yarn about a guy who worked hard from humble beginnings, reached his goal, almost lost his goal, and eventually found himself sitting on the mountaintop through grit and hard work. Not entirely unlike Daniel Bryan’s tale. But that all turned on its head the night Rollins took out his fellow members of The Shield with a steel chair and set himself on a catapult career-trajectory that led to the Money in the Bank briefcase and helped him waltz right into a WWE World Heavyweight Championship Match against John Cena and Brock Lesnar at the 2015 Royal Rumble over about the course of six months.

Given all that, it seems appropriate to begin the story we’re telling now, the story Seth Rollins forced us to tell instead, with the fact that he had a penchant for defying expectations and breaking hearts —including his family’s — before he’d even formally laced up a pair of boots.

“When I told my parents and saw the look of disappointment on their faces, it was like a real moment,” said Rollins, recalling the uncomfortable night he sat his parents down as a teenager in Iowa and told them he would be pursuing a career in sports-entertainment. “I remember walking away from the dinner table and just being like, ‘Man, I don’t care what anybody says, I’m going to do this. I don’t care if anybody believes I can do this or not.’”

About the only one who believed he could succeed was Rollins himself, a lapsed Hulkamaniac who rediscovered his passion during the Attitude Era and had already proven himself a natural boundary-pusher in mock wrestling shows with his buddies where he created a character named “God.”

“[I wasn’t] the God, not a god of anything, just straight-up God,” laughs Rollins, who based the lighting-rod persona off the controversial antics of his favorite Superstars, Shawn Michaels and Triple H. “I wasn’t descending from the heavens or anything like that. It was just one of those deals where, ‘How am I gonna [tick] people off? Oh, I’ll just call myself God.’”...More?

source: wwe.com

Kevin Owens Talks About His NXT Debut, Working With Triple H

Alex Obert of JourneyofaFrontman.com is featuring an interview with WWE NXT star Kevin Owens where he talks about making his NXT debut back in December and what it is like working with Triple H in developmental in Orlando.

On what he was thinking just before his NXT debut:

"I wish I could tell you exactly what I was thinking about, but there were so many things going through my mind. I thought a lot about my family because they got me to the point. It sounds really corny because it seems like that’s what people would say when there’s a big moment in their lives. I thought about my kid, my parents and my wife. I remember at one point, I stopped midway through the ramp before I got in the ring and I clearly remember having a flash of running to the ring in my first match. It was just such a culmination. It’s always been my dream. It’s really hard to describe how memorable that was."

On working with Triple H in WWE:

"All I can say is that Triple H is literally the most dedicated man in sports entertainment, nobody works as hard as he does. I only see glimpses of it when he’s at the NXT tapings and the specials, but he’s always available for ideas. We were talking about what I was gonna do and how I was gonna be presented, he was very hands-on. It’s not just me, he’s got his finger on the pulse of everything we do here. And we do a lot of stuff, there’s seventy people here and he keeps track of everyone. I don’t know when he sleeps, I don’t know when he works out, but he’s alive and he’s in great shape. From what I can tell, he’s a machine. His dedication is really something to behold. I’m lucky to have somebody like him willing to work with me, just like everybody else I mentioned earlier. He’s another great mind who knows so much more more about this than I do and he’s willing to share it with me and share it with anybody who wants the knowledge. It’s pretty awesome."

He also noted the extreme difference in how segments are produced in WWE, and how much time and effort go into planning even the shortest of vignettes.

“The vignettes are thirty seconds to a minute.. I think it took three to four hours to shoot all the stuff … There’s so many creative minds working together to make this special. I was really lucky, I can’t overstate that enough. Chris Chambers, Christopher Watts, Brian Kunsman, Ryan Katz and Bill DeMott, they were all helping me and gave great suggestions like “Do this. Do that. Turn your head this way.” It’s all intricate stuff it’s stuff that I’ve never done. Ring of Honor had TV, but nothing like this.”

WWE NXT Recruiting at the Arnold Classic

There are now plans for WWE to have a recruiting booth at the upcoming NXT Live show on March 5th during The Arnold Classic, which obviously attracts a ton of athletes and bodybuilders. Tickets go on sale to the general public this Friday at 10:00 a.m. ET.

Video: The Kliq reunites backstage: Raw, January 19, 2015

WWE Tough Enough 2015 Casting Call Released

WWE issued the following casting call for the upcoming season of Tough Enough:

WWE and the USA Network are bringing back the hit reality competition show Tough Enough! One competitor will earn a WWE contract and be the next WWE Superstar!!!

If you believe you have what it takes to not only earn the contract, but excel in World Wrestling Entertainment… Apply now.

Casting Producers are searching the world to find extraordinary men and women to be the next WWE Superstar with the following qualities:

CHARISMA
PERSONALITY
ATHLETICISM
AGILITY
STAMINA
STRENGTH
And an INTENSE DESIRE to be the next WWE SUPERSTAR!

Show Information:

WWE Tough Enough, is a professional wrestling reality television program produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and MTV wherein participants underwent professional wrestling training and competed for a contract with WWE. There were two winners per season for the first three seasons, all of which aired on MTV. A fourth competition was held in 2004, with only a single winner, but was integrated into UPN’s SmackDown!. In October 2010, it was announced that The USA Network will be reviving Tough Enough for a fifth season. It will be paired with WWE Raw. No premiere date scheduled.

Videos: Sting Debuts on Raw and The Authority Reacts

WWE Attorney Responds To New 'Concussion Lawsuit' Filed By Former WWE Talents

As noted, former WWE talents Vito Lograsso (Big Vito) and Evan Singleton (Adam Mercer in developmental) have filed a class-action "concussion lawsuit" against WWE in Pennsylvania. The lawsuit seeks unspecified economic damages and medical monitoring. They are being represented by the same lawyer who was hired by former WWE star Billy Jack Haynes in his lawsuit against the company.

WWE lawyer Jerry McDevitt issued the following statement in response to the lawsuit this evening:

"This lawsuit is virtually identical to one filed by the same lawyers in Oregon, neither of which have any merit. WWE has never concealed any medical information related to concussions, or otherwise, from our Talent. WWE was well ahead of sports organizations in implementing concussion management procedures and policies as a precautionary measure as the science and research on this issue emerged. We will vigorously contest this lawsuit."

Triple H Broke Character During Raw To Make A Crying Child Feel Better

On WWE Raw, Triple H is an evil COO and the head of The Authority, a group hellbent on making lives miserable for the company’s do-gooding wrestlers. On the Internet, he’s either a hero for his work in NXT or the literal Christian devil for the brutal, multiple-shovel-job burial of our favorite performers. He’s either a sinner or a saint. Tonight, we’ll push him a little closer to “saint.”

According to multiple sources at tonight’s show in Dallas, Triple H made a kid in the front row cry and immediately broke character to make it all better.

AT&T Stadium to host WrestleMania 32

WrestleMania 32 will be held at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, on Sunday, April 3, 2016. Later today, a media event will be held at the stadium featuring WWE Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon, WWE Hall of Famer Hulk Hogan, WWE Superstar John Cena and other WWE Superstars and Divas, to celebrate the announcement.

Game smash! Triple H voices The Hulk in Marvel Experience interactive adventure

Don’t make Triple H angry. … You wouldn’t like him when he’s angry.

The 13-time World Champion brings to life one of Marvel’s most iconic characters as the voice of The Hulk in The Marvel Experience, the world’s first “hyper-reality” tour. Every grunt, growl and, of course, “Hulk smash!” in The Marvel Experience was recorded by Triple H, who had the opportunity to step into the role previously inhabited by such entertainment greats as Lou Ferrigno, Edward Norton and Mark Ruffalo.

The attraction — which has just begun touring — invites visitors to train and join up with heroes like Iron Man, Spider-Man and The Avengers’ green, gamma-irradiated powerhouse across seven colossal domes on a mission to save the planet from the evil organization Hydra.

The Marvel Experience features an exclusive 360-degree projection dome, an immersive motion ride, state-of-the-art 2-D and 3-D projection and appearances by 26 of Marvel’s most exciting heroes.