What Enzo Amore And Big Cass Are Doing Right

It’s easy to watch an episode of “Raw” and feel disappointed about the overall direction of the WWE. For starters, we are hearing about a “New Era,” and meanwhile, the roster is still full of talent that has been there for a long time (e.g. Chris Jericho, Brock Lesnar, Kane, Big Show, Sheamus, Mark Henry). Furthermore, a lot of the recent NXT call-ups have been busts in spite of the talent involved (e.g. Bo Dallas, Tyler Breeze, Adam Rose, Baron Corbin, The Ascension, The Vaudevillains). However, there are a number of NXT that one can look at as having been successful, and Enzo Amore and Colin Cassady are among that small category.

Why Enzo and Big Cass are successful has nothing to do with them being among the best or most experienced workers. It has nothing to do with them being relatable; most people from New York, and New Jersey dislike people who act like them. It has nothing to do with their theme song. It has nothing to do with the duo’s believability, in terms of believing that they could beat up whoever is in front of them. And it also has nothing to do with originality, as they’re not the first street characters, nor the first Italian characters.

So what do I think their popularity has to do with? In my opinion, it’s their overall charisma. The charisma comes through in their ring entrance. The charisma comes through within the pre-match promo. Similar to how a good classroom teacher holds the attention of their students by knowing how to make everyone feel engaged, the two of them are able to hold onto the crowd without most of the tools that other WWE talent generally needs to get the crowd’s attention (e.g. pyrotechnics, dimmed lighting, a specialized costume on top of their ring gear, a ring announcer’s introduction). Their act has something for everyone in it, as the promos often involve double entendres.

But perhaps as important as that charisma is that Enzo and Cass are playing to Paul Heyman’s known ECW formula of maximizing one’s strengths and minimizing one’s weaknesses. There has been a promo cut by the tag team before every televised match of theirs. Their matches so far have been classic tag team fare, where the smaller guy needs to hot-tag the bigger guy after taking a beating. Their main catch phrase is on the brightest-colored shirts sold by WWE and is only four syllables; three syllables if you have a terrible Jersey accent. The promos tend to be a mix of pop culture references, insults, rhymes, and catch phrases. Enzo and Cass have their handful of specialities and they deliver them.

In addition to the charisma and the emphasis of strengths, Enzo and Cass were not overexposed or forced down the throats of the WWE Universe. They got over in NXT against all odds — sure, they were given promo time, but their matches were never the main event of NXT programming. In turn, the diehard fans latched onto them. Then comes a major live event like NXT Takeover, full of diehards from all over the place endlessly cheering the duo in a lower-card spot, which gets other people excited organically. Then comes a main roster at a time when the WWE main roster needs a tag team division boost, in front of a diehard post-pay-per-view crowd with a monster reaction. When the WWE Universe is told to like someone, the reverse usually happens. Thus, why Roman Reigns is not going to be “the guy” as long as the booking keeps telling us that he should be.

Applying these lessons to Roman Reigns…Let’s say that — hypothetically — he is believable as a worker and has a great look, but he is terrible on the mic. Well, rather than forcing him to cut awful promos, why not play up his strengths and minimize his weaknesses by pairing him up with a good talker? Or if he must speak, why not minimize the amount he speaks, cutting it to down to just a few catch phrases?

Overall, there are a mix of things that WWE ought to take away from the popularity of Enzo and Big Cass:

– As Enzo does most of the talking and working for the two, a lot of fans don’t necessarily gravitate towards the larger-sized talent.

– Characters ought to be an extension or exaggeration of who the talent normally is.

– Sometimes your heels become your babyfaces by accident, and vice versa.

– Catch-phrases work when they are paired with good acting.

– Humor does work in wrestling, and doesn’t have to consist of John Cena-esque insults.

– Everything’s been done before, but if you’re the only person doing something at a given time, it still stands out.

Enzo and Big Cass a tag team that doesn’t need titles or main event status to get some of the loudest cheers every night. They break the rules every way possible, and we can always count on them for bringing “Raw” out of the duldrums.

I don't really "get them" if I'm honest, but then again I don't watch NXT. That's part of the problem though, WWE just expected everyone to know who they were on debuting. I didn't, so didn't give a shit(still don't) about them or their debut.

i like them alot to be honest and can see a better tag team around at the moment.

Was that meant to say can't see a better tag team at the moment, American Alpha are x100000 the tag team Enzo and cass are, hopefully they come up in the draft

Smack talking your opponents is always going to be popular and it makes good tv.

Really, Dusty Rhodes has single handedly set up WWE's future with the work he did in NXT. WWE tv needed guys who can draw in casual viewers and convert them, that's what Enzo & Cas will do

Alpha are the real deal all round though, Gable brought out Jordan's personality, they both loosened up and their in ring ability was always through the roof.

as for NXT to wwe conversion I don't get why they don't do video packages and teasers. They always made a big deal about signings from WCW or from old developmental with all kinds of promotional videos and that got them over or at least added some interest instantly

Talking about American Alpha they had another shit hot match with The Revival on NXT This week, 2 out of 3 falls.

Promo videos used to be good, now we've got Los Matadors the shining stars primo and epico, remember we had classics like hade vanson/vade Hanson, meant to be undertakers son or some shite, whatever the fuck his name was...

He's dead. Whichever it was. I think that's the one you mean. Someone start a thread for promo videos see if we can dig up some classic stuff at some point.

WWE should be pushing the boat out with production for guys they want to succeed though. I'm half hoping Balor got to go out at WM with HHH for experience fir a big debut, promo video or not, they should be putting some budget aside for Balor debut. For me, a big ppv debut, with some serious Iron Maiden style shit would be great for WWE in all media forms, not just for Balor himself.
It's easy to get some smack talking wise guys over, but sone characters are crying out for the old approach. Even Heath Slater could have time off and come back in a yakuza rip off group the red dragons to feud with Carlito and the shining stars. WWE can be written eyes closed, so there really isn't an excuse not to give people a chance to get over.