Cruiserweight Champion Enzo Amore has officially been released by WWE as of an announcement made on Tuesday afternoon. This is following a suspension for some disturbing allegation from earlier this week, which you can read about here.
This is the entire WWE.com statement, which excludes the normal well-wishes and bests in future endeavors:
WWE has come to terms on the release of Eric Arndt (Enzo Amore).
Arndt joined WWE in 2012, becoming a popular tag team in NXT with ‘Big Cass’ Colin Cassady and riding that act to success on WWE’s main roster. As we mentioned, he’d been suspended earlier this week due to a violation of WWE’s zero tolerance policy for matters involving sexual harassment and sexual assault, and WWE further explained that he’d remain suspended “until the matter [was] resolved.” He’s a two-time and, at least up until the announcement of his release, current Cruiserweight Champion.
Prior to his release and over the past year or so, Arndt has reportedly had numerous instances of clashes with higher-ups and heat with his peers backstage. In May of last year, a former Performance Center coach talked about Arndt being difficult to work with. We first heard about massive backstage heat last July, when reports came in that he had been kicked off a tour bus by the roster in Europe.
A short time after that, it was reported that Arndt had been banned from the WWE locker room altogether. While he folded that real-life situation into his new heel character, his move to 205 Live, regardless of his positioning as the cruiserweight champion, was viewed by many as a punishment.
It remains to be seen what will become of the now-vacant championship. Enzo Amore had been scheduled to defend the title against Cedric Alexander at Sunday’s Royal Rumble pay-per-view.
Update: Arndt and his representatives released the following statement on the allegations.
— REAL1 (FKA Enzo Amore) (@real1) January 24, 2018
“Over the last two days, Philomena Sheahan has made multiple public accusations against Eric Arndt (also known as Enzo Amore with the WWE), including allegations of sexual misconduct concerning an October 2017 incident in Phoenix. Mr. Arndt fully and unequivocally denies those accusations. He is cooperating with the authorities in this manner and looks forward to having it resolved in a timely manner. Neither Mr. Arndt nor his counsel will be making any further public comments on this matter.”
