There ain't no way the state of Delaware is gonna tell me how to sign my own license!
Enzo Amore
My name is an acronym for EA - EA All Day. It's a persona that I developed over the years in sports as a caricature of myself. On the field, in practice, in the weight room, I was just a character and a personality.
Nobody ever wants to see a guy get hurt, because this is how we feed our families.
As a writer for six years, I wrote my own TV, which, I was the only person in the WWE that could probably honestly say, since day one in NXT, they wrote their own material.
Hell's Kitchen is open 24/7, and I'm cooking on the stove all day.
Wrestling isn't real. The falls hurt, sometimes you get punches in the face, but it's not real. It's propaganda. Propaganda makes you the giant and me the small guy. Propaganda makes me the champion and makes you unworthy of a title shot.
Adrian Neville, who's my best friend, I rode with him on the road. He was the most crisp, athletic, poignant guy - never missed a step. It was insane. I had never seen anybody who could move in a wrestling ring like him; it was like second-nature to him. Flips - name it - agile jumping in and out of the ring effortlessly to the top rope like crazy.
My microphone skills were developed at a young age watching my dad on the microphone. My dad DJ'ed bar mitzvahs, bat mitzvahs, things of that nature.
I've been fortunate enough to be given the blessing by Triple H down at NXT to start coming out to the ring with a microphone in my hand.
When I was young, a lot of the guys could sell themselves to me on the way to the ring with the way they acted and their mannerisms. Guys like Shawn Michaels, who I loved growing up. They were just loud. They didn't even need to say a word because they came out and had this crazy ring gear on.
I would say Triple H is the biggest influence on my career. He's almost like a father figure. If I slip up, or there's a problem, he lets me know.
I've been heavily, heavily tuned into the DJ Khaled album, 'Major Key,' which has some major, major plays on it, up and down the line.
My affinity for fashion has always been there. When it comes to looking cool for the first day of school, I was always in it.
It is a fine line to be this PG superstar and also a role model and a bad guy and playing off our personality.
To know that a kid could come up to me in 20 or 30 years and say, 'Hey, here's a picture of us. I met you at a meet-and-greet, and I idolized you as a child. I'm a WWE Superstar, too, because you inspired me.' That's crazy to think, but it could happen. I made it, so if I can make it, anybody can.
I'm hoping Big Cass gets a great singles' run and vice versa. We pull for each other in that regard.
Flair, Dusty Rhodes, Shawn Michaels, The NWO, The Invasion, the wild stories, and the Attitude Era. All the crazy stories - you love them, and you get addicted to them and the lifestyle. But you have to separate them and toe the line and separate yourself from what is real and what is not.
One of my favorite rappers of all time, if not my favorite rapper of all time, is Nas.
You finish the damn match, point blank, period. That's it, and I always finish, even if I'm finishing on my back.
Diesel coming down with shades, being seven feet tall with an all-black outfit on and the gloves; The Rock when he was wearing $800 Versace shirts; and Stone Cold, obviously, with the way he carried himself and the way he spoke and holding the microphone - these are the things that made me want to become a pro wrestler.
It's just an honor to compete in New York, New Jersey, the tri-state area, where we're from. I have so much roots there, so much family.
As a kid growing up, I did idolize Chris Jericho at one point.
I had a dream, and that dream kind of became a reality when I started taking steps toward it. You don't even realize what you're achieving as you're achieving it.
Neville is one of my favorite pros in the business.
I don't talk to nobody. You know why? 'Cause if you ain't talkin' money, what the hell you talkin' bout?
When I was a kid, I got to meet Shawn Michaels at the Continental Airlines Arena, and I showed Shawn that picture.
I think the people you have to fear most in life are the people who dream with their eyes wide open.
I am an entertainer by all means, and I am going to always take stages and will fall on my face with those stages without a care because I am not afraid to fail.
I was a writer before I was a wrestler when I was in the WWE.
On the low, I've been in Kanye's studio, No Name, out in L.A.
I travelled with Neville; he is my road dog. We travelled on NXT and FCW before that. He opened my eyes to a whole genre of music in reggae.
I spent most of my days in school being a class clown. I never shut up. By the time I was in middle school, I had myself a personal aide.
A classroom setting for me was an audience.
Most people say when they get on screen, the most successful acts are people who are just themselves and turn the volume up. But in my situation, I gotta turn the volume down.
In wrestling, I'll lay on my back for anybody 1-2-3.
I've been working with a lot of people out in Hollywood on writing scripts, screenplays, directing, producing, and making music.
I would say that my forte is cutting the line. My entire life's work is me having zero patience and not waiting in a line.
I'm just one of those guys that, when I'm going in, I'm going all-in. That's kind of the way you've got to be in this business that I'm in.
I grew up a block away from Hell, and my pop-pop was a chef in Hell's Kitchen.
Listen: when you work for an employer for six years, are you gonna sit here and tell me you ain't gotta bad thing to say about them?
I trained under Bill DeMott. I did a lot of my promo work with Dusty Rhodes.
We used to move pianos in New York City, and one time, it was, like, eight guys on a piano that was made of glass. We were moving it for Alicia Keys.
I've never worn the same pair of shoes twice, ever. That's a fact.
The only vowel I'm concerned with is 'I.'
Make no mistake about it: when you're on the road Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday - on the road 300 days a year - you have to be a certain type of person.
I'm no saint.
I was in the business of marketing, and I have two Bachelor's Degrees in Political Journalism, and I wrote for the school newspaper at the time.
There ain't nobody who's got enough money to put my back in the ring.
Monday nights, it wasn't like, 'Mom, I want to watch Monday Night Raw.' It was like, 'Mom, put on Shawn Michaels.'
I'm so glad I got an opportunity to meet Shawn Michaels, because he didn't let any of my expectations down. He's the coolest guy ever.
